Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-09-11
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
MANY ALTERATIONS MADE IN IN
TERROR ARRANGEMENTS.
COLONIAL STYLE FORSAKEN
Nearly Every Administration, Includ-
ing Mr. McKinley's, Has Left It's
Imprint on Executive Mansion
Blue Room Entirely Reftted-
Many Other Changes Made.

has been the purpose of those having
charge of the executive mansion, more
popularity known as the white house,
to maintain it's colonial appearance in
it's original purity of style, many
changes have been made in the man
sion and the interior has been altered
until it resembles the original only in
| the general arrangement of the rooms.
Almost every administration has left
| it's imprint on the white house, one
adding little here, another taking
away a little there, and others devot-
| ing their attention to the reftting or
rearranging of various portions of the
mansion.
| At the present time alterations and
repairs are being made which will tend
| to perpetuate the memory of the Nc
Kinley administration. The most extern
sive are being made to the blue parlor,
or blue room as it is more Familiarity
known, as distinguished from the east,
red and green rooms. In the Harrison
administration the red, green and blue
rooms were refitted at a considerable
expense, the walls being hung with silk
which cost about $12 a yard, the tapes
ries and other decorations being
equally fine. Under the second Cleve-
land administration a blind door was
cut from the red room into the blue
room to permit the easy passage OF
members of the receiving party from
one room to the other behind the line.
Mrs Mckinley is now having the
blue room entirely reftted. The walls
will be hung, as before, with blue bro
caded silk but of a different design
from that just removed. New tapes
tries of the prevailing shade will be
placed at the windows, and the ceiling
is being redecorated. 1t is expected
the room will also be refurnished. The
small parlors, known as the green, red
and blue rooms, are used by the fam
lily of the president as private parlors,
although they are thrown open at pub
lie receptions.
The east room, the only room in the
house Of unusual size, is devoted to the
reception of large companies of guests
and to the general public. 1t has also
just received some retouching at the
hands of the decorators. The white
paint was soiled about the footboard,
and pieces of the paper on the walls
had been cut off and carried away 10y
relic hunters. The gliding has been
freshened and the great chandeliers,
with their tinkling glass pendants,
have been taken apart and thoroughly
cleaned
In the private apartments upstairs
the painters and paper-hangers have
been busy for some time The main
corridor connecting the apartments
with the offices has been painted white,
the old imitation walnut staining hav-
ing been burnt off. AS a result it now
looks bright, cheerful and clean. In
the rooms occupied by the family, the
walls have been hung with new paper,
customary in the case of each admins
tration, the rule of private life that the
papering which suits one tenant is re-
jected by the next holding good in the
case of the white house Some little
painting is being done on the outside
about the doors and windows, but as
the outside was repainted last summer
it will not be overhauled until next
summer, at least.
The faults of the executive mansion
and the great desirability of a new
and commodious structure, is an old
story. Although the government has
made extensive additions to it's Office
buildings, and erected handsome and
commodious buildings for the accom-
mediation of it's business departments,
it has contented itself with patching
and repairing the old white house, re-
CARELESS of the complaints made by it's
tenants and the sarcastic comment
evoked by the incongruities of it's ap-
pearance
The historic traditions of the man
sion could be as we'll preserved, per-
haps if the president NO longer con-
tinued to reside there. There is
scarcely any doubt the American peo-
pie, in view of the interest which has
always attached to the white house.
would gladly bear the expense of keep
ing it as it now stands, as Mount Yer
non and Arlington are maintained
uLSIOIIC JIdu1LlOuS CluSL0T0u
around the old capitol than about the
white house, but this fact did not pre-
vent congress from altering it to suit
it's convenience and needs whenever de-
sirab1e or necessary.
If the white house had never been
altered from the day of it's erection to
the present time, except to make neces-
sary repairs, it would be of much more
historical interest than it is, or if it
had received extensive additions from
time to time, such as the great castles
in England, it would then present an
interesting appearance. But, as it is,
no extensive alterations have ever been
made, but one president after another
has shipped off little here and added
a little there, inside and outside, until
the white house is neither purely col
onial nor modern, but a patchwork of
both.
The executive mansion is badly 10