Whisper of the White Walls

By Hugh Sidey

The Presidency

The White House has a different look these November days. The piled-up paint of 150 years has been scraped off the giant columns and intricate carvings of the North Portico. The Seneca sandstone is a light tan with brown striations. The naked surface gives the mansion more depth and a shadowy European flavor. Whoever comes back down Pennsylvania Avenue next January after taking the oath of office as President will be the first newly installed Chief Executive to see the pristine stone since Andrew Jackson's time. Pray that Old Hickory's spirit still resides thereabouts, because the new President will need all the help he can get.

The North Portico was built in 1829-30 so that White House guests no longer had to bring a change of clothes after rainy-night arrivals. When it was finished, contractors immediately slapped on white paint to preserve that New World image of freshness. So it has ever been. And it will be again by next spring, when the sandstone has dried out enough by measure of the National Bureau of Standards to be ready to paint again.

In an era in which the U.S. paid $780 for a screwdriver, Americans can take heart over one sweet deal made by their national Government. For $232,371.83, we got a house for the President that has lasted nearly 200 years and will look good for centuries more. For that we can thank George Washington, one tough whistle blower.

He made sure the Aquia Creek sandstone used for the original mansion was the best. That stone came out of a friend's quarry in Virginia. Though Washington was in Philadelphia during much of the construction, he dropped in often enough to terrorize and entice Master Builder James Hoban into doing superb work. When Congress wanted to expropriate the building for the Supreme Court, Washington said no. When Congress wanted the House of Representatives in the structure, Washington put his foot down. So on a March day in 1797, when Washington came to gaze proudly on the largest house abuilding in America, the workmen and local residents gathered on the site to cheer and praise him.

About the time that the portico gets its new paint, Historian William Scale's definitive history of the White House will be published by the White House Historical Association. The two volumes are the result of ten years' work in which Seale gathered masses of new facts from old papers and invoices. These marvelous minutiae tell of events and people of power. Seale has even been watching the paint come off and cataloging the smudges and marks on the White House walls.

A decade ago, the chief White House usher, Rex Scouten, who keeps the White House running, was confronted with the discouraging fact that new White House paint would peel in sheets only months after application. The Bureau of Standards and the Duron Paint Co. advised stripping off the accumulation, in some places 50 layers deep. Four years ago, the east wall was cleaned and yielded its story for Seale. Scorch marks from the fire set in 1814 by the British rascal General Robert Ross were still visible. Lumpy mounds turned out to be exquisite carvings, done by skilled immigrant stonecarvers who had fled the turmoil in Europe. One good thing about all that slapdash painting: the sandstone was in excellent shape, ready for another 200 years.

Scouten and his experts found a new paint that could be washed instead of replenished. But the paint job will not be finally finished until 2004 because the process is so complicated and expensive. (The U.S. dollar has proved less sturdy than the sandstone: it has already cost the Federal Government more money--$283,000--to repaint the grand old mansion than to build the place.) One other secret. The White House is not going to be pure white. Scouten wanted a paint that would dazzle the eye in the sun and yet glow with a mellow gold in the night lights. He found it among Duron's 1,000 shades. It is called Whisper.