Book gives close-up of America's 'first house'
Source: Agencies |
November 2, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LADY Bird Johnson said walking through the White House was like walking "through history." Hillary Clinton called the home "a repository of America's storied past." Michelle Obama has called it "awe inspiring."
The authors of a new book have another name for the president's residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: "the American house next door."
"Americans have this sense of the White House as something apart ... it doesn't seem to change from the outside, but that doesn't mean it hasn't changed constantly," said Ulysses Grant Dietz, the great-great grandson of the 18th president and co-author of "Dream House: The White House as an American Home."
Dietz and Sam Watters write that in the past 200 years, the White House has morphed from a country house to a suburban home to a museum. They say, changes presidents have made reflect Americans' changing ideals about what a home should be.
The authors go over some basic history. John Adams, the second president, was the home's first occupant, taking up residence in 1800. The home survived a fire started by the British in 1814 during the War of 1812.
But their main concern is how the home has changed. Thomas Jefferson added colonnades. Teddy Roosevelt got rid of the Victorian furniture he considered in bad taste. President Harry Truman added a balcony and President Dwight Eisenhower barbecued on the third-floor terrace.
The authors managed to get in to see the Obama family's vegetable garden and swing set, noting there was also a playground on the White House lawn in 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt's grandchildren played there.
"I think it's a surprise to people that the White House went through so many decorating styles," said Dietz, curator of decorative arts at New Jersey's Newark Museum.
The authors say their coffee-table style book is the only one to look at the first house as a home that has changed with the times.
The book was released in September by Acanthus Press.
The authors of a new book have another name for the president's residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: "the American house next door."
"Americans have this sense of the White House as something apart ... it doesn't seem to change from the outside, but that doesn't mean it hasn't changed constantly," said Ulysses Grant Dietz, the great-great grandson of the 18th president and co-author of "Dream House: The White House as an American Home."
Dietz and Sam Watters write that in the past 200 years, the White House has morphed from a country house to a suburban home to a museum. They say, changes presidents have made reflect Americans' changing ideals about what a home should be.
The authors go over some basic history. John Adams, the second president, was the home's first occupant, taking up residence in 1800. The home survived a fire started by the British in 1814 during the War of 1812.
But their main concern is how the home has changed. Thomas Jefferson added colonnades. Teddy Roosevelt got rid of the Victorian furniture he considered in bad taste. President Harry Truman added a balcony and President Dwight Eisenhower barbecued on the third-floor terrace.
The authors managed to get in to see the Obama family's vegetable garden and swing set, noting there was also a playground on the White House lawn in 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt's grandchildren played there.
"I think it's a surprise to people that the White House went through so many decorating styles," said Dietz, curator of decorative arts at New Jersey's Newark Museum.
The authors say their coffee-table style book is the only one to look at the first house as a home that has changed with the times.
The book was released in September by Acanthus Press.
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