The White House

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 I'm Julie Andrews and it is my great pleasure to bring you Jane Austin Stories,

spk_0 the new show from the Noiser Podcast Network. I'll be reading Pride and Prejudice.

spk_0 We'll walk grandestates and take tea with well-dressed gentlewomen,

spk_0 but in this tranquil corner of England, not everything is quite as it appears.

spk_0 Listen to Jane Austin Stories wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 It is the 24th of August, 1814, Washington, DC. The capital of the United States of America is on fire.

spk_0 An enslaved African-American man stands at an upstairs window in the White House,

spk_0 the presidential mansion looking out over the city.

spk_0 Born on the estate of President James Madison and his wife Dolly,

spk_0 he has become a valued servant and now works as a valet.

spk_0 But the house in which he serves the medicines is almost empty.

spk_0 The room behind him is strewn with belongings left behind by the President in his hurry to escape.

spk_0 Standing frozen to the spot, the young man gazes down the length of Pennsylvania Avenue

spk_0 to where the capital building, the seat of the United States Congress, stands proudly on a slight hill.

spk_0 It is ablaze and incandescent beacon lighting up the night sky for miles around.

spk_0 Dark plumes of smoke spiral upwards, blotting out the moon and stars on what had promised to be

spk_0 a beautiful summer's night. As he watches, several of the capital's windows shatter in the heat,

spk_0 sending glinting shards of glass in old directions.

spk_0 And now, those responsible for the destruction are heading towards the White House, towards him.

spk_0 A small group of British soldiers in their distinctive red uniforms are drawing closer to the White House.

spk_0 The officers mounted on high-spirited horses.

spk_0 The beasts, glossy coats, are illuminated by the fiery glow of the capital behind them.

spk_0 The valet takes one final glance out of the window before running out of the room and down the stairs.

spk_0 He reaches the ground floor, just as the immense front door swings open.

spk_0 The soldiers pour through, barely noticing them as they split up and immediately begin to ransack the rooms.

spk_0 From his hidden vantage point in the hallway, he watches in horror as soldiers tear curtains from the windows

spk_0 through cushions off of chairs and sofas and rummage through drawers.

spk_0 Suddenly, a shout from the dining room draws the intruder's attention.

spk_0 Someone has found the meal laid out earlier for Dolly Madison and her guests,

spk_0 before they had understood the gravity of the threat posed by the British and fled to the port of Georgetown.

spk_0 Cavalter remain out of sight, the valet follows as the soldiers head eagerly towards the food.

spk_0 The red coats raucously help themselves to the wine and array of fine dishes on the table.

spk_0 They offer toasts, shouts of to the Prince Regent and down with Madison,

spk_0 interspersed with hails of course laughter. Once they have eaten their fill, the real reason the

spk_0 British have come to the White House becomes apparent. The officers instruct their men to bring

spk_0 all the fabric and wooden furniture they can find into the resplendent oval drawing room.

spk_0 Crimson sofas, bed frames, sturdy writing tables and gilded chairs upholstered in luxurious velvet

spk_0 are all added to the pile. The officer in charge steps forward to set the bonfire a light

spk_0 and the mountain of fabric catches quickly, sending a shower of sparks into the air.

spk_0 As the soldiers nearest to the fire recoil from the sudden burst of heat, the valet slips quietly

spk_0 back into the hallway and out of the front door. Sprinting away, he glances over his shoulder.

spk_0 Smoke is already billowing out of the windows of the grand building. On a clear night like this,

spk_0 who knows how long the fire might burn for.

spk_0 The White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC is perhaps the most recognizable home

spk_0 in the world. Built soon after the Americans won their independence from Britain in the Revolutionary

spk_0 War at the end of the 18th century, it has been altered and expanded throughout its life,

spk_0 especially after being set aflame by the British in 1812.

spk_0 But from its inception, it was designed to be both the home of the sitting president and his

spk_0 family and the seat of the executive branch of the federal government. To this day, it stands as

spk_0 an enduring symbol of American democracy. In the more than two centuries since its construction,

spk_0 it has been the stage upon which various seismic moments in the history of America and across the globe

spk_0 have played out.

spk_0 So how did this iconic building come to exist? What monumental events have occurred within its walls?

spk_0 And how does the White House itself reflect America's ever-changing role in the world?

spk_0 I'm John Hopkins. From the Noisepodguss Network, this is a short history of the White House.

spk_0 In the 17th century, Britain establishes colonies throughout the Americas,

spk_0 from what is now Canada down to the Caribbean. Beginning as a series of small settlements,

spk_0 the colonization continues until the 1770s. By then, the settlers number 2.5 million,

spk_0 up from a tenth of that at the start of the century, and the 2.6 million square miles of

spk_0 territory across which they live are organized into 13 colonies.

spk_0 But despite the value the colonists add to the British economy, they have no representation in the

spk_0 British Parliament. Already tiring of being governed from abroad, things reach ahead when a

spk_0 series of harsh laws and taxes are imposed from London. In 1776, the colonies declare their

spk_0 independence from Britain and for the next few years, the Americans, with significant help from

spk_0 the French, fight for their freedom. Eventually, following a defeat at Yorktown, the British

spk_0 surrender in October 1781. The Treaty of Paris, formally ending the conflict and setting the

spk_0 boundaries of the new United States, is signed on the 3rd of September 1783.

spk_0 Now that they have gained their independence, the Americans must begin the hard work of setting

spk_0 up a government. In 1787, a constitutional convention is held in Philadelphia to decide on the

spk_0 principles and structure of the federal government. Delegates are sent from each state,

spk_0 as the colonies are now called. Heading the meeting is George Washington, a former soldier and

spk_0 politician who served as commander-in-chief of the army during the Revolutionary War. After

spk_0 months of negotiation, a newly drafted constitution is signed in September. It is decided that while each

spk_0 state will continue to make many of its own decisions, a federal government overseeing all of them

spk_0 will split into three branches. The judicial branch includes the Supreme Court as well as various

spk_0 lower courts. In the legislative branch known as Congress are the House of Representatives and the

spk_0 Senate. The executive branch is headed by a president who is also commander-in-chief of the armed

spk_0 forces. In 1789, a presidential election sees Washington chosen by those entitled to vote as the

spk_0 president of the United States of America. Shortly after his election, George Washington begins to

spk_0 make plans for a new federal capital. A site is chosen on the Potomac River at Maryland and Virginia

spk_0 seed 100 square miles of territory, which includes the port towns of Georgetown and Alexandria.

spk_0 A little later, this will be officially named the District of Columbia,

spk_0 and it is the site on which the new capital city will be constructed.

spk_0 But for now, in September 1791, the capital is simply named Washington, in honor of the president

spk_0 who chose its location. Kate Anderson Brower is author of The Residence Inside the Private World of

spk_0 the White House. The position did in Washington, DC because in part it's close to his home,

spk_0 Mount Vernon, and Washington is built on a swamp. So it's an unusual place to build a capital, but

spk_0 the Potomac River and its coastal being on the east coast between other major cities and close

spk_0 enough to Philadelphia and New York at the time. It was a strategic kind of midpoint between the

spk_0 Northeast and in southern cities. For his presidential palace, he personally chooses a spot on a slight

spk_0 rise to give it a view over the entire city. His plan, though, isn't just for one building, but the

spk_0 whole of the capital. So George Washington wanted Washington, DC to be like a Paris or London,

spk_0 but it really did not have the same beauty and didn't have the long history, of course, of these

spk_0 other cities. It was designed to really rival the beautiful capitals in Europe, and you do see a lot

spk_0 of the architecture in Washington is neoclassical. It arcans back to some European, Parisian architecture.

spk_0 In 1792, a competition is held to find an architect to build the presidential residence.

spk_0 Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, and who will go on to be the

spk_0 country's third president, even submits his own design, albeit under a pseudonym.

spk_0 So President George Washington and his then Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson commissioned

spk_0 the White House, and there was a contest, and the Irish foreign architect James Holbin was the one

spk_0 who won this competition, and the White House is designed originally to look like this 18th century

spk_0 Georgian mansion in Dublin that was home to Ireland's parliament. Holbin's design is for a three-story

spk_0 mansion, although in the end Washington asks him to scale it down to two floors. It is in the

spk_0 palladium style, which draws from the classical architecture of ancient Greece and Rome,

spk_0 and is characterized by its symmetry and proportion.

spk_0 The cornerstone of the building is laid on 13 October 1792. Over the next few years,

spk_0 construction involves a variety of workers. A huge number of enslaved people are drafted in,

spk_0 as well as free African Americans and indentured servants. Temporary huts are built to house them

spk_0 as they dig the foundations and clear the whole area of trees. Later skilled stonemasons are brought

spk_0 in from Scotland and Ireland to build the house using sandstone quarried from nearby Virginia.

spk_0 In-slaved people are also used for this skilled craftwork, and they will continue to staff the White

spk_0 House until the Civil War in the middle of the next century.

spk_0 The House initially has over 100 rooms. The ground floor includes various reception areas,

spk_0 while the first floor comprises living quarters for the president and his family, as well as office

spk_0 space. Several well-known features of the building, such as the east and west wings, do not yet exist.

spk_0 And though it is already distinctively whitewashed, at this stage it is not commonly known as the White

spk_0 House, but as the president's palace. In 1800, the federal government relocates from Philadelphia,

spk_0 and the building's first resident arrives. But it is not George Washington, whose term as president

spk_0 ended in 1797. The first president to move into the White House was John Adams, with his

spk_0 white Abigail Adams, and Abigail complained about the house being unfinished. There were only six

spk_0 habitable rooms when they moved in. They had to walk up basically a plank in the mud to get to

spk_0 the front door of the White House, because the front steps hadn't yet been installed. So, you know,

spk_0 if you put yourself in 1800 when the Adams's moved in, the White House was nothing like it is today.

spk_0 Despite this unpromising start, John Adams is so moved by the building and what it represents

spk_0 that he writes to his wife, I pray heaven bestow the best of blessings on this house, and all

spk_0 that shall hear after inhabited. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

spk_0 Decades later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt will have these words inscribed above the fireplace

spk_0 in the state dining room. Soon the capital building, the seat of the United States Congress,

spk_0 is also built in Washington DC, and the two buildings are linked by Pennsylvania Avenue.

spk_0 After he takes the presidential reigns in 1801, Thomas Jefferson begins the tradition of opening

spk_0 the White House to the public in the morning, a custom that continues to this day. But even now work

spk_0 continues. The roof leaks and needs mending, and there is a lack of sufficient staircases,

spk_0 and then disaster strikes.

spk_0 Peace between Britain and the newly independent America was always uneasy.

spk_0 Sources of tension include British support for indigenous groups opposing American expansion

spk_0 westwards, as well as England's attempt to restrict trade during the Napoleonic Wars.

spk_0 In 1812, the United States declares war on the United Kingdom. After two years of conflict,

spk_0 American troops are defeated at the Battle of Bladensburg, just a few miles from Washington.

spk_0 President Madison flees, as the victorious British eager for revenge for the Americans raising

spk_0 of their colony of York, modern day Toronto, turn their attention to the nation's capital.

spk_0 The British burned the house to the ground. There were bonfires in the Library of Congress.

spk_0 I mean, they burned the capital almost to the ground as well. And if it were not for this storm

spk_0 that blew in, it was about 100 degrees that day, and there was a summer storm which happened

spk_0 frequently here in Washington. And it blew in, and fortunately, the rain put out a lot of those

spk_0 fires and the British retreated, but it was a near demolition of these important

spk_0 hearts of Washington. You see, that we're really just constructed a few years before.

spk_0 Knowing what's coming, Dolly Madison frantically removes precious items and government papers

spk_0 from the building and remembers a famous portrait of the man who commissioned her home to.

spk_0 As the White House was burning, there's a famous story about First Lady Dolly Madison

spk_0 insisting on staying in the house so that this portrait of George Washington could be saved.

spk_0 She did not save it herself as was previously reported. She directed her staff to save it,

spk_0 but it is important that Gilbert Stewart portrait of George Washington was really salvaged.

spk_0 But nothing can save the building itself, which is reduced within a few short hours to a

spk_0 child shell. Peace between the two nations is eventually agreed the next year,

spk_0 and the Americans begin the arduous process of rebuilding their federal capital city.

spk_0 The White House is reconstructed and enlarged over the next several years.

spk_0 It is whitewashed to cover the marks left on the exterior by the fire, and terraces are added.

spk_0 Porticoes covered entrances or porches supported by columns are also adjoined to the north and south

spk_0 of the building in the 1820s. The burning itself is a trauma that will linger for this young nation,

spk_0 but there is perhaps a silver lining to the calamity.

spk_0 The destruction of the White House was particularly traumatic.

spk_0 President Madison asked James Hope in to rebuild the mansion. It was already a national icon,

spk_0 and every president since then has done something to make the White House really uniquely his own.

spk_0 But if you look at just the timing of 1814, I mean, 1776 was not that long before,

spk_0 so it was traumatic for the country, but I think it also helps the country kind of

spk_0 renew a sense of patriotism and purpose in what the United States stood for.

spk_0 It's symbolism fortified by devastation and renewal. The White House occupies a place in the

spk_0 American imagination. It is not just the president's home, but a seat of government, and thus a building

spk_0 in which every citizen has a stake. A few years later, some citizens make themselves a little too much at home.

spk_0 It is a bright spring day in March 1829. On Pennsylvania Avenue, an enormous crowd has turned out

spk_0 for the presidential inauguration. As President Andrew Jackson processes down the street on a

spk_0 magnificent White House, they cheer for the man nicknamed the People's President.

spk_0 But in the White House itself, which has been opened to all for the occasion, the crowd is becoming a problem.

spk_0 A writer and political commentator named Margaret Bayard Smith is pressed against a wall in the

spk_0 room with a view to the hallway. Many of the thousands of people who have come to see Jackson's

spk_0 sworn in as President have invited themselves to the White House for refreshments. Hundreds are packed

spk_0 into the room with even more in the hallways beyond, and they keep coming. Margaret takes notes,

spk_0 watching in astonishment as a man climbs through the large window to her left, clearly tired of

spk_0 waiting to get in through the front door. The crowd is concentrated around the table in the middle of the

spk_0 room, laid out with dainty cakes and delicate glasses of wine and lemonade. As dozens scrabble for the

spk_0 refreshments, glasses and crockery are knocked over and sent crashing to the floor. Across the room,

spk_0 there's even a man climbing onto a crimson brocade sofa, trampling mud over the exquisitely embroidered

spk_0 cushions. Suddenly, Margaret's attention is caught by a disturbance in the doorway.

spk_0 Craying her head over the densely packed bodies in front of her, she catches sight of the President

spk_0 himself, Andrew Jackson. The crowd surges towards him, everyone seemingly trying to shake his hand

spk_0 and offer their congratulations. But as more and more people mob him, he is in danger of being crushed

spk_0 by the onslaught of well wishes. Except now, to Margaret's relief, a group of aides shove their way

spk_0 through the crowd towards him, joining hands, they form a human shield, straining their arms as

spk_0 they attempt to hold back the horde. All at once, the attention of the assembled throng turns towards

spk_0 a steward in the hall. Standing just inside the front door, he calls loudly that further refreshments

spk_0 will be served on the lawn. To demonstrate, he uncorks a bottle of liquor in his hand and pours it

spk_0 into a metal basin at his feet, followed by another, before dragging the tub outside. A huge cheer goes

spk_0 up from the crowd and as one body they spill into the hall and out onto the grass chasing the promise

spk_0 of more alcohol. Margaret turns her attention back to the President in time to see one of his aides

spk_0 gesturing towards a window. Another takes Jackson by the arm and helps him swing a leg over the

spk_0 seal before he drops out of sight, away from the danger posed by the very people who came to

spk_0 celebrate his victory. Fortunately, despite the overzealousness of the guests, President Jackson is

spk_0 unharmed. Once the mess has been cleared away, Jackson continues to smarten up the house over the

spk_0 course of his tenure. He spends $50,000 on refurbishments, about $1.7 million in today's money.

spk_0 One of the objects he purchases is a silver dining set decorated with American eagles.

spk_0 Yet these improvements do not satisfy a number of 19th century European visitors.

spk_0 One of those to pen a scathing description of the building is the renowned English novelist Charles Dickens.

spk_0 During his 1842 tour of America, Dickens receives an invitation from the President to visit the White House.

spk_0 But on the day of his appointment, he rings the front bell two or three times without receiving an answer.

spk_0 Entering instead through a back door, he wanders around upstairs until a servant shows him to a waiting room.

spk_0 There, he is disgusted to find several men spitting tobacco juice on the carpet.

spk_0 The house itself seems worn and drab. His eventual meeting with President Tyler is no more successful,

spk_0 with the two men sitting awkwardly in virtual silence near a hot stove. Dickens verdict is harsh.

spk_0 The building is more like a gentleman's clubhouse when a presidential mansion.

spk_0 It is into this slightly dilapidated White House that Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary,

spk_0 and their children move in March 1861. There is by now central heating and gas lighting,

spk_0 and they enjoy running water throughout their private rooms. Even so, Mary immediately sets to

spk_0 work redecorating, far exceeding the budget allocated by Congress for the renovation.

spk_0 But the house she inhabits is still very different to the one we can see today.

spk_0 Modern presidents famously work from the Oval Office in the West Wing,

spk_0 and the second story of the central part of the White House is exclusively a domestic space.

spk_0 But in the 19th century, the East and West wings are yet to be built,

spk_0 and living and working space in the building is much less clearly demarcated.

spk_0 Theodore Roosevelt moved his office from the second floor of the residence into the West Wing,

spk_0 and then Taft added to the Oval Office, and it was completed in 1909. So, really, we're talking about

spk_0 the center of the White House, which is the Oval Office, not really being completed until more

spk_0 than 100 years after the White House was constructed. So, when you think of famous American

spk_0 presidents like Abraham Lincoln, they were working out of the second floor of the White House.

spk_0 They were working out of an office upstairs.

spk_0 The room in which Lincoln chooses to work is now known as the Lincoln Bedroom,

spk_0 but the president does not sleep there. For most of his presidency, it is the room from which he

spk_0 directs the course of the American Civil War, which erupts shortly after he is elected.

spk_0 The conflict fought between the Confederacy of mostly Southern states and the Union of Northern

spk_0 states over the issue of slavery lasts four years and claims hundreds of thousands of lives.

spk_0 Lincoln is not the first president to fight a war from the White House.

spk_0 From 1846 to 1848, James Polk directed the course of the Mexican American War from the building,

spk_0 but the Civil War is a struggle over the fate of America as a nation.

spk_0 From his office overlooking the South Lawn, Lincoln makes life or death decisions as Commander-in-Chief,

spk_0 and pens such speeches as the famous Gettysburg Address.

spk_0 And it is in this room that he crafts one of the most impactful orders ever issued by an American

spk_0 president, the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, declaring every enslaved person in the Confederate

spk_0 states to be free. The next year, the total abolition of slavery in the United States will be

spk_0 enshrined in law as the 13th amendment to the Constitution.

spk_0 Ultimately, the Union and Lincoln are victorious, but in 1865, shortly after he is reelected and the

spk_0 war is won, he is assassinated in a theater by Confederate sympathizer. Afterwards, the White House is

spk_0 transformed from a command station into a place of deep mourning. His body is wrapped in a flag,

spk_0 placed in a coffin and escorted by Union soldiers back to the presidential mansion where he lies in

spk_0 states for several days. In the aftermath of the Civil War, America is once again a flourishing

spk_0 democracy. The industrial revolution is in full swing, and the United States is at the heart of

spk_0 technological development and innovation. This is epitomized by the changes made to the White House

spk_0 itself in these years. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson has a telegraph room installed.

spk_0 In 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes invites Scottish engineer Alexander Graham Bell to the White House

spk_0 to display his new invention, the telephone. The President is so impressed that he immediately

spk_0 orders one to be installed in the telegraph room. Fascinated by new technology, Hayes also welcomes

spk_0 Thomas Edison, who demonstrates his phonograph. Accordingly, Hayes becomes the first President

spk_0 to have his voice recorded. A few decades later, Theodore Roosevelt takes the helm. Though the name

spk_0 has been used colloquially since the beginning, it is under his presidency that the building becomes

spk_0 widely known as the White House, rather than the President's palace, the executive mansion,

spk_0 or any of the many other names it has had over the years. It also now undergoes significant

spk_0 renovation. In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt hired this famous architecture firm, McKinney, and White

spk_0 based in New York. And they renovated the house. Roosevelt had a third story outfitted with guest

spk_0 rooms, and they tore down a huge series of glass conservatories that were used to grow fruit and

spk_0 flowers on the grounds of the White House, which are really fascinating to see. And that became

spk_0 based for what we know as the West Wing. The President's office and those of his growing staff

spk_0 moves into the newly constructed West Wing, which retains its administrative purpose to this day.

spk_0 But Roosevelt and his wife have six young children, and so the entire second floor is given over

spk_0 to the family. They share their tendency with an impressive menagerie of pets, including a badger,

spk_0 a pig, assorted birds, and reptiles, even a small bear. When one son Archie is sick in bed,

spk_0 his beloved pony, Algonquin, is brought up to his bedroom in the White House elevator.

spk_0 It is a reminder of how tightly connected politics and family can become in the White House.

spk_0 And in a few years' time, a close family member of one particular President will become as close

spk_0 to the center of power as it is possible to be.

spk_0 It is the evening of October 2, 1919. An attractive middle-aged woman with tightly curled dark hair

spk_0 hurries down a corridor on the second floor of the White House.

spk_0 Edith Wilson is the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson. Her husband went up for a bath

spk_0 an hour ago, and she has not seen him since. Given his recent precarious health, there is always

spk_0 the chance that something awful has happened. A pace, quickens, a footsteps muffled by the thick

spk_0 rugs on the floor as she pushes open the door of the bathroom next to their bedroom in the southwest

spk_0 corner of the house. She is not prepared for the sight that greets her. Her husband is lying

spk_0 sprawled on the frigid, tiled floor next to the bath still in his shut and trousers.

spk_0 His face is pressed into the floor, his one visible eye, shut.

spk_0 Edith falls to her knees beside her husband. With trembling fingers, she tries to find a pulse

spk_0 in his wrist. At first, all she can hear is the thunderous beating of her own heart.

spk_0 But eventually she feels it. It is weak, but he is still alive.

spk_0 Tears running down her cheeks and dripping onto the dark fabric of her dress, she takes a steady

spk_0 in breath. Then she springs into action. Her husband is much taller than her, but she rolls him as

spk_0 gently as she can onto his back. His eyes flicker open, but he remains unconscious.

spk_0 The left side of his body seems unusually stiff, and she struggles to position his limbs into what

spk_0 seems a comfortable position. Next, she runs to their bedroom next door and retrieves a pillow to

spk_0 cushion his head. Once she is done, all she can for him, she goes to the telephone in the adjoining

spk_0 sitting room. She dials Ike Hoover, chief Usher at the White House. He has been in the job

spk_0 for over a decade and a half and has served under three presidents already. The man is a consummate

spk_0 professional. Barely able to keep the tremor out of her voice, Edith tells him to call Wilson's

spk_0 doctor Grayson and ask him to hurry. The president is very sick, she says.

spk_0 After hanging up, she returns to sit on the bathroom floor next to her husband.

spk_0 Gripping his hand in hers, she offers a quick prayer for his recovery.

spk_0 And then she leans back against the bath to wait for the doctor and to plan.

spk_0 Having served as president throughout the First World War, Woodrow Wilson spearheads the effort

spk_0 to create the League of Nations, the Forerunner of the United Nations, so that such a devastating

spk_0 global conflict can never again occur. But the stress takes its toll. When he has a stroke in

spk_0 October 1919, his wife Edith resolves to do anything to aid her husband's recovery.

spk_0 And so, with his doctor, she devises a plan.

spk_0 Believing that his health has the best chance of improvement if the League of Nations work

spk_0 continues and comes to fruition, they also agree that he must be shielded from bad news while he

spk_0 regains his strength. So, until the end of his second term in 1921, Edith effectively takes over

spk_0 as president. Everything coming into the White House for Wilson to deal with goes through her.

spk_0 The whole operation is shrouded in secrecy, with his condition kept from both the American people

spk_0 and much of the government. But even with Edith working doggedly in lieu of her

spk_0 ailing husband, the US Senate eventually votes against membership of the League.

spk_0 They say that because she did that, that the US didn't enter the League of Nations because she

spk_0 kind of mishandled it. But yeah, Edith Wilson actually was kind of like the first people say the

spk_0 first female president. Limited as it is by the absence of the power of the United States,

spk_0 the League of Nations ultimately fails in its objectives and is unable to prevent the outbreak

spk_0 of the Second World War, after which it dispans. Despite Edith Wilson's secret wielding of power,

spk_0 it is Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is remembered as the woman who redefined

spk_0 the role of the First Lady. By far, the most impactful First Lady of the 20th century was Eleanor

spk_0 Roosevelt. She changed the game. When it came to what First Ladies can do, she was in the position

spk_0 for 12 years, which is an unprecedented amount of time. She was there for the Great Depression and

spk_0 World War II, these kind of cataclysmic events in American history.

spk_0 Throughout her tenure as First Lady from 1933 to 1945, Eleanor refuses to be bound by the

spk_0 traditional duties of wife and hostess. Instead, she continues with her speaking engagements and

spk_0 civil rights activism. Attends lay the meetings and holds regular briefings with the media.

spk_0 She was the only First Lady to have press conferences with just female reporters because she saw

spk_0 how these mostly male reporters were taking over and getting all the best scoops, and so she insisted

spk_0 on having her own press conference with women. And then she had the My Day column where she was

spk_0 talking to the American people. I mean, she was a true force of nature, and Eleanor Roosevelt earned

spk_0 the nickname Rover by the Secret Service because she literally roared around the world.

spk_0 She makes use of radio to reach people directly in their homes, making some 300 broadcasts.

spk_0 Sometimes these are even recorded from the White House Radio Studio itself, created by her husband

spk_0 for his so-called fireside chats, a series of evening addresses given by the President.

spk_0 Her husband, the man known as FDR, contracted polio some years before his presidency,

spk_0 which permanently effect his mobility. The ubiquitous stigma around disability at the time

spk_0 makes him determined to hide from the public the fact that he uses a wheelchair.

spk_0 Though he teaches himself to walk short distances while wearing iron leg braces,

spk_0 when he takes up residence in the White House, changes are needed to make it accessible for him.

spk_0 Discreet to a man, the staff help him to maintain the illusion that he is able-bodied,

spk_0 wheeling him into rooms and seating him at desks and tables before guests arrive.

spk_0 After FDR dies in office towards the end of World War II, he is succeeded by Harry Truman,

spk_0 and it is during his presidency that the building is extensively renovated.

spk_0 Out of necessity above any other consideration.

spk_0 The roof was caving in. There's a great story about Margaret Truman,

spk_0 their only child, and she loved to play the piano and a foot of the piano actually plunge

spk_0 through the rotted flooring of the sitting room. So it was time to move out, and they moved

spk_0 into Blair House, which is across the street from the White House, so that this big renovation

spk_0 can be done. And what Truman added, which I think is one of the most beautiful parts of the White

spk_0 House is the Truman balcony, and it's where families can go and relax and look out onto the

spk_0 south lawn of the White House. It's really like their back deck that I know that first ladies,

spk_0 especially love to go out there and have dinner and just have some privacy.

spk_0 In 1961, a young couple moved into this newly renovated White House.

spk_0 John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, bring glamour and modernity to the roles of President and

spk_0 First Lady. Qualities that are reflected in the changes that they make.

spk_0 Jacqueline Kennedy was really the person who modernized the White House by televising a tour

spk_0 of the White House and also warmheartedly by working to get rid of what she called these hideous

spk_0 horrors that were in the White House. There was a lot of just furniture that needed to be updated,

spk_0 and Jackie Kennedy wanted to make the White House the most perfect house in the country, and so

spk_0 she got together wealthy Americans, including Henry DuPont, and collectors of early American

spk_0 furniture, and she created a Fine Arts Committee, and they came and they brought in incredible pieces

spk_0 of art and they went around the country and they would find, you know, desks that had belonged to

spk_0 President Madison or chairs that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson and they would bring them in.

spk_0 Jackie Kennedy found the White House Historical Association dedicated to protecting, preserving,

spk_0 and providing public access to the rich history of the house. Under her supervision,

spk_0 the space becomes both a museum of American presidential history and an example of exquisite taste.

spk_0 Jackie Kennedy saw herself as the art director really of the 20th century. She believed that

spk_0 fashion and the arts were really an important part of American culture, and this young country,

spk_0 she did a lot to promote American culture both internally but then outside because everybody

spk_0 in the world, you know, Charles DeGal, and all the great leaders looked up to Jackie and

spk_0 idolized her, and so I think that she was a sophisticated person that brought the White House up

spk_0 a level that it hadn't been before. The Kennedy's time in the White House also demonstrates the

spk_0 close relationship between the first family and the House staff. Huge numbers of people work in

spk_0 the presidential and cabinet offices in the West Wing, but alongside these political staffers

spk_0 who might occasionally make the headlines, the House itself is run by a largely hidden workforce.

spk_0 The White House staff is made up of about a hundred people and they are housekeepers,

spk_0 carpenters, cooks, florists, and they all work there from one presidency to the next so they're not

spk_0 hired by the president. They serve at the pleasure of the president and they can be fired for any reason.

spk_0 But they are not political in any way, which is very unique in Washington. The resident staff are

spk_0 just incredibly dedicated, loyal people. Spending almost every day with a president and his family,

spk_0 they see them at some of their most intimate moments. They are uniquely trusted and are relied upon

spk_0 to exercise absolute discretion. They form incredibly close relationships with the presidents and

spk_0 first ladies they serve. I interviewed dozens of them and they told me that the Bushes,

spk_0 George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush were their favorites to a person. Everyone said that because

spk_0 I think that the Bushes were used to having staff and so it's much easier when you're used to

spk_0 being served. To deal with that, whereas the Carter's, the Clinton's, the Obama's, none of them grew up

spk_0 with maids and housekeepers and so it's not a natural way of being for them so I thought that was

spk_0 interesting. This closeness between the first family and the people who work in the White House

spk_0 is highlighted most poignantly in the days after President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas

spk_0 on the 22nd of November 1963. A really important moment to highlight is in the east row when

spk_0 President Kennedy's body was brought back to the White House and the staff gathered to pay their

spk_0 respects and when Jackie Kennedy walked into the east room they turned to face the wall

spk_0 because they wanted to give her private time alone with her husband. And the fact that Jackie was

spk_0 so stoic during that time they really felt like they also had to not be sobbing even though they felt

spk_0 like it. The second half of the 20th and opening decades of the 21st century see the White House

spk_0 bearing witness to a series of seismic events in both American and global history.

spk_0 Some of these are scandalous. In 1974 President Nixon is forced to resign following the Watergate

spk_0 scandal. Members of his campaign had broken into Democratic Party headquarters to try and help his

spk_0 reelection efforts but to begin with the president himself cannot be tied to the crime.

spk_0 In the end it is the recording system that Nixon himself installed in the Oval Office that proves

spk_0 his downfall. Knowing they contain incriminating information the president refuses to release the

spk_0 tapes. A decision that sees him resign before he can be impeached.

spk_0 But it is from another room, the situation room, that modern American presidents monitor the

spk_0 most dramatic events. Located in the White House basement this is a place from which presidents and

spk_0 their staff watch the Berlin Wall fall, observe the course of the war in Kosovo and respond to the

spk_0 9-11 terrorist attacks. In 2011 its importance is highlighted in a news story that reaches around the world.

spk_0 The situation room is its own universe and books have been written about it alone because it's

spk_0 such an important top secret place inside the White House and its where presidents can monitor

spk_0 military actions around the world and what comes to mind about the situation room is the

spk_0 Bin Laden raid and the famous images of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama watching the raid unfold not

spk_0 knowing if it would be successful or not. As President Obama sits tensely in the situation room

spk_0 waiting for the news that Bin Laden had been killed his wife and children sleep just upstairs.

spk_0 Since its inception the White House has fulfilled this dual function both a home and a government

spk_0 office and nowhere is this more apparent than in the moment when one president leaves office

spk_0 and hands the house over to his successor. It is a time of great upheaval not just for the outgoing

spk_0 and incoming presidents but for the White House staff as well. The change over every four to eight

spk_0 years is very difficult for the White House staff because they grow very close to the family they

spk_0 serve. It was really hard when the bushes left and the Clinton's came in because the staff grew

spk_0 so close to George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush. It's almost a kind of funerial feeling in the house

spk_0 and the staff actually has to move the former president out and the new president and his family in

spk_0 because of security reasons they can't hire outside firms to do this so it's all hands on

spk_0 death. You have engineers and florists you know moving heavy furniture on an auguration day and it's

spk_0 quite a sight inside the White House there's a lot going on and it's a really emotional day.

spk_0 But as America becomes more politically divided in the 21st century White House staffing policies

spk_0 change. When he becomes president Barack Obama replaces George Bush's chief usher with his own.

spk_0 This pattern continues with Trump and then Biden and then Trump again.

spk_0 Presidents now fear that senior staff members loyal to their predecessor might gossip about the

spk_0 goings-on inside the presidential residence. In recent history the most striking change over

spk_0 occurs when Barack Obama the first black president leaves office and is replaced in the White House

spk_0 by Donald Trump. On January the 6th 2021 when it is Trump's turn to leave after losing the

spk_0 election to Joe Biden he gives a speech outside the White House claiming the victory has been stolen

spk_0 from him. His supporters rally in his defense and the resulting attack on the Capitol becomes a

spk_0 defining moment in modern U.S. politics. Ultimately the riots fail and Trump does leave office

spk_0 handing over to Biden on inauguration day as expected democratic norms for the moment prevail.

spk_0 But since Trump's victory in the 2024 general election the White House has continued to bear witness

spk_0 to novel and unprecedented events that seem to mirror Trump's personality.

spk_0 In March 2025 the South Lawn was turned into a car showroom from which the president encouraged

spk_0 people to buy Teslas seemingly as a favor to billionaire Elon Musk for his support during the election.

spk_0 You know I think the White House is a reflection of each president and first lady who lives in

spk_0 the House because first lady has usually played a big role in this and we see it with President

spk_0 Trump he's definitely making it more in line with kind of the ballrooms at Mar-Lago in the outdoor

spk_0 spaces there and so he's putting his own stamp on it also with the Oval Office a lot of gold

spk_0 and there was a more subdued interior decor during the Biden and Obama administration. So it's kind

spk_0 of a reflection of the personality of the man who holds the office and that's what the White House does

spk_0 it's kind of a mirror image of the person that's there the same exact space but it's completely

spk_0 transformed every four to eight years. Home to 44 presidents their wives and families as well as

spk_0 being the workplace of countless AIDS staffers domestic staff and more the White House continues to

spk_0 evolve more than 230 years after its first stones were laid. In July 2025 the building of a new state

spk_0 ballroom was announced totalling 90,000 square feet it is expected to seat 650 people and comes

spk_0 with a price tag of $200 million. The building's role and meaning will undoubtedly continue to evolve

spk_0 further in the years to come as it always has but one element has remained constant throughout its

spk_0 storied history. The White House is the physical manifestation of American democracy and it means

spk_0 an incredible amount to the American people because of what it symbolizes it's such a physical

spk_0 manifestation of everything that the United States stands for.

spk_0 Next time on short history I will bring you a short history of the London Underground.

spk_0 London was a crowded mess and lower the slum so right in the center so there's an idea that people

spk_0 should live further out and the only way that would be able to achieve that would be with a railway

spk_0 system. Well you can't demolish all the houses on the way to central London from the suburbs you

spk_0 would have to put the railway underground and that was the revolutionary idea. That's next time.

spk_0 If you can't wait a week until the next episode you can listen to it right away by subscribing

spk_0 to Noiser Plus. Head to www.noiser.com forward slash subscriptions for more information.

The White House

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