Historic Shrines of America Part 24

THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON

THE HOME OF EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE WASHINGTON

When, in 1792, James Hoban suggested to the commission appointed to supervise the erection of public buildings at Washington that the Executive Mansion be modelled after the palace of the Duke of Leinster in Dublin, his proposition was accepted, and he was given a premium of five hundred dollars for the plan. More, he was engaged, at the same amount per year, to take charge of the builders.

No time was lost in laying the corner stone. The ceremony was performed on October 13, 1792, and operations were pushed with such speed that the building was completed ten years later!

In November, 1800, six months after the transfer of the government offices from Philadelphia to Washington, Mrs. Adams joined President Adams at the White House. She had a hard time getting there. A few days after her arrival she wrote to her daughter:

"I arrived here on Sunday last, and without meeting any accident worth noticing, except losing ourselves when we left Baltimore, and going eight or nine miles on the Frederick road, by which means we were obliged to go the other eight miles through woods, where we wandered for two hours, without finding a guide, or the path. Fortunately, a straggling black came up with us, and we engaged him as a guide to extricate us out of our difficulty; but woods are all you see, from Baltimore until you reach the city, which is only so in name. Here and there is a small cot, without a gla.s.s window, interspersed amongst the forests, through which you travel miles without seeing any human being. In the city there are buildings enough, if they were compact and furnished, to accommodate Congress and those attached to it; but as they are, and scattered as they are, I see no great comfort for them."

Mrs. Adams found no great comfort in the White House, either. "To a.s.sist us in this great castle," she wrote, "and render less attendance necessary, bells are wholly wanting, not one single one being hung through the whole house, and promises are all you can obtain.... If they will put me up some bells, and let me have wood enough to keep fires, I design to be pleased.... But, surrounded with forests, can you believe that wood is not to be had, because people cannot be found to cut and cart it.... The house is made habitable, but there is not a single apartment finished.... We have not the least fence, yard, or other convenience, without, and the great, unfinished audience-room I make a drying room of, to hang up the clothes in. The princ.i.p.al stairs are not up, and will not be this winter."

The building itself was in good condition, though the surroundings were far from prepossessing, when it was burned by the British in 1814. President and Mrs. Madison moved to the Octagon House, and spent more than a year in this comfortable winter home of Colonel John Tayloe.

The cost of rebuilding and refurnishing the Executive Mansion was about three hundred thousand dollars. The work was begun in 1814, and in September, 1817, the building was so far completed that President Monroe was able to take up his quarters there in some degree of comfort, though the floor in the East Room had not yet been laid and some of the walls were still without plastering. On January 1, 1818, the first New Year's reception was held there. "It was gratifying to be able to salute the President of the United States with the compliments of the season in his appropriate residence," the _National Intelligencer_ said. It may be added that the editor called the building "the President's House." The t.i.tle, "the White House," was not yet in common use.

For many years the successive occupants of the building were subject to all sorts of criticism. Mrs. Monroe refused both to make first calls and to return calls. President Monroe bought foreign-made furnishings! John Quincy Adams actually introduced a billiard table, and the use of public money to buy "a gaming table" was bitterly attacked! (Of course the purchase was made with personal funds.) Mrs.

Adams was cold and haughty! When President Van Buren left Washington he took with him the gold spoons and the gilt dessert service that had attracted attention! But these were private property.

However, most criticisms like these have been inspired by pride in the President and his household, and a pardonable feeling of possession in them and the White House.

Until within recent years the President's offices were in the east end of the White House. A pleasing description of these offices has come down from Isaac N. Arnold, who thus spoke of the quarters of President Lincoln:

"The furniture of the room consisted of a large oak table, covered with cloth extending north and south, and it was round this table that the Cabinet sat when it held its meetings. Near the end of the table and between the windows was another table, on the west side of which the President sat, in a large arm-chair, and at this table he wrote. A tall desk, with pigeon holes for paper, stood against the south wall. The only books usually found in this room were the Bible, the United States Statutes, and a copy of Shakespeare.

There were a few chairs and two plain hair-covered sofas.

There were two or three map frames, from which hung military maps, on which the positions and movements of the armies were traced. There was an old and discolored engraving of General Jackson over the mantel and a later photograph of John Bright. Doors open into this room from the room of the secretary and from the outside hall, running east and west across the house. A bell-cord within reach of his hand extended to the secretary's office. A messenger sat at the door opening from the hall, and took in the cards and names of visitors."

During the time of President Roosevelt, outside Executive offices were built, and rooms that had long been needed for the personal uses of the President's household were released. The change has increased patriotic pride in the White House, one of the simplest mansions provided for the rulers of the nations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STAIRWAY, OCTAGON HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

_From the Monograph on the Octagon House, Issued by the American Inst.i.tute of Architects_]

LI

THE OCTAGON HOUSE, WASHINGTON

IN WHICH DOLLY MADISON LAVISHED HOSPITALITY IN 1814

John Tayloe, the wealthiest man in the Virginia of the late eighteenth century, had his summer home at Mt. Airy. His plantation, the largest in the State, was worked by more than five hundred slaves.

When he wanted a winter home, he thought of building at Philadelphia.

But George Washington, eager to secure him as a resident of the young Federal City on the Potomac, asked him to consider the erection of a house there. So Mr. Tayloe made an investigation of Washington as a site for a residence, bought a lot for one thousand dollars, and in 1798 commissioned Dr. William Thornton to make the plans for a palatial house. During the construction of the building Washington several times rode by and from the saddle inspected the progress of the work.

Thornton was at the time a well-known man, though he had been born in the West Indies and was for many years a resident there. After receiving his education in Europe, he lived for several years in the United States. During this period he was a partner of John Fitch in the building and trial of the steamboat that for a time ran successfully on the Delaware River, more than twenty years before Fulton built the _Clermont_. He was himself something of an inventor; he secured a number of patents for a device to move a vessel by applying steam to a wheel at the side of the hull.

He had returned to the West Indies when he read that a prize was to be given for the best plan submitted for the Capitol to be built at Washington. At once he wrote for particulars, and in due time he presented his plans. He was then living in the United States. The plans were considered the best that had been offered. Jefferson said that they "captivated the eyes and judgment of all," while Washington spoke of their "grandeur, simplicity, and convenience." While these plans were later modified by others, certain features of the Capitol as it appears to-day are to be traced directly to Dr. Thornton's plans.

At the time of the award he was but thirty-one years old, and had already won a place as a physician, an inventor, and a man of science.

He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and had received the prize offered for the design for the new building of the Library Company of Philadelphia, in which Franklin was especially interested. Later he was awarded a gold medal by the American Philosophical Society for a paper in which he outlined the method of the oral teaching of deaf and dumb children which is still in use in many inst.i.tutions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OCTAGON HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

_Photo by Frank Cousins Art Company from the Monograph on the Octagon House by the American Inst.i.tute of Architects_ See page 234]

The building planned by Dr. Thornton for Mr. Tayloe, at the northeast corner of New York Avenue and Eighteenth Street, was completed in 1801. At the time it was the best house in Washington. At once, as the Octagon House, it became famous for the lavish hospitality of its owner.

The next stirring period in the history of the Octagon House was the later years of the second war with Great Britain. On the night of August 24, 1814, when the British Army entered the city, the French minister, M. Serurier, looked from his window and saw soldiers bearing torches going toward the White House. Quickly he sent a messenger to General Ross and asked that his residence be spared. The messenger found General Ross in the Blue Room, where he was collecting furniture for a bonfire. a.s.sured that "the king's house" would be respected, he returned to the minister.

Dr. Thornton, who was at the time superintendent of the patent office, succeeded in persuading Colonel Jones to spare that building, on the ground that it was a museum of the Arts, and that its destruction would be a loss to all the world.

Among the public buildings destroyed was the White House. Mr. Tayloe at once offered the Octagon House to President Madison. On September 9, 1814, the _National Intelligencer_ announced, "The President will occupy Colonel Tayloe's large house, which was lately occupied by the French minister." For more than a year the house was known as the Executive Annex.

Rufus Rockwell Wilson, in "Washington, the Capital City," tells how the mansion looked at this time:

"Its circular entrance hall, marble tiled, was heated by two picturesque stoves placed in small recesses in the wall.

Another hall beyond opened into a s.p.a.cious and lovely garden surrounded by a high brick wall after the English fashion. To the right was a handsome drawing room with a fine mantel, before which Mrs. Madison was accustomed to stand to receive her guests. To the left was a dining-room of equal size and beauty. A circular room over the hall, with windows to the floor and a handsome fireplace, was President Madison's office. Here he received his Cabinet officers and other men of note, listening to their opinions and reports on the progress of the war; and here, also, on a quaintly carved table, he signed, February 18, 1815, the proclamation of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the contest with England."

The story of this table's history is interesting. From the Octagon House it went to John Ogle Ferneaux, of King George County, Virginia.

He kept it until October 30, 1897, when it was sold to Mrs. A. H.

Voorhies, of 2011 California Street, San Francisco. When the fire that succeeded the earthquake of 1906 approached the house, the table was taken away hurriedly. Mrs. Voorhies says, "We wrapped sheets around the circular part of the table, and in part of the journey, it went turning round as a wheel to a place of safety." The San Francisco chapter of the Inst.i.tute of Architects purchased it for $1,000, and sent it to Washington, December 1, 1911.

It is said that on the day the message came to the Octagon House that peace had been declared, Miss Sally Coles, who was Mrs. Madison's cousin, called from the head of the stairs, "Peace! Peace!" One who was a guest at the time gave a lively account of the scene in the house:

"Late in the afternoon came thundering down Pennsylvania Avenue a coach and four foaming steeds, in which was the bearer of the good news. Cheers followed the carriage as it sped on its way to the residence of the President. Soon after nightfall, members of Congress and others deeply interested in the event presented themselves at the President's House, the doors of which stood open. When the writer of this entered the drawing room at about eight o'clock, it was crowded to its full capacity. Mrs. Madison--(the President being with the Cabinet)--doing the honors of the occasion; and what a happy scene it was!"

Mr. Tayloe occupied the Octagon at intervals until his death in 1828.

Mrs. Tayloe lived until 1855. By this time the neighborhood had changed, and the property deteriorated. In 1865 it was occupied as a girls' school. From 1866 to 1879 it was the hydrographic office of the Navy Department. Later it became a dwelling and studio. From 1885 to 1889 it was in the hands of a caretaker, and deteriorated rapidly. At the last eight or ten families of colored people lived within the storied walls.

The Inst.i.tute of American Architects leased the property in 1899 and later purchased the house for $30,000. It is now one of the sights of Washington. A tablet fixed to the wall relates the main facts of its history.

SIX: HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE CAVALIERS

_I love the stately southern mansions with their tall white columns, They look through avenues of trees, over fields where the cotton is growing; I can see the flutter of white frocks along their shady porches, Music and laughter float from the windows, the yards are full of hounds and horses.

Long since the riders have ridden away, yet the houses have not forgotten, They are proud of their name and place, and their doors are always open, For the thing they remember best is the pride of their ancient hospitality._

HENRY VAN d.y.k.e.

SIX: HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE CAVALIERS

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA, REAR VIEW _Photo by E. C. Hall_ See page 241]