The White House interior was completely gutted and rebuilt (1948-1952) 

True spirit of the government right there

Looked too dark and gloomy before

I agree. Sheraton hotels must have been pretty nice in those days.

Allowed for modern at the time security upgrades as well.

After moving in, Truman stated it was a mess. Rats running all over. Walls crumbling down.

Imagine the technology installed

Yep. Lincoln looking for bedroom he knew.

You're right and sadly this is the case with most historical sites. Still, its nice to imagine.

There is probably a fallout shelter down there.

@@abyssstrider2547 Much more then that, there is classified tunnel systems all over that place.

From the street it looks like they have a more or less permanent construction process going on there...

Thats the Lincoln Zombie caverns the connect to the Kennedy Cocaine tunnel. Its all there in the visitors guide!

⁠@@Riiyan way more then that, “supposedly” most major US buildings within DC are connected via tunnels in case of a nuclear war, there are many Classified construction projects that have taken place all over DC, to the point that you literally cannot enter the city’s sewage system without worrying about secret service arresting you, I wouldn’t be surprised if by now there’s basically a whole other city underneath DC.

melina trump… i don’t really care, do you?

​@MH-fb5kr you are so funny bro

Trump required its fumigation and decontamination.

It's sad though that they didn't put some of the original woodwork and such back in, but ofncourse when war is on, they just needed it done

@@glorygracek.1841 they did recycle the old timbers into paneling from what I can recall.

So essentially it was demolished, it’s not the same building at all.

@@californian1459 it's no longer the same floors that Lincoln walked across. Even the fireplace chimneys weren't rebuilt with the original brick. Some bricks from the interior were sent to Mount Vernon for restoration projects and others were basically available to the public at low cost as souvenirs. They tried to save as much as possible but probably 90% of the interior building is 1948 to 1952. It was said to be too time-consuming to salvage everything and put it all back in so they just replicated whatever they could. What you see now is how it basically looked in 1902 they replicated everything as much as possible from the Roosevelt renovation. In 1902 during Theodore Roosevelt's renovation, whatever was from the 1812-1815 rebuild got ripped out and thrown out on the front lawn in a pile. Even the fireplace that was behind Roosevelt during his fireside chats, the bricks that are there now are not the same. The main staircase is a new design. The original stairway began in the cross hall and where the stairs begin right now in the vestibule, in 1902 there was a giant mirror there. Click on the link below and to read more about the 1902 renovation. www.bostonherald.com/2016/01/18/granby-man-cashes-in-on-white-house-relic/

That's quite an absurd assumption.

The State Dining Room wood paneling was the only interior that was put back in place after the renovations were complete. "The President's House" by William Seale.

Sounds like a Jewish person snuck that unpainted brick in for other reasons and then gave that explanation.

HUM , like to see that !

Certainly one of the most modest, humble and ‘common man’ like presidents we’ve ever had.

Truman is an example of failure. He was one of the most unpopular presidents in US history.

Was it? He was weak against Stalin, and eastern Europe paid the price for the next 46 years.

Idk, the whole Western world was enabling of Stalin. Europe paid the price because the alternative would have been paying the price to Hitler. I know American history likes to paint Americans as the saviors of the world in WW2, but make no mistake, the Reds were the lynchpin to saving Europe from the fascists.

​@@texaswunderkindHow was he weak? He did the Berlin Airlift. If you remember his objective was to not have everyone die in a nuclear war, if all makes sense.

👍👍💪💪💪

Good point!

Yep. Makes me wonder if they saved any of it for historical reasons.

I was thinking that was probably the oriental rug pattern on the failed floor above???

@@svause I don't think that's where the piano leg came through. I think that is where the engineers removed a portion of the wall and ceiling to see what was going on structurally underneath. A lot of the charred timbers weren't replaced when they rebuilt it after the war of 1812, and you can see that some of those boards are black with soot.

I noticed this too. Would have been cool to see what the Victorian era White House interior was

@@MichaelfromtheGraves They took pictures.

They drained the swamp

You gotta remember, it was also gutted by fire by the British in 1814.

@@nehugeapparently they didn’t drain it enough.

They said it was daft to build a castle in the swamp! But I built it just the same, just to show em! It sank into the swamp, so I built a second one. That sank into the swamp so I built a third one. That burned down fell over then sank into the swamp but the fourth one stayed up!

And award the contract to the lowest bidder ;o)

@@Chris-xo1oh On the right, at the end of the Crosshall, is a large arch, and one can just make out the bottom step at the baseboard. If you knew anything about the history of the White House, you would know the new Grand Staircase was configured to empty into the Crosshall thusly during the Roosevelt Renovation (1902); during the Truman Renovation the Grand Staircase was reconfigured to empty into the Entrance Hall where the large mirror is shown in the 6:16 image. So put that in your fantasy pipe and smoke it...LMFAO 🤣🤣

Grand dad absconded with government property?

Great-GREAT grandfather? This was only 75 years ago.

Don't tell anyone. Thay will send someone to come and take it away

​@@MrShobarIt was probably garbage. By law if garage is out on the street you have the rite to take it. Police can go through garage cans without a warrant and use what Thay find in court

Actually quite common in construction or demolish to take apart equipment to get it to fit inside a doorway. When completing the World Trade Center crews had to take apart the cranes used and ship down the pieces in a freight elevator.

But he tore out literally everything else including floors that like Lincoln walked on

Yep. Which is the main reasons to simply gut everything inside and start over. Some discoveries along the way too!

@@Darkk6969there’s no reason to gut it if it’s still structurally sound

My brother’s house is similar, all hand honed wood and rough cut lumber, the interior doors are solid oak, probably weigh almost 100 lbs, huge windows on the main level that have a chain hoist system as I guess they are quite heavy to raise. It also has gas fittings in the basement as well. It also has what I could only assume as being servant steps the very narrow steep pitched steps that lead from the 2nd floor to the kitchen area.

Yeah but your house wasn't set on fire and just had new wood nailed to the burnt beams instead of putting new beams in.

Thank you my friend. Will definitely continue them

I remember seeing pictures of it in school and being shocked at the equipment driving around inside, really gave you an idea of the size of the White House from the perspective of a child

Same for me. Seeing dump trucks driving around inside was mind boggling for a kid

Then some of the building WAS saved? That's amazing.

Interesting story, thanks. "China" is capitalized when referring to the country, but lowercase when it's dishware.

This has Mary Todd Lincoln written all over it

@@jamesmcinnis208 I just caught that. I did it through Siri lol.

It sounds like China from the Rutherford B. Hayes era.

@@jamesmcinnis208 And I think the birds are referred to as predatory, not attack birds :)

You must of been living in a shoe box then

@@MrJeep75How detailed is your knowledge about the histories of other countries...?

You must of been living under a rock then

@@MrJeep75 Worse. I wasn't even around in the late 40s.

So, other countries weren't capable?

@@David49305 show me a project comparable to this one done around the same time in another country. Was there a foreign company who put a bid in to handle this project? If you have an answer let us know.

@@KCCardCo Just because you and most Americans can't name a similar project doesn't mean they haven't happened. The rebuilding of the Reichstag comes to mind as a probable contender. America isn't as unique as you think. Go travel, open your mind.

​@@frequentlycynical642Kid, this was in 1948, it was innovative for the time, it was a delicate process to the exterior walls and nobody else was doing this anywhere in the world. We're all aware Germany was rebuilt with US funding since you were probably unaware of that too. Many of the damaged stone walls of the Reichstag and the rest of Germany's bombed architecture are reproductions of the original. The rebuild of the interior of the White House was a delicate process as they could not alter any of the exterior stone walls and had to dig under the foundation to add extra support. The exterior walls were sinking into the swampy ground underneath. Truman did not allow any walls to be taken down to bring equipment in. The contractor asked him for permission to take a wall down and he refused. It's a fact that equipment was taken apart, brought in through the window openings and reassembled to begin the construction work. When the Reichstag was rebuilt they didn't have to take apart equipment to bring it in the interior nor did they have to deal with a sinking foundation. Even the most recent renovations to the Reichstag were not this complex. BTW, I crossed the ocean as a teen many many years ago and as an adult I worked as a flight attendant. You don't know 💩

@@frequentlycynical642kiddo you weren't born yet when I first set foot on foreign soil. Find me a similar project going on at that same time to where the exterior walls could not be altered for any reason. The Reichstag wasn't that complex of a rebuild. It was almost completely destroyed during the war and the exterior facade is a near complete rebuild. Even the new dome on it wasn't a complex build. And if you think America is second to the rest of the world, when anything economically fails in America it pulls the rest of the world down with it. The Australians understand this better than anyone else.

Lowest popularity rating of any modern president. If not amongst the greatest presidents, certainly a near-great.

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

In fact, the presidential retirement pay was created for him, because he was essentially living like a pauper.

@@texaswunderkind Yes it was👍. General Dwight Eisenhower getting elected also played a part and Hoover didn't need the pension but he still accepted it to avoid embarrassing Truman. Eisenhower's election really played a big influence in the presidential pension. I don't feel Congress would have even bothered proposing it had someone else been elected. Eisenhower was still seen as an important war hero and the public was still in awe anytime they saw the General. Eisenhower himself, after he left office preferred the title of General instead of President. I Believe by the time Eisenhower got his pension the presidential pension was around $25,000 a year.

Truman was the last president who did not have a college degree. Which given how much America (and most countries) have big class separations was something. Though since WW2, university entry has become less extremely class focussed.

@@letsburn00 he didn't always get along with the so called "Elite". They didn't like that a guy who didn't have a degree was above them. That attitude still holds true today. I have an acquaintance who wouldn't invite a fairly close friend to his BBQs because he didn't have a degree. But anytime he needed something physically done he'd call that guy.

@@KCCardCo that guy you know sounds like an asshole(unless he actually didn't invite the non degree guy for some other reason and had to make up a dumb excuse). Also, Truman absolutely was an elite guy. He spent the 20s and 30s being part of the party political machine and as a senator. He was a Whiley guy, as well as an officer in WW1, where he ran artillery.

Wow, must of been living under a rock then

I was going to make the same comment but I checked to see if someone else caught that error.

Not sure, but they did add a third floor...

nothing major on the main floors - they re-oriented the main staircase to open directly into the Entrance Hall instead of the Cross Hall and also inserted additional bathrooms in various places. The third floor was completely redone and enlarged, it was originally servants quarters and storage, following the renovation, the White House no longer had live-in staff and the third floor was mostly converted to additional private living space for the President, in addition to still containing some storage and staff offices, plus they added two more basement levels below the original one.

@@11sfr Thank you !

@@11sfrnot mentioning the secret bunkers I’m sure lol

@@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606 The bunker is underneath the East Wing, it already existed, was completed for FDR in 1942 (the wing itself was built in part to provide a cover for the bunker construction, under the guise of just needing additional office space - but it also served to visually balance the West Wing architecturally and they also did actually need the office space)

Sad to learn

Who cares

So he had a Japanese toilet in the shower?

They re-used damaged timbers from the fire to save money, so the house was rebuilt with structural members that were missing part of their intended strength 2. When plumbing, gas lines, electricity, telegraph, and telephone service were added during the 19th century, contractors just randomly hacked holes in whatever was in their way, further compromising a lot of beams 3. A third floor was added in the 1920s without any structural reinforcing of the foundation or rest of the building's structure, which was only designed for two floors + an unfinished attic 4. Presidents had always been reluctant to move out of the White House for any length of time, given that their terms of office are only 4 years, so renovations and repairs tended to be done hastily to keep the building open with minimal disruption, so it was a century+ of temporary, haphazard patches on top of temporary haphazard patches 5. FDR vastly slashed the budget for repairs and upkeep during the 1930s and 1940s, as an austerity measure during the Depression and WWII, the building already had lots of deferred maintenance that wasn't being addressed, and that just compounded it 6. There was an underground spring on the east end of the building that wasn't found in the 18th century, but lead to uneven settling that wasn't properly dealt with to avoid having various Presidents have to move out for any length of time (but it was the reason Jefferson's original East Wing was demolished in the 1870s) But, yes, during the reconstruction, they took the opportunity to excavate two additional basement levels below the main part of the building (the new East Wing built earlier in the 1940s already had a bunker under it). The upper one has a big dish washing room, food service/catering storage, the electrical substation & control panels, the HVAC equipment, staff bathrooms, and general storage rooms, the lower level has laundry and dry cleaning rooms, staff offices, more staff bathrooms, the elevator machinery rooms, and the lower half of the HVAC and electrical plants, as well as additional general storage. In addition to those two new basement levels, the 3rd floor added in the 1920s was also expanded by raising the corners of the roof for more useable floor space.

@@11sfr Interesting! Wow, you know your stuff with this building. It's just a bit odd that landmark homes and building all over America never seem to get fully gutted, but this landmark, symbol of America, got cared for so poorly. You would think that as time passed, extraordinary care would've been taken towards any upgrades or issues.

@josephconsoli4128 well, it wasn't really a historical building for most of that time, in the 19th century it was still practically brand new, and even by the 1940s, the actual structure was really only about 120 years old - which would be like a building from the early 1900s now. And you know a millennial couple with a house from 1905 wouldn't think twice about ripping out all the walls for an open concept and cover the hardwood floors with grey faux wood vinyl. And private homes generally see less wear and tear and less hard use, along with less turnover of owners/residents. The White House is like an office building, a convention center, a museum, and a rental house all mixed into one building, so it takes some abuse

It started to collapse when technology advanced through the decades after it was built. construction crews had to drill through main support beams to install pipes for plumbing, electrical wires and that weakened the structure along with the weight of the interior.

There were two serious problems with the White House that were not faced by other houses of the same age: (1) It was built in a swamp and the original footings were therefore not very strong to begin with, and (2) In 1928 the roof of the attic was raised to make it into a full-fledged third floor. This work was done in concrete and steel, which added more weight to the original piers and walls. The building was pretty much doomed after that.

No one would give a good g-damn what you were prepared to tell anyone.

Just like how the Germans gutted London to help with renovations in the 1940s

Where is any of it? There must have been parts of it saved. One picture shows intact woodwork and wallpaper underneath beams that had been partially burned, and all of it had been covered over. It seems like someone would have been smart enough to save the pieces that were salvageable. We'll probably never know.

the balcony was a much better touch, it achieved the same purpose as the awnings with the added purpose of being a balcony