Trump’s massive White House ballroom is the largest overhaul ever, but not the first: Other WH renovations

Quiz question: Armed officers patrolling the streets, media cronies in positions of power, and a golden overhaul of his palatial residence. Which country am I talking about?

Wrong, it’s not the United States. OK, yes it is, but it could have been any military dictator from Africa to Asia and beyond across the last 200 years, with each one of them seemingly having the same vulgar taste for shine and sheen plastered over the walls.

Trump’s hugely controversial ballroom has already seen him lie about the extent of the destruction to the East Wing, yet as per the authoritarian handbook, no judge nor jury is going to stop him.

Back in the days when rules counted for something and due process was, ahem, abided by, the White House underwent some other modifications, albeit not quite on this garish scale.

The West Wing was first created under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, providing a central office for the president and his staff. Roosevelt’s vision was realized with a rectangular office, later imaginatively named the “Roosevelt Room.” His successor, William Taft, expanded the West Wing seven years later, adding an oval-shaped office at its centre. Any guesses as to what they called that?

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enlarged the West Wing by 25,000 square feet, adding a penthouse story and an expanded subterranean office area. The Oval Office was relocated to its current southeast corner overlooking the Wilson Rose Garden. Roosevelt also added an indoor pool to the West Terrace to aid in his polio therapy.

President Harry S. Truman led the White House’s most extensive renovation in 1948. After structural issues rendered parts of the mansion unsafe, Truman and his family temporarily moved to Blair House. The White House was gutted and modernised at a cost of $5.7 million, over $50 million in today’s money, something the president was famously unhappy with: “Bess & I looked over the East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room and State Dining Room. They are lovely. So is the hall and state stairway,” he said of his return. “With all the trouble and worry it is worth it—but not 5 ½ million dollars. If I could have had charge of the construction it would have been done for half the money and in half the time!”

In 1973, President Richard Nixon added a now famous one-lane bowling alley beneath the driveway leading to the North Portico. Curiously, this was not the mansion’s first bowling facility; Truman had previously installed a lane in what is now the Situation Room, later moved by Eisenhower to the basement beneath the Old Executive Office Building.

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And then, in 2009, President Barack Obama converted the White House tennis court into a basketball court. Oh, the horror.

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