The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-01-18

L ~ E4AltcAGlp1llh aKbEIOIA +N4H# YAiAAEts NbE
White House at the national capital
has been the home of all our twenty
six presidents with the single excep-
ton OF Washington the old mansion
lis painfully lacking In historical furn
iShings and in the art treasures which
should have accumulated there during
the liz years it has housed its dis
~tfnguished occupants. Aside from
some plate, a few pieces of china, a
little ~bric-a-brac, and the famous
portrait Of Washington which Mrs.
Madison saved from the barbaric
thames OF the British in 1914, there Is
nothing In the furnishings Of the
White House which ~antedates that
disastrous event.
After the Fire.
After its destruction at that time
rebuilding operations were begun the
next year, In 1916, and many Of the
incompleted plans of the original
structure were then carried into eff
feet. The imposing north and south
porches were begun, the wings at the
east and west of the house were add
ed, Int storerooms were made under
the porches and in the wings. Be-
fore the days Of mammoth refrigera-
tors the early presidents utilized the
space under the north porch as a cold
storage wine cellar. The classic,
NONpIlldl Wlll6 mdTDi6 Ild4Ll6Es WHICH
now grace the green and blue parlors
and which the architect, McKim, re-
tanned when remodeling the building
during the Roosevelt administration,
were set in the fireplaces of the old
state dining room and the blue par
Tor when the house was rebuilt In
1916. They replaced the pine mantIes
which from want of funds, were used
in the original building.
Il The first fn0rS XyaYo cf SoIiH
mahogany, for both Washington and
Jefferson, to whom the stately beauty
of the presidents house, as well as
that of the capitol, is to be credited
primarily, had a fitting sense Of the
dignity Of the residence which was to
be occupied by the chief executive NJ
the young republic and planned ac-
cordingly, although the records now
on file in the bureau of public build
ings and grounds at Washington show
that they were almost hopelessly
hampered by congress- lack of APP
probation of the need of money for
the construction of these as well as
that Of all the other public suildings.
The floors Of the presidents house
were burned beyond repair by the
British soldiers, as were NAM of the
doors, and in the rebuilding oak
floors had to take the place of the
original material, but the doors and
window frames were made of the
handsome mahogany which we see
there today.
Portraits of the Presidents.
When Mrs. Wilson becomes mis-
tress of the White House, next
March, she will not find very much
in the mansion of long historic lin
cage. OF course the portraits of the
presidents, which nave been painted
usually by the order of the incumbent
executive and presented to the
sion, are of great historic value, even
though some of them are not of much
artistic merit. While the pictures of
all the presidents hang upon the
White House walls, in the main cor
ridor and room of state, but eight of
those of the women who have been
mistreSses in the executive mansion
have been similarly honored. Six of
these are in the ground floor corridor,
where Mrs. Roosevelt had them hung
that they might be seen by all visi-
tors. The life-size painting Of
Martha Washington, by Andrews,
hangs in the red room, and the picture
of Dolly Madison, presented last year
by the Colonial Danes, stands on an
easel in the blue parlor.
Seemingly in u earlier history
each administration was marked with
a zeal to throw out the old-at pub
A ~ SNNNAO4 EAAN y Ia EAAO aAACAEE win
the new. Consequently there is not
a yestige of anything within the four
walls which could in any way be
connected with the far greater part
Of the distinguished families who
have lived in the presidents house.
1t was this which melted Mrs.
Roosevelt to start the White House
collection Of presidential ware, and
she succeeded IN getting the project
well under way while she was mis-
tress of the mansion. She gave the
work of gathering the china, or plate,
into the hands of Mrs. Abby G.
Baker Of Washington, who is still the
curator of the collection, and twenty
one Of the presidents are now repre-
sented in the cabinets which are
standing in the ground floor corridor
of the White House.
Collection Is Growing.
The endeavor to secure historic
relics has been purely patriotic from
the first. There has been no public
fund to purchase the ware, the de-
~scendants OF the presidents or other
philanthropists who have been so
fortunate as to own presidential china
or silver have presented or loaned
pieces of II TO the collection.
The collection Is always popular
with White House visitors, who ask
innumerable questions about it OF the
ON duty III the lower cor
lridor. The latest gift to the cabinets
is a Jackson cup and saucer and a
small pipe which belonged to the hero
of New Orleans. Last spring the day
following the Dolly Madison breakfast
at Washington Mrs. Taft invited the
ladies' who were descendants OF presi-
dents and who were in the city TO
attend the breakfast to come to the
White House to meet her. During the
afternoon they were shown the presi-,
Dental collection, in which they were
NATURALLY much interested. Miss Fanny
Burke of Alexandria, Va, was one of
those present. and upon her return
home told her mother of the collection.
Mrs. Burke is the great-granddaughter
of Thomas Jefferson and has numer-
Gus Invaluable Jefferson and other.
historic relics. Among them were the
cup and saucer and pipe to which
reference has Just been made. After
thinking the matter over for some
time both Mrs. Burke and her
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