6
THE
CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
letters of Mrs. John Adams, wife of the second president, the building
was not completed and made ready for occupancy until 1800. Up to
that time the building and furnishing of the president’s home cost
the nation about $333,000.
Hoban’s original plans contemplated extension of Pennsylvania ave
nue direct through what is now the south park of the executive man
sion. What under the restoration of the building is now the front of
the White House was originally designed by Hoban as its rear entrance.
He supposed that the structure would face to the south, overlooking a
broad avenue, and so provided a spacious portico and splendid ap
proach. When Pennsylvania avenue was changed and made to circle
around the spot where the treasury building is now located, and pass
the White House on the north, it was necessary to put up another fine
j)ortico, with great Ionic columns.
Originally it was intended that all the government buildings should
l>e erected south of the White House, between it and the Potomac river.
However, much of this ground was lowland, and engineers soon dis
covered that foundations would t>e too costly. The plan was. there
fore, abandoned.
The British captured Washington in 1814 and applied the torch to
many of the public buildings. Mrs. Madison—the "Dolly Madison" of
romantic history— did not leave the executive mansion until the enemy
had nearly entered the city, and when she departed she hastily filled
her carriage with state papers and the famous Stuart portrait of Wash
ington. A few minutes later the Red Coats fired the White House.
When the president and Mrs. Madison returned their dwelling was only
a blackened mass of ruins.
Congress immediately appropriated $300, OCO for rebuilding of the
structure, and James Hoban, the original architect, was commissioned
with supervision of the task. On New Year’s day, 1818, it was again
occupied, a reception being held to the public.
It appears that, having rebuilt the White House, congress almost
forgot about it for a long period of years. Very little was appropriated
for furnishings. It was not until Van Buren became president that
any real expenditure of money was made for proper appointments at
the president’s home. In Zachary Taylor's occupancy of the White
House the spacious east room was completely changed. 11 was carpeted,
redecorated, and the wonderful glass candelabras or gas fixtures, install
ed These same fixtures, with their myriads of prisms, were remod
eled a few years ago, and now sparkle in the light of electricity. Dur
ing Fillmore’s administration the oval "sitting room’’—now the "blue
room,’’ where the president receives on the occasion of public functions
— was changed into a liorary. Mrs. Fillmore herself selected the l>ooks.