5 Books That Reveal the Hidden History of the White House

Maybe it was when Margaret Truman’s piano fell partway through her bedroom floor. Or when President Harry Truman’s bathtub nearly plummeted through the ceiling of the Blue Room—with him in it. By 1948, it became clear that the White House, after decades of piecemeal alterations and deferred structural repairs, had rotted to the point of collapse. Robert Klara recounts how Truman avoided revealing the catastrophic decay until after the election, then bolted with his family to nearby living quarters and negotiated with Congress to fund an almost complete gutting of the building’s interior, preserving just the exterior walls. The absorbing narrative details every aspect of the renovation, including the conflicts, political gamesmanship and compromises that occurred among the executive branch, Congress and various public and private entities involved in this momentous commission,” says Library Journal. After narrowly avoiding demolition altogether, the executive mansion emerged with a new steel structure, a hastily added bomb shelter and other improvements.

BUY HERE: The Hidden White House

In this entertaining history, veteran journalist Brandus “dishes the dirt on the intimate history of the White House and its mythic residents, past and present,” writes Publishers Weekly. Devoting each chapter to a different room—and historical moment that occurred inside it—Brandus works in vivid, amusing details. He drops us beside President John Adams’ dubious secretary, surveying the uncompleted building, writing to his wife, “I cannot but consider our Presidents as very unfortunate men if they must live in this dwelling.” He chronicles the range of presidential propriety, from legends of a prudish Adams ordering all the carved nude figures removed from the mantlepieces to Warren G. Harding’s use of the mansion for his illicit trysts and raucous poker games, during which he once gambled away a set of White House china. Through it all, Brandus’ affection for the building and its history shines through, as he reverently observes that the White House remains among the world’s oldest continuously occupied residences for a head of state.

BUY HERE: Under This Roof

In this history of race and power at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Howard University political scientist Clarence Lusane examines how, as he puts it, “the home and office of the president of the United States has embodied different principles for different people,” from the generations of enslaved workers and Black staff who lived and labored behind its walls to President Barack Obama and his family. Spotlighting stories that, according to Kirkus Reviews, “textbooks too often overlook,” Lusane traces the contributions of Black artists, activists, advisers and employees who shaped White House history. He details the reception of creative figures ranging from enslaved 11-year-old piano prodigy Blind Tom Wiggins, the first Black performer to appear at the White House (in 1860), to the many opera singers and jazz musicians who followed. He highlights influential insiders such as Elizabeth Keckly, Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker and confidante; Mary McLeod Bethune, a key adviser in Franklin Roosevelt’s informal “Black Cabinet,” whom Eleanor Roosevelt sometimes personally escorted past discriminatory guards; and E. Frederic Morrow, the White House’s first Black professional staff member (during the Eisenhower administration), whose experiences revealed the limits of racial progress at midcentury.

BUY HERE: The Black History of the White House

Dubbing the 18 acres surrounding the White House as “the Forrest Gump of gardens” for its role as “an unwitting witness to history,” author and horticulturist Marta McDowell traces how successive presidents have left their mark on the mansion’s grounds. Using photographs, illustrations, vintage seed catalogs and other sources, McDowell shows how the landscape has reflected changing priorities, tastes and political agendas. When presidents had to pay for entertaining guests out of their own pocket, James Madison’s vegetable garden—the first on the grounds—provided an abundant supply of produce. The Kennedy Rose Garden heralded a new age of presidential elegance, while the Obamas’ Kitchen Garden promoted healthy eating and featured heirloom varieties associated with Thomas Jefferson’s gardens at Monticello. Along the way, McDowell peppers the book with memorable details about the gardens’ animal inhabitants, including Abraham Lincoln’s favorite goats “Nanny” and “Nanko,” and “Pauline,” the last cow to graze on the White House lawn, during the Taft administration. (Her bull calf was named “Big Bill” after the 300-pound president.) And for horticulture enthusiasts, McDowell also includes a catalog of every plant ever grown on the White House grounds since 1809.

BUY HERE: All the Presidents’ Gardens

In this richly illustrated history, Patrick Phillips-Schrock uses more than 325 photographs, architectural diagrams and more to trace the White House’s physical and aesthetic evolution over more than two centuries. He explores the failed efforts by New York City and Philadelphia to keep the seat of government (including multiple grand, doomed houses erected by each city). He examines the extravagant French and Irish influences on the mansion’s design and the challenge of creating a residence worthy of an ambitious new nation, without evoking monarchy. The result is a meticulous visual history of a building whose architecture, interior decoration and art have been continually adapted to “best represent our changing national agenda,” writes scholar James Archer Abbott in the foreword.

BUY HERE: The White House: An Illustrated Architectural History