Cultural Resources Management A National Park Service Technical Bulletin Vol.4, No.1 ^LLETIN March 1981 Twenty-Eight Coats of White House History James I. McDaniel How does one approach the problem of repainting the White House? Because the White House is a memorial to our historic past as well as a functional structure for conducting business, the process is more complex than the yearly maintenance of an urban office buil­ ding. Nevertheless, the procedure fol­ lowed for the White House offers an interesting correlation for other his­ toric buildings. In recent years, the exterior of the White House has been painted on a four- year cycle. But the amount of inter­ vening touch-up has been steadily in­ creasing. The failure of new paint to adhere to an aged, multi-layered base led to a 1976 National Park Ser­ vice decision to contract with the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) for a comprehensive study of exterior coating performance at the White House. The Park Service closely coordinated See WHITE HOUSE, page 4. White House, east elevation with scaffolding, after paint removal. Historic Structures of the National Park Service Travis C. McDonald, Jr. The most comprehensive collection of usual accompanying discussion of ture as a building art, excluding American architecture under single architecture's sister arts: painting, specific historic events. ownership is that which belongs to sculpture, and furnishings. One the American people under the steward­ further disclaimer must be made. American architecture and building ship of the National Park Service. Generally, architecture is designated nautrally begin with Native Americans. The extent of its comprehensiveness, historic for one or both of two By AD 1000, America's prehistoric in fact, makes even this concise reasons. Either it is singled out hunters and gatherers had established history a painful, if not impossible for the historic persons or events distinctive cultures adapted to varied task to perform in the space allotted. with which it is associated, or it climatic regions. Evidence of the The brevity of this article then exemplifies an architectural quality Eastern Woodland Culture (BC 1000 to dictates its scope. The intention in in and of itself. The widely recog­ AD 1000) still exists in the form of offering a smattering of stylistic nized historic structures found in earthen mounds. These mounds were examples identified in a broad context the historic areas of the Park System hand constructed and were generally is to generate an appreciation of such (outnumbering natural areas two to geometric in plan, serving the function a diverse group of structures. Not one) were designated as such to of defense, burial, or as effigies. all conceivable building types or "commemorate persons, events, and Examples are found at Effigy Mounds styles can be discussed. Inclusion activities important in the Nation's National Monument, Iowa; Mound City of specific examples does not imply past. " Many natural and recreational Group National Monument, Ohio; and their superiority any more than areas also contain historic structures Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia. exclusion implies inferiority, but that were usually acquired with the The tribes settling the west, reacting rather, examples were chosen for property. In order to include these to a different climate, developed their characteristic qualities. "non-historically associated" struc­ their own building forms. The Anasazi tures in the development of this culture, for example, developed a Unfortunately, this article will article, the context will be that of pueblo building technology consisting necessarily be divorced from the the development of American architec­ See STRUCTURES, page 2. ... STRUCTURES, from page 1. supported on a post-on-sill construc­ tion, creating a gallery or porch on one or more sides. This form is thought of mud bricks, adobe plaster and cedar to have originated in the Carribean logs. Examples include the Cliff region. The reconstructed Great Hall Palace (ca. AD 1100) at Mesa Verde at Grand Portage National Monument, National Park, Colorado; Casa Blanca Minnesota, and the original section of (11th century) at Canyon de Chelly the Ranch House at Montana's Grant- National Monument, Arizona; Pueblo Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Bonito {ca. AD 920) at Chaco Canyon are examples of this house form. National Monument, New Mexico; and the massive, four-story building (14th With the turn of a new century in 1700, century) at Casa Grande National the advent of a new style, the Monument, Arizona. Georgian, swept through the English colonies, lasting approximately eighty Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century years. This style was the result of America was the scene of legendary seventheenth- and eighteenth-century European rivalry for territory in the English architecture which had been New World. The main contestants, Spain, influenced by the architecture of the England, and France, competed for foot­ Italian Renaissance. The principal holds in the American wilderness, which English influences on America were Sir along with Native Americans, became Christopher Wren and James Gibbs, Wren their common denominator. It was only having been the earlier influence. The natural that the Europeans who came, prevalence of such an "academic" style whether for political, religious, was due to the availability of archi­ military, or personal reasons, trans­ tectural handbooks used by gentleman ported Old World building forms with architects. Georgian characteristics them. The history of American archi­ include symmetry, axiality, geometric tecture from this point onward is one proportions, classical details, pro­ of adaptation and change; a variety Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde NP. jecting entrance pavilions, Palladian of reasons necessitated that the trans­ window, sash windows, and usually a planted European architecture slowly hipped roof. Later Georgian buildings become Americanized. The buildings also featured giant pilasters, corner constructed by the English colonists quoins, roof balustrades, and composi­ along the Atlantic seaboard during the tions using connected dependencies. seventeenth century can best be Compared to its English models, the labeled medieval survival. Drawing on American Georgian was provincial in English architecture from the sixteenth its scale and lavishness. Domestic and seventeenth centuries, the colo­ and public examples include Hampton nists were forced by the harsh extremes Mansion (1783-90), Maryland; the of the New World climate to develop Longfellow House (1759), Massachusetts; two basic types of houses: northern the Nelson House (ca. 1711), Yorktown, and southern. Both were characterized Virginia; and the complex of buildings by steeply pitched gable roofs; small at Independence National Historical panes of glass in leaded casements; Park, Philadelphia. Georgian church protective exterior sheathing on design was also derived from Wren and frame houses; and little or no Gibbs, such as the Old South Meeting decorative architectural features. House (172930); the Old North Church, 1723-40, both in Boston; and the Touro In the northern areas, heavy-timbered Synagogue (1759-63), Newport. houses were usually constructed around a massive central chimney in order to conserve heat. The wall filling be­ Architectural styles are never dis­ tween timbers consisted of brick nog- continued at any precise moment. ging or waddle-and-daub and was covered San Jose Mission, San Antonio Missions NHP. The Revolutionary War provides a on the exterior by clapboards for convenient end point for the Georgian protection against the weather. If two period, but it continued to be used story, the northern houses had a nology in early mission churches in into the nineteenth century by build­ second-story overhang. The Paul Revere the New Mexico area, resulting in a ers who knew nothing else. New styles House, ca. 1676, in Boston is a good combination of European and Indian begin as slowly as the previous ones example of a New England house from forms. On the other hand, a lack of end, usually through decorative arts the seventeenth century. The typical skilled Indian labor in Texas and or by the application of new decorative southern house was one and one-half Arizona led to imported Spanish arti­ architectural features to an earlier stories with dormer windows and two sans who created missions that were house form. Despite the American gable-end chimneys. The kitchen chim­ conceptually and technically much more Revolution, England remained the ney was usually on the exterior of European, even if provincial. An ex­ fountainhead of architectural style. the wall due to the excessive summer ample of Spanish Baroque architecture The new Federal style (named after heat. Similarly, the houses were is the mission church (1691) at Tuma- the new nation) was popular from usually only one room deep for venti­ cacori National Monument, Arizona. about 1780 to 1820, and was adapted lation purposes. from the Adamesque style in England. The transplanted French colonial forms The Adam brothers had created a new The architecture transported to America in America were distinct, yet not style in the second-half of the by the Spanish and French was adapted really French. The French traders eighteenth century by observing Roman to a greater degree. Spanish mis­ largely established themselves in the architecture firsthand and by freely sionaries in the Southwest had to rely Mississippi Valley, and built timber adapting those forms and