Pieces together. It is truly a privilege to introduce our first speaker, who is a fellow wisconsinite like myself. Our first speaker would be jonathan pliska, and author of the awardwinning White House Historical association publication, a garden for the president a history of the white house grounds. Jonathan will be signing copies of this book later in the day during the reception in the gift shop. You will have an opportunity to meet with him, and talk about how great his presentation was. No pressure. [laughter] please join me in welcoming jonathan pliska. [applause] jonathan yes, hello, i am in fact jonathan pliska. I am absolutely honored to be speaking at this wonderful garden symposium. I would like to thank the White House Historical association, oak spring, and all the other sponsors for having me here today for hosting the event. As well as that splendid reception last evening at the u. S. Botanical garden. Of course, thank you all for attending. I am going to give you the overview of the first 100 years or so of the white house grounds. Focusing on the various uses of the landscape, as well as its physical development, and in a eeze this all in little under 30 minutes. That is a bit of a tall order. I will rather shall he not be able to touch on absolutely everything. I like a challenge. It will be just fine. Ok, so, lets start with the basics. I am sure you are aware that the white house is the official residence of the president of the united states, and is located a few hundred yards south of here in downtown washington. The white house stands as a centerpiece is a grant 18. 7 acre site, which we know as the white house ground. Having been established in 1790, the white house grounds constitute the oldest continually maintained landscape in the nation. The grounds are older than the mansion itself. George washington is famously the only president to have never lived in the white house. But every single u. S. President , including washington, has walked upon the grounds. This is what they look like today. Sloping lawns and growth of ground trees. That said, this is not what the grounds look like in 1790. Anita mcbride alluded to that. For one thing, the south grounds originally stopped here. Basically where this roadway is. It stopped there for about the first eight decades of the grounds existence. The far south grounds were not added until 1872 under president grant. The southerly addition was to compensate for the loss of land and the east of west be by the expansion of executive offices. That is the treasury building, and the state war and Navy Building which today is called the Eisenhower Executive Office. So, yeah, as i was saying, the white house grounded not always a quite as nice as they do today. In the great rush to complete the white house before president john adams moved in on november 1, 1800, the landscape was left completely neglected and unimproved. As we have heard, it was still full of temporary structures needed for building the mansion. This included the carpenter shed and the houses is that house the workman on site. As well as unused Construction Materials and even heaps of garbage. Many of the trees had been used for firewood. The ground itself was terribly uneven and marked with holes used for firing in the brick helms. In short, it was deplorable. Abigail adams was understandably less than impressed, and wrote to her daughter that the place had not the least fenced yard, or other convenience. Even so, she still saw the landscapes potential through all of this mess and closed the know by saying, it remains a beautiful spot, capable of every improvement. But the adams would lie have a chance to make improvements. John adams only lived in the white house for less than four months. When Thomas Jefferson moved in, the landscape remained a wreck. Visitors described it as a barren, stony unfenced waste that existed in a rough, wild state. When jerome and found the site downright dangerous after dark. In his words, one was liable to fall into a pit or stumble over a pile of rubbish. None of this deter jefferson. Almost immediately he got to work improving the landscape, removing the temporary buildings, filling in the holes and greating the earth. Grating the earth. In jeffersons vision for the grounds culminated in this landscape plan, which is believed to have been executed in his own hand. While it does not look like the current arrangement of the white house grounds, it is absolutely vital, because it formed a basis for all future development. It also perfectly illustrates how, at the beginning, the white house grounds were more short. They are shorter north and south and wider in east and west. Very broadly speaking, jeffersons plan revolved around three key themes. The first two are closely related. He divided the landscape into north and south grounds. But the white house is itself acted as the dividing line between the two halves. This arrangement might seem familiar as most American Homes have ones visible from the street and backgrounds that are more secluded. This is jeffersons intent. To have the north grounds freely accessible to the public, and a south grounds reserved for the private use of the president ial household. Over time the distinction between public and private space changed. But even now, when granted access onto the white house grounds, it is restricted. The north grounds are the mansions of formal front lawns, and the south grounds is the more homey backyard. Jefferson rd theme, called for plants in abundance. His vision included lots of trees, but also productive gardens for growing fruits and vegetables, and ornamental flowers and decorative plants. In keeping with the division of the landscape, the plantings on the north ground would be symmetrical. While those on the south ground were idyllic and picturesque. Lets begin on the north grounds. Standing on pennsylvania avenue, looking at the north front of the white house, this is the most iconic view of the mansion. You has come to visit washington and i had their photo taken . I know i have lots of times. Today, this is still the formal front lawn of the white house. The place where the public can get the closest to the home of the american public. This is even more true throughout the 19th century, when the public was allowed ready access to the north grounds. People werent shy about coming for a visit, as we can see from this fantastic photo of these rather dapper gentleman lounging on the north grounds, fittingly in the shadow of the jefferson statue, that was a centerpiece of the north grounds. All of this was good so long as they respected the right to privacy, and stayed out of what was supposed to be the private south grounds. What do you think happened . Before very long, folks started making themselves quite at home in the president s backyard. This trend really started with a bang during Andrew Jacksons first inaugural reception in 1829. More than 20,000 boisterous supporters descended on the white house, and ran through before spilling outdoors and continuing the Party Outside on the south grounds. To be fair, washington was still a young city, and willfully lacking in parkland and recreational spaces. People simply started availing themselves of whatever piece of green ground they could find. But the mid19 centuries, the entire white House Landscape essentially functioned as a de facto public park. At times it was referred to in the press as the public grounds. Which is what we see in this engraving. Some president ial households. With this invasion of privacy better than others. President grant hated the crowds that turned up each afternoon to watch his Children Play outside. He put up with them because he did not want to be labeled as the president who shut the people out. The family of president benjamin harrison, who we see here, fell on the other side of the spectrum. They were goodnatured about living in the public eye, and posed for photographs. In particular, the president s grandchildren always drew a lot of attention. Children always do in the white house. This is true when they were being carted around by their pet goat, who had the name his whiskers. But eventually, enough was enough. When unwanted visitors went so far as to voice president clevelands baby daughter out of her carriage in order to get a better look at her and pose with her like she was a doll, he had to put his foot down in order to ensure her safety. What parent wouldnt do the same thing . Public access under the south grounds came to an abrupt end in 1893. The south grounds returned to what president jefferson intendant, a private retreat, and remain so to this day. The north ground stayed open before being closed for good in 1929 due to mounting security concerns. Today obviously general access to the integrity of the white house grounds is prohibited. But, there are exceptions to every rule, even this one. The best example is the annual public easter egg roll. One of the longest and most loved events in all of white house history. He would the monday after easter, the 2019 egg roll marked the celebrations 141st anniversary. Less than 200 children showed up on the first occasion back in 1878 to roll their brightly colored hardboiled eggs. The evidence popularity has absolutely skyrocketed since then. In 1890, the estimated attendance was already up to 50,000. Far more people than the grounds could realistically accommodate. Here is where you should never underestimate children. This was a good idea, but flawed because enterprising kids began going back and forth through the gates, charging a dime ahead to bring in as many sets of parents as they could find. [laughter] jonathan since 2000 nine, to get its distributed in advance via online lottery. Attendance is limited to about 30,000 lucky winners. Lets switch gears and talk about the physical developments of the grounds. Specifically, the different types of plants grown on the landscape over the years. Thomas jefferson was a lifelong gardener. While it is romantic, at least to me, to imagine him outside the white house. Its unlikely that he ever did any planting during his eight years in office. The site was simply in too bad of shape. Jefferson had to content himself with setting the stage for successors. One thing we know that he did do was place this order for trees and shrubs, which arrived at the white house where days after James Madison became president. 51 different types of plants are on this list, including oak, walnut, ash, and beech trees. We know they were planted as one is jeffersons former assistants wrote to him in 1809, explaining that, sir, if you are at the white house you would scarcely know it, for the grounds have become a wilderness of shrubbery and trees. Ot exactly a wilderness of shrubbery and trees. Do any of these trees and shrubs survive today . There is one large oak on the south grounds that might be older than the mansion itself. It is not very likely that most of these early plantings survived and thats because the british burned the white house during the war of 1812, leaving only the charred exterior walls left standing. The best depiction of the aftermath is this painting that shows the scene of utter devastation, and suggests the landscape is ahead of the mansion. During the rebuilding of the white house, the grounds once again reverted back to a construction site. Most of the work was accomplished under madison. Thankfully, in 1825, another plant loving resident moved in. Ohn quincy adams had a an interest in horticulture, but his political career always kept them moving from place to place and unable to do any real gardening of his own. This changed when he came to the white house and established a tree nursery inside a fence. That is what we see in the foreground of the image. All told, adams grew more than 700 saplings, comprised of a wide variety of species. An okie planet in 1876 arrived up until 1891 and was the oldest tree on the ground with the president ial association. Some of adams trees had special significance. Having grown from season seeds and nuts from historically significant trees. He had a spanish chestnut descended from a tree planted by George Washington. White oaks from a tree riddled with bullets. An english oaks from the city of salem, massachusetts, which was likely from the infamous allows tree, used to hang the condemned witches during the witch trials. The most famous tree planted is undoubtedly the grand southern magnolia located west. That is the street. Legend holds that it was personally planted by president Andrew Jackson, who defeated John Quincy Adams in the election of 1828. Both sides ran nasty campaigns that year. But the adams camp definitely crossed the line when they accused jacksons wife of being an adulterous. Then when rachel suddenly died only two weeks before her husbands victory, jackson made it known that he believed the assault on her character and good name had put her had quite literally killed her. He never forgave adams. He had seeds from his wifes favorite tree and planted them outside the white house in her memory. Truthfully, this story is probably more fiction than fact. Neither jackson nor his contemporaries ever mentioned the tree, and it does not appear in the earliest photos of the white house. This does not in any way detract from the enduring love story that the tree has come to represent over the centuries. It may be the most famous, but the Jackson Magnolia is far from the only tree planted on the white house grounds. This survey dates to around the year 1900 and marks the location of some 500 trees and large shrubs. Thats what all of those little dots are. 500 or so, this is about the same number of trees and shrubs found on the grounds today. Beginning with Rutherford Hayes in the 1870s, nearly every president ial administration has also planted at least one tree as a means of commemorating their time at the white house. Unfortunately, not all of the trees have survived. Elizabeth the second is seen helping george h. W. Bush planting leaf in 1991. N 1996, bill and Hillary Clinton planted a dogwood in honor of the Oklahoma City bombing victims. The oldest tree with a proven president ial association is is absolutely beautiful rust colored japanese maple landed by first Lady Frances Cleveland on the far south grounds in 1893. The same year that the grounds were closed to the public. The most recent commemorative tree was also planted by a first lady. Current first lady melania trump, in august of 2018 planted a sapling grown from a historic tree originally planted by president eisenhower on the white house grounds in the 1950s. Other than trees, what else is on the grounds . Up until about a decade ago, when First Lady Michelle Obama install the Current White House vegetable garden, Fresh Produce would not have been the first thing that came to peoples minds. Thats because prior to 2009, there was no series cultivation of fruits or vegetables at the white house for nearly 150 years. The truth is, for much of the 19th century, the White House Group a great deal of its own food. As with the first trees, the first Vegetable Seeds were planted under madison and ordered by jefferson in the waning days of his administration. These included cabbage, broccoli, radish, cucumbers, leeks. Turnips and John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary about planting deep blood colored beats, yellow flowered parsnips, enormous leaved horseradish, and tall and slender jerusalem artichokes. Fun fact, jerusalem artichokes are neither artichokes nor from the holy land. They are a type of sunflower native to north america that gross a tuber which is rather like a potato. Adams mentioned herbs such as me and sage, as well as strawberry and peaches grown by his skilled gardener. After he came to office, Andrew Jackson when even bigger by converting adams former tree nursery into a dedicated Kitchen Garden. For some 40 years, this plot provided fresh food for the occupants of the white house to enjoy. In this landscape drawing, done shortly after the end of the civil war, shows the old Kitchen Garden at its extent. Having grown to one acre in size, it was pretty big. Larger than the footprint of the main block of the white house. The garden is located here in this trapezoidal area. As you can see, it is also rather interestingly divided into eight sections. To me, it suggests it was run like a miniature farm. I should point out these faint lines running vertically hrough the drawing here. That is the outline of the future west executive avenue, which separates the white house grounds from the Eisenhower Executive Office building. When this road was cut through an 1870s, it ran straight through the middle of the Kitchen Garden, which meant the serious growing of fruits and vegetables on the white house grounds until the Obama Administration. Unfortunately, because it was a working and productive space, it is not terribly well documented. It wasnt pretty or glamorous so it went largely unrecorded. There arent any paintings and photographs of it. There is no visual record of it at all. For the most part there is not much of a paper trail of follow. However, after an awful lot of searching, and an awful lot of archives, i was fortunate enough to track down the original sales receipts for the fruits and Vegetable Seeds grown in the white house Kitchen Gardens during president lincolns time. Trust me, if you are a historian looking for anything related to the white house, it is best to find it during lincolns tenure. E is capable of making any lig thing interesting and significant. Even this list. Something like president taylors tomatoes, or buchanans brussels sprouts. Of the fruits and vegetables appearing on the list, many are of cultivation. A good number exists in eirloom varieties and can be purchased online from seed banks. A few are still stocked at local garden centers. This means that Backyard Gardeners can try their hand at growing the same produce that president Lincoln Table during the civil war. This season you can still do this. Would you like to plant some purple turnips or french albert peas or christmas antaloupe . What about my personal favorite. It is the beats much larger cousin. Now you can. For the past two years my wife and i have done our best to do so at our baltimore home. I think i am a better historian that i am a gardener. I dont have a black thumb, but neither is it quite green. The biggest success by far was our cabbage harvest. Seriously, if we can grow this much cabbage, it is foolproof and a great plant to start off with. And now there is a silly photo of me that will be on cspan. Ok. Of course also what would the white house be without followers. President s John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson kept the Flower Garden on the west side of the south grounds. Just like the old Kitchen Garden, its history has proven to be frustratingly elusive to track down. This is the only known image of original white house Flower Garden. It is not much of a view, is it . The garden is located here in the middle ground of the photo. But the only part that is really visible is the wooden structure. It is either a trellis or ann arbor. The foreground is dominated by this crane used in the construction of the treasury buildings left wing. And it was this expansion of the treasury that necessitated the removal of the original white house Flower Garden in the 1850s. For the rest of the 19th century, there really were no ornamental gardens on the white house grounds. There were flowers planted in beds here and there about the landscape such as around the north fountain. No real Flower Gardens in the way we think of them today. Why would that be . Frankly because the president s and their family did not have space to plant a garden. Jefferson intended that the south grounds are used as public parkland. Which, as you will recall was not part of the original plan. Instead, with the construction of white house conservatory of 1857, the Flower Garden simply moved indoors of the white house. It became a private space for the first family to enjoy out of public view. This is very early photographs of the white house conservatory. Because this large Glass Building here. The conservatory was steamy and exotic and overflowing with all types of hothouse plants. One 19thcentury News Reporter somehow did manage to get inside and describe the scene as almost like penetrating the luxurious fragrance of some south american sland. Is the nd odiferous atmosphere. First lady lucy seen here with her children, and one of their friends in the conservatory had a tremendous amount of plans and was an avid gardener. They utilize the conservatory n a special way. All alcohol was banned at the hayes white house. After a dinner with guests, instead of serving drinks, they led tourist in the conservatory. It seems to have gone over surprisingly well with guests going away pleased with the experience. By about the year 1900, the single conservatory, which is the big building here, can had grown into one vast glass complex that ranged over much of the southwest grounds. The conservatory itself was for show and enjoyment. A luxury for the president ial household. There was simply utilitarian Spaces Designed to grow as many plants as possible they cranked out thousands, possibly tens of thousands of bulbs, flowers, ferns and for use inside the white house. From left to right, we have a farmhouse, a drink house, a smaller rose house. Finally, a general propagating house and an orchid house. In 1902 everything change. All of the greenhouses, as well as the conservative were unceremoniously turned torn down. And the reason . To make room for the expansion of the white house under theodore roosevelt, specifically the new west wing seen in the foreground. That was basically that there has never been another greenhouse at the white house since. Understandably, the loss of the Flower Garden did not thrill the president or his family. First Lady Edith Roosevelt came up with a wonderful solution to the problem. It was again possible to move the president ial Flower Gardens back outdoors. This is what she did in 1902 and 1903. He first lady created two colonial style gardens on the south face of the mountain. There were intricate and embellished after the geometrical pattern gardens outside the largest stage of ount vernon in the 1700s. They defined the outlines of mrs. Roosevelts gardens. Both blooms with oldfashioned flowers, such as snapdragons, golden rods, columbines, fox, sters and peonies. Mrs. Roosevelt was extremely pleased with the result. So pleased in fact, that she chose to sit for her official portrait as first lady in the West Colonial gardens. Some of her successors, however, were not nearly so impressed with her handiwork. That is how mrs. Roosevelts Colonial Gardens begin to change over the course of the 20th century. Her west garden, shown at the left, eventually became the International Famous rose garden that we all know and ove today. The east colonial garden shown at the right, is now the Jackie Kennedy garden. My colleagues later today will be telling you all about where this transformation took place. It is a fascinating story, especially for garden lovers such as ourselves. With that, ladies and gentlemen, i will end. There you have it, an abbreviated history of the white house grounds from 1790 to 1903 and just about half an hour. Thank you for your time. Again, it has been my great pleasure. [applause] we do have a little bit of time. We can do a short q a since we made up a little bit of time. Way to be fast. There are microphones on either side of the room. If you have a question, feel free to raise your hand. Jonathan dont you all do it at once. There we go. I want to ask about the use of the for the use of the greenhouses for cutting gardens and the use inside the house. Was it almost all sources from there . And who was doing the arranging . Jonathan that kind of depends. The white house gardeners at the white house gardeners at various times would have done it. The white house gardener at the time, for instance, under Mary Todd Lincoln presented her with a bouquet every single day. They had that kind of relationship. It varied from administration to administration. I noticed one of the houses was the orchid house . Jonathan yes. Can you talk about the varieties that might have been at the . At . Jonathan it was everything available at the time. It was built during the grant administration. It was specifically under first lady grant. She indoctrinated what was known as an orchid craze in the united states. Orchids were just brandnew. As far as varieties go, i cannot answer you specifically, they literally would have been everything available because they were trying to show off as much as possible. Yes, sir. Was there ever any geopolitical influence in the white house, meaning, gifts of flowers and trees from International Visitors, or things given to the International Visitors from the garden . Jonathan that is a really good question. The good example is the Jackson Magnolia, which i was talking about. I suppose it is also rather famously in a state of decline. The tree is basically on tree life support. There is no center of the tree that is being held up by a pole. This is the grand effort that the white house and National Park service are going to to keep the street. Because of that significance, there are saplings that are constantly being grown. When the tree has to grow, and it will, because it is a living thing, they will print it will replace it with a genetically living thing. There is anything between eight and 12 new saplings being grown at any given time. Some do better than others. Some get bigger. Once they get to a certain size, rather than just throw them away, those are presented to visiting dignitaries and other honored guests. Most recently, a tree was brought from france by the french president i believe it was a year or two ago at this point. He and President Trump planted it on the south grounds. It was a tree from the belleau wood battlegrounds in france, which is where the u. S. Marines and their nicknames devil dogs fighting in defense of the allied cause. The tree disappeared from the ground shortly after. It needed to go through quarantine, just like anything else. Funny story, it was actually planted in an enormous tarp so none of the roots of the tree hit the ground. It is currently, to the best of my knowledge, still at quarantine at the u. S. Department of agriculture. As soon as its cleared it will come back. [laughter] jonathan im sorry. Thats all right. For the vegetable garden that Michelle Obama was promoting, has it expanded, and is much of it organic . Are you really promoting heirloom varieties . Jonathan to the best of my knowledge it is the same size, but is being maintained at the same standards. I do believe a lot, if not, all of it is organic. I am not 100 sure. That is up to the discretion of the first lady. Heirloom varieties, yes, they are not the sole focus, but i know that, during the Obama Administration there was a strong focus on growing some of Thomas Jeffersons favorite vegetables. Final question. Jonathan how was the gardens financed in the first hundred years . Frankly, a lot of this came out of the president s own pocket. Some of it did come from congressional appropriations. A good example i can give is, i did not have time to necessarily go into some of these details, but the conservatory in some of the green houses burned down not once, but twice. Rather than appropriate money for an iron superstructure, they just kept rebuilding it out of wood. It gets kind of moist in the greenhouse, it gets wet and moisture and would dont really work. Congress controls things like that. Thank you very much. [applause] from George Washington to george w. Bush, every sunday at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern we feature the presidency. Our weekly series exploring the president s, their politics, the policies and legacies. Youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. We look back to the vietnam war era and hear from former pow wives who joined forces on behalf of their captive and missing husbands. 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