"The house is still about to fall in. Margaret's sitting room floor broke in two, but didn't fall through the family dining room ceiling. They propped it up and fixed it. Now, my bathroom is about to fall through into the red parlor. They won't let me sleep in my bed or use the bath. I'm using old Lincoln's bed, and it's very comfortable."
| These wooden beams supported the floor beneath Margaret Truman's sitting room and the family living quarters in the White House. In 1948, cracking in the beams caused the floor to sag dangerously. The steel harnessing, shown here, was added temporarily to prevent the collapse of the floor into the family dining room below. The large center photograph shows the beams and harnessing as they appeared in 1950. In part, this incident spurred the structural evaluation of the White House in 1948 which resulted in the decision to completely rebuild the interior framework of the executive mansion. |
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