In June, 1945 President Truman wrote a letter to Mrs. Truman regarding the White House:  "I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs, read reports, and work on speeches...all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right here in the study.  The floors pop and the drapes move back and forth!"

 

By 1948, jokes about the White House ghosts gave way to true fears of the executive mansion's dangerous structural condition. President Truman was advised to move into a safer part of the White House (and eventually out of the home completely) while engineers investigated.  The conclusions were dramatic, including rendering the entire second floor as unsafe and the interior load-bearing walls as grossly inadequate.  Some argued to simply TEAR DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE and build a new executive mansion, but Truman said HELL NO and fought to preserve the historic building in every way they could.

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The White House we know today is largely due to the renovation led by President Truman.  The construction took place between 1948 and 1952 and was a remarkable feat of engineering.

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Don't miss this fascinating story about

the Freemason who saved the White House

and the Scottish Masons who helped build

the original "President's Palace" in the 1790's.