Dream House: the White House as an American Home

Today it's the most famous building in the world, recognisable to millions as a symbol of the American presidency. But the White House was not always an iconic monument - it was first an American home. Did you know that Julia Grant furnished the state rooms after shopping binges at American department stores? That Theodore Roosevelt wanted the White House to look like a French chateau? That Harry Truman built a patio on the second floor so he could hear the sprinklers on the White House lawn? That FDR had a swing set built for his granddaughters 75 years before the Obamas built theirs south of the Oval Office? Unique in its viewpoint, "Dream House: The White House as an American Home", fits the White House into the history of America interior design, landscape architecture and house design. From 1800 until 1960, the president's house kept pace with changing ideals of the perfect American house and garden. It began as George Washington's dream of a country estate; a century later, when robber-baron palaces came into fashion, it became the imperial seat of the larger-than-life Theodore Roosevelt. In the 1950s, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower enjoyed the middle-class life in the capital city, barbecuing on the roof of the curving south portico. That ended when Jacqueline Kennedy redecorated the White House as a museum to upper-class taste. "Dream House" is filled with historic photographs, plans, and drawings. The authors compare the president's house to other American houses, gardens, and interiors, showing the White House as it changed through decades of interior renovation, rebuilding, and landscaping. The nation's finest decorators, garden designers, architects, and retailers - Herter Brothers, Sister Parish, Beatrix Farrand, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and McKim, Mead & White - helped first families realise personal, and yet always American, dreams of how presidents should live.