Posted an interesting artist's conception of Mrs. Madison taking down the red curtains in the oval drawing room to spririt them to safety before the British regulars arrived and made coats out of them, or whatever she imagined would happen. I'd love to see more reconstructions of this sort of thing. Heck, they do it for dinosaurs.
...Not that I want to see Dolley Madison with a reptilian snout and feathered arms....
Also, I've switched the second floor layout back to show the spiral stair in place of Margaret Truman's bathroom. I've tried to figure out how to wedge a lavatory in there, but it doesn't seem possible without making the kitchen considerably smaller. Maybe that's correct, but I won't bother without more evidence.
AND, I redid the 1880 second floor layout and added an 1880 first floor layout.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Love the Lady Bird pic in kitchen. notice the angled stove in corner, then note in later pics the angle gone, might that add more intrigue into the bathroom matter?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Blue Room, think how dramatic it would have been if it had been kept crimson red.
I think so. It is obvious that there was a major redo of the kitchen after Kennedy, turning it into a regular kitchen. There are pictures of Ford in the remodeled kitchen, so perhaps it was done under Johnson or Nixon.
ReplyDeleteThe Kennedy stove was no doubt just shoved up against the angled fireplace with the fireplace either closed up or just covered by the stove.
I believe that it was the infamous J. B. West who related Mrs. Kennedy's idea for the second floor kitchen-
ReplyDelete"Just make it white and give the chef everything he needs".
Boy did they ever!
It was probably Mrs. Nixon who suggested redoing the kitchen using the design we see today.
Judging from the pictures on this site, it certainly could use a redo! The cupboards and countertops look like Home Depot specials- and is that peal and stick flooring? At least the wallpaper is current--if it was 1979!!
Perhaps there is a small pneumatic platform lift up from the sub-basement - and a spiral waterslide back down? WooHoo!
ReplyDelete