House & Garden 
THE WHITE HOUSE FROM THE SOUTH GROUNDS 
THE RESTORATION OE THE WHITE HOUSE 
By A. BURNLEY BIBB 
T HE work at the White House, which has 
been driven almost night and day from last 
June to January has been a restoration rather 
than a remodelling. There were several things 
to be accomplished. Most pressing was the 
need of more room for the President’s family. 
Mr. Roosevelt has never been in sympathy 
with the scheme of providing a new home for 
the President. He believes the chief magis¬ 
trates of the country should continue to live 
here in the official home of their predecessors. 
But it had long become evident that either 
the President’s family or his secretaries must 
find new quarters. The office, grown to un¬ 
dreamed-of proportions, had absorbed an 
amount of space in the second story, which lett 
the family absurdly cramped into rather less 
than one-half of the floor and intolerably de¬ 
prived of reasonable privacy. There were but 
seven sleeping-rooms, not counting those of 
servants lodged in the basement, and one of 
the former was the great “State” bedroom, 
where an occasional guest was put up. 
Congress, showing itself unwilling to act 
upon comprehensive schemes, the President 
and his architects, Messrs. McKim, Mead 
& White, fell back upon the plan of separate 
offices in some part of the grounds and a 
general overhauling of the house. The work 
has involved the practical evisceration of the 
building. Everything has been renewed, 
except the walls and roof, save the latter, 
which is still a forest ot timbers, the new 
interior is of fireproof material. The sani¬ 
tary appurtenances of the building have been 
improved and increased, five or six bath¬ 
rooms added on the second floor and toilet 
accommodations provided in the remodelled 
basement. An electric pump aids the work¬ 
ing of the plumbing. T he number of lights 
in the house has been increased some two- 
and-a-halt times, and there is a new electric 
motor with that increased capacity to serve 
the twenty-two hundred lights now in use. 
Outside the building, the removal of the 
conservatories from the west terrace and the 
restoration of the terrace upon the east, has 
given the effect of a prolonged low stylobate 
to the building, which is excellent. These 
wings extend about 136 feet east and west 
of the house. Their roofs, which are paved 
terraces with solid parapets, are reached from 
the level of the main floor of the house, and 
they make broad walks, where it will be 
pleasant to pace between the potted plants, 
which will doubtless occupy them. One can 
fancy, besides, the uses to which the space 
may be put in connection with great levees 
and possible al fresco teas. 
Below, at the ground level, are colonnaded 
porches facing the south and paved with 
brick, a sheltered, inviting cloister facing the 
gardens and grounds. They are now restored 
to exactly what they formerly were, as we see 
