Talk:White House Reconstruction

Old comment

Concerning this section: 1902 Renovation: In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt engaged architect Charles F. McKim of McKim, Mead, and White for a major renovation. In addition to adding a “temporary” West Wing and upgrading interior finishes, the work included adding bathrooms, removing the west stair, expanding the second floor West Sitting Hall, and expanding the State Dining Room. This involved removing a bearing wall which had supported the floor and walls above and then hanging them from the existing attic (later Third Floor) and roof structure. Many structural deficiencies were noted and partially addressed in what McKim termed a "nip and tuck".[22]

If I am not mistaken, the term "nip and tuck", relating to cosmetic surgery, did not come into existence until 1980. It most assuredly was not in use in 1902.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Fsbilly (talk • contribs) 13:46, August 9, 2016 (UTC)

The phrase has been used since at least the 1850s. See for example "The Young Farmer's Manual", page 360, published 1860, where the term is used to describe one of the three methods for binding sheaves. In fact the term was three times as common in 1940 as it was in 1980, and was just as common in 1902 as it is today, per Google Ngram. GA-RT-22 (talk) 14:03, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

Fiesel paragraph

Textorus: Template:cns is not correct here, because there is a source citation. If the cited source is useful but doesn't verify everything in the paragraph, you want Template:Failed verification or Template:Failed verification span instead. If the citation is useless, just remove it (and keep the cns). See the template documentation. GA-RT-22 (talk) 12:33, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

GA-RT-22: Well, you learn something every day. I've been around WP for nearly 15 years and this is the first I ever heard of that handy template. I'll keep it in mind for future use. Thanks for the tip. Textorus (talk) 13:15, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

Expand

the building has been modified, repaired and changed on multiple occasions under multiple administrations therefore this article should be expanded to cover both the few alterations before the big overhaul mentioned here and the subsequent modifications.

Presidents who didn't do much more than just re-arrange furniture or get a few new things can just be footnotes 190.129.166.29 (talk) 04:47, 26 October 2025 (UTC)

Edgerton

@Wallaj3: It does seem unlikely that Edgerton would have been given responsibility for plotting the route of the Panama Canal. He's not even mentioned in the article on the Panama Canal, wasn't involved with it until 1936, and as far as I know John Frank Stevens plotted the route. But the source actually does say that. It can't possibly be true and makes me wonder what else in Klara is false. GA-RT-22 (talk) 22:52, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Ok so I was wrong, he was an assistant engineer of the Panama Canal from 1908 to 1909. In 1908 he graduated from West Point at 21 and the Canal was his first job. So he could have had a hand in plotting the route. GA-RT-22 (talk) 12:09, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

"Resident owner"

"Resident owner" is a weird way to refer to the President. He doesn't own the building. Is there a better phrasing? Marnanel (talk) 03:52, 13 May 2026 (UTC)