Blog converted

I have converted this blog to WordPress and renamed it The Elliptical Saloon. Please go there for new posts.

WhiteHouse.gov

The Obama administration has lost no time in updating WhiteHouse.gov, intending to make it central to the pledge to make this the most transparent administration. So far, they seem to have removed all the pages on individual rooms, replacing them with a single page without pictures, altho there is a separate page for the Oval Office (there's a broken link on the summary page, but you can scroll down to the Oval Office section for a link to the separate page).

My hope for WhiteHouse.gov is that it becomes, among other things, the primary source of new high-resolution photographs for use by news organizations and Web-based virtual museums.

Inauguration day

On this auspicious occasion, I happily announce that Peter Sharkey has completed the new colorful, 3D Residence floor plans, which I've added to the main site as well as the mirror. The main site is very slow, however, owing to a big rise in visitorship. (Welcome!)

I can't get over how beautiful the new plans look. Many thanks again to Pete for all his hard work—which, remember, you can always see over at Wingnut's Workings. More is coming, including some details and fixes. Let us know if you notice any goofs.

By the way, if you check out Wingnut's Workings, let me know what you think of the white wall tops rather than the black wall tops.

Presidential television

The History channel is running various president-related programs in the next 24 hours, including:

• The White House: Behind Closed Doors
• The Presidents (a series)
• Modern Marvels: presidential transportation
• Secret Access: Air Force 1
• Civil War Journal
• A Presidency Revealed (a series including JFK and FDR)
• UFO Files (Cleveland was abducted by aliens)
• Star Wars Tech (presumably about Reagan)
• Batman Unmasked (Harding fought crime in a black cloak and cowl and became the inspiration for Batman; the "playboy president" persona was a ruse).

UPDATE: At 8 AM and 2 PM on Thu, they're also rerunning their excellent doco on Fort Knox. The history and architecture of the bullion depository is really fascinating.

Inauguration news and wishes

Keith Olbermann just announced that Barack Obama will keep the Bush 2 Oval Office decor. Most presidents keep the incumbent decor for a while (Bush 2 actually used the Reagan rug), but I bet he gets his own rug eventually... or at least drapes (please drapes).

If this is true, tho, it means a lot less work for Pete in updating the Oval Office model. ;-)

Whatever the case— Best wishes to the Obamas in their new home, our favorite house, this mansion of democracy, this palace of the republic, this old white house.

Also, Vice-President Dick Cheney reportedly injured his back moving boxes and will attend the inauguration in a wheelchair. Best wishes for a quick recovery.

Michael S Smith named as decorator

Visitor Halcyon notes in the comments on another post that Michael S Smith has been named as the Obama's decorator. Keep your fingers crossed that he passes confirmation by the Senate.* Halcyon says:

To me, this is good news.
Smith announced today his first project is having a very old burled Maple four poster converted from a full to a king size bed. (this last part not in the article, but a buzz from a Rhode Island Designer I know)

* I may have that wrong.

UPDATE: The Bed. AP via PinkPillbox.

Just in time for the inauguration....

In the immortal words of Stephen Sondheim, "somethin's comin', somethin' good," only this time it's not a shooting death in a vacant lot at the hands of a vengeful Puerto Rican street tough. It's a set of brand new contemporary floor plans in three dimensions and living color by Pete Sharkey.

I've added the draft versions of the new plans to the mirror site only for the ground, second, and third floors so far. I stress that these are drafts and may look a little funny. I think I will have to make them smaller eventually when I get the wings, since the wings are wider and may end up too wide to fit on screen.

Not coincidentally, I hereby award Peter Sharkey the Lorenzo Winslow Beauty in Precision Award (the "Winnie").

Cadillac limo

Jalopnik has new pics and a big press release on the new presidential limousine.

Now the question is: how can we, the White House Museum Foundation for Education and Historical Research, get our hands on the old limousine?

More miscellany

I've posted more miscellaneous photos (check the What's New page) and some changes to the China Collection page to reflect the new acquisitions.

The Lincoln White House

This diagram of the Lincoln second floor appears in Seale's two-volume WH book. It shows the old west stair as a dual initial rise and a central rise to the second floor. But we know from photographs of the grand stair that by the 1890s it was a single initial rise at the right, a left turn, then a single rise to the second floor.

However, I don't recall ever reading about that stair being renovated from dual to single. The question is, are we sure the dual rise stair was ever built? And when was it renovated to the single stair we see in the photos?

Statistics revisited

As you may have noticed from the slow site performance, page views are back up substantially and probably will stay that way thru the inauguration. Oct. 5 represents the last "normal" week. I've kept the mirror site updated.

5-Oct-08	56,761
12-Oct-08	70,975
19-Oct-08	73,760
26-Oct-08	78,386
2-Nov-08	192,762
9-Nov-08	369,645
16-Nov-08	525,377
23-Nov-08	150,528
30-Nov-08	115,720
7-Dec-08	96,561
14-Dec-08	137,404
21-Dec-08	82,121
28-Dec-08	104,769
4-Jan-09	142,713

Top search queries:

white house museum

white house floor plan

resolute desk

white house bowling alley

white house residence

oval office

white house swimming pool

whitehousemuseum

white house

president's bedroom

lincoln bedroom

Bunch of stuff

I've added a navigation link to the Sub-Basements and posted a bunch of new photos. Check the What's New page or the mirror What's New page.

King George

Interesting "what if?" article on the lineage of George Washington and who would be monarch if he had taken a crown. The nut graph (given UK-style descent):

Queen Estella would have reigned from 1918 to her death in 1931, but because her only child had predeceased her, the succession would have swung to her oldest uncle’s branch. He was also deceased, but had two living children from separate marriages. The son, though younger and from the second marriage, would have been given preference, so that would give America a King Lee from 1931 to 1969. Lee also only had one daughter. Like her father, Queen Odelle would have enjoyed a lengthy rule—1969 to 2000. And with her majesty’s passing, we would now be under the dominion of Queen Brynda.

Jack Ford

I've posted some of the photos from the 1976 Rolling Stone with Jack Ford. And I updated the mirror site.

Also, I received the 1968 Life with juicy oblique cutaways of the West Wing as well as the WH and East Wing we used to create the current East Wing floor plans.

There's also a really neat showcase of houses each president was born in (including Johnson), which together make about the ugliest neighborhood I've ever seen.* It sort of starts out as Genteel Town, proceeds to Poverty Row, then on to Middleclass Muddle, with brief jaunts up Old Money Lane. I have a feeling that continuing the trend would look like a tour of Old Money Lane.

* Insert your own "Then you haven't seen wherever" joke.

New china

Nick V alerted me to an announcement by the first lady of two new sets of china (a formal one of 320 and an informal one of 75 settings) and a Family Dining Room rug that have "been in the works for several years" but which were just delivered.

Check out that informal setting. Let me be the first to say "Waiter, there's a bug in my soup."

1934 West Wing

I've added the scan of the historical West Wing from Life (who reprinted it from Time), as well as a couple of other photos from the issue. There was even this photo of the Joseph P Kennedy family.

Resources

Received the 1976 Rolling Stone with Jack Ford in it. Pulp paper makes for bad photo reproduction, but I'll scan his bedroom at least anyway.

I also got the book White House: An Architectural History. It's got reproductions of the Truman floor plans (from the CREM report), good pics of failed expansion plans I haven't seen before, and more. I'll have to spend some time going thru it.

And last, I got the 1937 Life issue with the Roosevelt West Wing floor plan. I'll scan that and post quickly. I had hoped for a lot more; namely photos of the interiors of some of the rooms, but alas... a lack.

Replacement WH exercise

This is an interesting video done, apparently, as an architecture-school exercise in replacing the WH with a new structure. In this case, the structure chosen was a couple of elevator shafts and a staircase, I guess.

This related site is about open-source (brick-and-mortar) architecture but uses a new WH as its central exercise. (Pete, you may be interested in the SketchUp model of the area around the WH.)

This calls to mind a thought experiment. Since the capital was not moved to Cincinnati after the 1814 fire, we have a capital that sits at the extreme east of the nation. Some presidents have maintained a "Little White House" or "Western White House," primarily as vacation getaways, but do we need a genuine "Western White House" for the president to sometimes work out of and what would it look like?

Presidential limousines

Here's an interesting slide show from the NYT on presidential limousines.

Pete provides another look at the new limo.

Upstairs at the White House

Going back thru JB West's memoir, I decided to add some of the photos found in there. Several of them I haven't seen from any other source and depicted rooms at times that I don't have covered otherwise. They aren't very good quality images—screened and printed in low quality. Does anybody have the hard back version and are those photos reproduced at higher quality?

UPDATE: The hardback does have better quality photos, and I found a copy for less than $5, including shipping.

Get me Rewrite!

I've added several photos from Life showing the old Press Room from the 40s and 50s and also the West Wing Lobby from the 30s to the 60s, where journalists hung out.

I'm curious to know more about the strange stand-out wall with a bulletin board (and deer trophy). It seems to have been added in the early 40s, perhaps to avoid all the noise of opening and closing the door.

New front page - Ike China Room

I've changed the front page to an image from the Life collection, a pleasant 1958 picture of party guests looking over the china collection. And I've also freshened the blog again.

Happy new year!