Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992 TAG: 9203250359
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BILL TAMMEUS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's a remarkable achievement in a country prone to tear down anything over 50 (well, except George Burns and Bob Hope) because it's out of style.
The White House cornerstone (which raises the question of whether you can corner someone in an Oval Office, but let it go) was laid on Oct. 13, 1792, just 98 years and one day before the birth of a man who would live there for eight somnambulent years, Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Ike's birth is barely relevant to what I'm writing here but it does reveal the shallow depths of the research I have bothered to do, so I've included it.)
There is something magnetic about the White House, something oddly energizing and mystical: a mystique - even for people who distrust or dislike whoever its current resident happens to be.
Peggy Noonan, the Reagan-Bush speech writer who dreamed up the thousand points of light phrase and other rhetorical empty calories, says of the White House in her book, "What I Saw at the Revolution": "It's different here."
She's right. I myself have stood inside and outside the White House walls and felt as if I were somehow at the epicenter of a great historical achievement, the United States. It must have felt that way the day the first pyramid was completed in Egypt.
James Hoban, White House architect, was born in Ireland, where, as you know, the president lives in the Green House. For his design Hoban won $500, which, had it been invested then at 8 percent interest compounded daily, would be worth, after taxes, nearly $500 today.
I said earlier that the White House would be 200 this year. That's only partly true. Not much besides the cornerstone actually existed 200 years ago. In fact, the building wasn't ready for its first occupant until November 1800, when John Adams moved in with a pile of change-of-address cards.
So I suppose you could argue that we shouldn't celebrate the 200th birthday for another eight years, but that would do nothing to help us out of the 1992 recession, and that's what's really important. The idea is to attract tourist dollars, and there's no better time to start than eight years early.
Tourists, for instance, will want to know fascinating details about who has dwelt in the White House besides presidents. Did you know that Meriwether Lewis lived there from 1801 to 1803 as Thomas Jefferson's secretary while he planned the Lewis and Clark Expedition? You can verify that in two ways: By reading a nifty new Washington history guide, "On This Spot, ' by Douglas E. Evelyn and Paul Dickson, or by asking Lewis' still-young-looking cohort, Dick Clark.
And not just people have lived in the White House, either. There've been loads of animals - both pests (squirrels, mice and so forth) and pets.
Nowadays there's the famous Bush First Dog Millie, but she's a pretty tame example compared with what's been there in the past. For instance, Woodrow Wilson had a tobacco-chewing ram named Old Ike.
Margaret Truman - who once, of course, was First Kid - wrote a book called "White House Pets," in which she noted that cows were a common sight on the White House grounds as late as the administration of William Howard Taft.
Nobody knows yet, of course, who will be president a year from now. But one thing seems sure: The White House will be almost 201 then, and still looking nearly as good as Dick Clark.
Bill Tammeus is a columnist for The Kansas City Star.
by CNB