The East Wing was a portion of the White House complex
in Washington, D.C. that
was built in 1902, significantly expanded in 1942, and demolished in 2025. In
the month prior to the demolition, site preparation began for a larger,
replacement wing to include the proposed White House
State Ballroom.
Situated on the east side of the Executive
Residence, the building served as office space for the first lady and
her staff, including the White House
Social Secretary, correspondence staff, and the White House Graphics and
Calligraphy Office, all of which have been relocated until the new
East Wing is completed.
The East Wing was connected to the Executive Residence
through the East Colonnade, a corridor with windows facing the South Lawn that
housed the White House
Family Theater and connected to the ground floor of the
Executive Residence.
In 1942, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt oversaw an expansion and remodeling of the East Wing,
which included the construction of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath
the building
President Thomas Jefferson added colonnaded terraces to
the east and west sides of the White House, but no actual wings. Under
President Andrew Jackson in
1834, running water was piped in from a spring and pumped up into the east
terrace in metal pipes. These ran through the walls and protruded into the
rooms, controlled by spigots. Initially, the water was for washing items, but
soon the first bathing rooms were created, in the ground-level east colonnade.
President Martin Van Buren had
shower baths installed here.
The East Terrace was removed in 1866. For many years, a
greenhouse occupied the east grounds of the White House.
The first small East Wing (and the West Wing) was designed by Charles Follen
McKim and built in 1902 during the Theodore
Roosevelt renovations, as an entrance for formal and public
visitors. This served mainly as an entrance for guests during large social
gatherings, when it was necessary to accommodate many cars and carriages. Its
primary feature was the long cloak room with spots for coats and hats of the
ladies and gentlemen.
An expansion and remodeling of the East Wing was
instituted in 1942, during Franklin D.
Roosevelt's presidency. The two-story East
Wing was designed by White House architect Lorenzo Winslow and added to the
White House primarily to cover the construction of an underground bunker, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC). Around
the same time, Theodore Roosevelt's coatroom was integrated into the new
building and became the White House
Family Theater.
Trump’s illegal destruction of the East Wing faces significant
legal challenges, which are detailed in the link below.
However, the destruction was not the first time that
bulldozers were used to destroy part of the White House.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Reconstruction
The White House Reconstruction, also known as the Truman Reconstruction, was a comprehensive dismantling and rebuilding of the interior of the White House from 1949 to 1952. In 1948, after nearly a century and a half of wartime destruction and rebuilding, hurried renovations, additions of new services, technologies, the expanded third floor, and inadequate foundations, architectural and engineering investigations found that the Executive Residence portion of the White House Complex was facing near-imminent collapse, and it was deemed unsafe for occupancy. President Harry S. Truman, his family, and the entire residence staff were relocated across the street to Blair House, and over the next three years, the White House was gutted, expanded, and rebuilt.
When the Trumans moved into the executive mansion in 1945,
they found it badly in need of repair after twelve years of neglect during the Great Depression and World War II. In 1946,
Congress authorized $780,000 (equal to $12,877,986 today) for repairs. The
mansion's heaving floors and mysterious sounds had been known by staff and
first families for many years. For the first two years of his presidency,
according to White House photographer Abbie Rowe, President
Truman heard "ghosts" roaming the halls of the second-floor residence. Government
agencies had expressed concern about the condition of the building, including a
1941 report from the Army Corps of Engineers warning of failing
wood structure, crumbling masonry,
and major fire hazards. The report was dismissed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
In early 1946, during a formal reception in the Blue Room,
the First Lady noticed the very large crystal chandelier overhead swaying and
its crystals tinkling. The floor of the Oval Study above
moved noticeably when walked on, and a valet was then attending the president
while he was taking a bath. Truman described a potential scenario
of him in his bathtub falling through the floor into the midst of a Daughters of the American Revolution tea
"wearing nothing more than his reading glasses." In
early 1947, a "stretching" chandelier in the East Room and another
swaying in the Oval Study caused further alarm. "Floors no longer
merely creaked; they swayed."
The Public Buildings Administration was asked to
investigate the condition of the White House, but no action was taken until
January 1948. After the commissioner of the Public Buildings Administration,
which had responsibility for the White House, noticed the Blue Room chandelier
swaying overhead during another crowded reception, he and the White House
architect conducted their own on-site investigation the next day. They
discovered split and gouged-out beams supporting the ceiling and second floor
above. He reported "that the beams are staying up there from force of
habit only." The number of occupants in the second floor was
restricted, temporary fixes were made to some of the beams, and
scaffolding-type supports were erected throughout the first family's second
floor living quarters.
On January 30, 1948, the president received a confidential
report from the Commissioner of Public Buildings warning of the "imminent
collapse" of the second floor of the mansion. In February, the
president invited the president of the American
Institute of Architects, Douglas Orr, and the
president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Richard E.
Dougherty, to "make a structural survey of the safety of the
White House". Their one-day investigation concluded with a report issued
that same day which said the second-floor structure was a fire hazard and was
in danger of collapse.
They recommended that the second floor should be
reconstructed as soon as possible, electricity use be cut to a minimum, and
that further investigations be undertaken. Congress provided $50,000 for a
more thorough investigation. Additional engineers and other professionals were
engaged from the private sector. Walls, ceilings, and floors were opened up to
provide access to the investigators.
The scope of the project involved the complete removal of
the interior of the White House, except for the third
floor, and included salvage and storage of critical interior elements,
excavation of new basement levels, and construction of new foundations, steel
and concrete structure, masonry interior walls with plaster finish and wood
paneling, custom plaster moldings, refurbished and replacement windows, and new
heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, and
communications systems.
The bulk of the work was to be accomplished within the
exterior stone walls which were to be kept in place and repainted. Landscaping
around the house was to be replaced. All workers were subjected to security
clearance by the Secret Service.
The West Wing was to be kept fully operational and occupied by the president
and his staff. All work was to be completed for a total cost of $5.4 million
and completed by late 1951, in 660 days, approximately 22 months.
This morning’s Washington Post provide more details on the
issues that will either delay Trump’s ballroom, and possibly eliminate it altogether.
Since an underground bunker was added during the 1942 renovation, there really
is no compelling reason to build another one.
Truth be told, the entire project is nothing more than another vanity project for Trump, as was the renaming of the Kennedy Center and the proposed 250 foot tall arch just outside Arlington National cemetery.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/26/courts-congress-have-so-far-created-barriers-trump-ballroom/
Trump has no appreciation or respect for history, which is
why he had the Bonwit Teller frieze destroyed when Trump Tower was built.
Donald Trump’s relationship to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
was permanently damaged early on. He refused to donate artworks that he had promised to the museum
and instead had them destroyed, along with a venerable building that had played
an important role in American art history.
At that site, the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street
in Manhattan at which Trump constructed his prestige project Trump Tower
between 1980 and 1982, the flagship store of the luxury department store chain
Bonwit Teller and Co. had earlier stood. The 1929 building was the work of the
same architects who had designed Grand Central Terminal, Whitney Warren and
Charles Wetmore. It was intended originally to house the women’s department
store Stewart. Bonwit Teller, who took over the building in 1930 and opened it
anew, soon worked with world-famous artists. Starting in 1936, the Spanish
surrealist artist Salvador Dalí regularly decorated the windows with
spectacular installations, for example in 1939, working with the theme “night
and day.” In the 1950s, Jasper
Johns and Robert Rauschenberg worked for the company on the side as window
dressers, using the pseudonym “Matson Jones.” Among other things, Johns
displayed his now iconic painting Flag on Orange Field behind a mannequin in the windows in 1957.
That same year in the same place, Rauschenberg showed his Red Combine
Painting along with
others. Two years earlier, the large photographic work Blue
Ceiling Matson Jones could
be seen in the background of the Bonwit Teller windows.
Donald
Trump Has a History of Pulverizing Historic Buildings
Congress has finally awakened to the fact that it is
supposed to be a check on presidential power, which is why it is unlikely that
the $1.776 billion "slush fund" will pass.
As for the final status of the ballroom?
Your guess is as good as mine.
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