Built in 1800, the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., has been the residence of every U.S president since John Adams. In 1814 (during the war of 1812) the White House was set ablaze by the British army, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior.

Since then the building has undergone countless changes, putting undue stress on the centuries-old building (a brick and sandstone structure built around a timber frame). Wooden beams had been weakened by cutting and drilling for plumbing and wiring over 150 years.

20th-century innovations like indoor plumbing, electricity and heating ducts all took its toll. In 1948 a Congress-authorized survey was undertaken revealing just how dire the situation had become. Their findings were that there was imminent danger of collapse. Supporting bricks, bought second-hand in 1880, were disintegrating. The marble grand staircase was in imminent danger of collapse. The plumbing was deemed “makeshift and unsanitary” and the president’s bathtub was sinking into the floor.

While the cost of completely tearing down and rebuilding the White House from scratch was found to be cheaper than a full interior restoration/renovation, Truman deemed the ‘cultural’ value of keeping the original structure intact greater than any economic cost savings a total tear-down would provide. A comprehensive dismantling and rebuilding of the interior of the White House then occurred between 1949-1952.

The interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.