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WHITE HOUSE LAYOUT INSTALL
He instead approved a plan to shore up the outer walls, tear out everything inside and install a new internal steel superstructure (“of skyscraper strength,” The Washington Evening Star said) above a large new, poured-concrete basement. He also felt that witnessing the old White House being torn to the ground would wound Americans’ psyches. But Truman felt strongly about what should be done:Īs one of the most voracious readers of history ever to serve as president, Truman recoiled from that prospect. It would have been cheaper to destroy the White House and build something sounder, perhaps even in a larger tract of land, writes Beschloss for The Times. They declared the whole house to be in imminent danger of collapse.
WHITE HOUSE LAYOUT FULL
Wooden beams had been weakened by cutting and drilling for plumbing and wiring over 150 years, and the addition of the steel roof and full third floor in 1927 added weight the building could no longer handle.

The White House Museum’ website explains:Įngineers did a thorough examination and found plaster in a corner of the East Room sagging as much as 18 inches. The next year, his daughter Margaret’s piano fell through the floor in the room today known as the Private Dining Room. The upstairs floor, he noted, “sagged and moved like a ship at sea.” The president later joked that he might have unexpectedly dropped through the ceiling naked on the ladies below, and he confessed that the incident made him nervous. Truman took a bath upstairs, a great Blue Room chandelier threatened to crash down on his wife, Bess, and her guests from the Daughters of the American Revolution. For the New York Times, Michael Beschloss writes: The 33rd man to come into the presidency soon learned about a stunningly powerful new weapon, proclaimed V-E Day on his birthday, and inherited a load of real estate problems - the White House was literally falling apart in 1945. Roosevelt died just a few months into his fourth term. Harry Truman became president after Franklin D.
