Generations of Americans have grown accustomed to the comfortable footprint of The White House — The People’s House, a colonnaded central structure flanked by East and West wings that housed both the seat and the style of American power and influence. President Wilson’s first wife, Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, established the Rose Garden in an area off the West Wing in 1913. In 1935, FDR commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (famously known as the creator of New York’s Central Park) to redesign the garden. In the 1960’s Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned Rachel Lambert Mellon to extend the central lawn and populate flower beds with American botanicals. Both the East Wing and the Rose Garden were unceremoniously demolished this year. We dedicate this page to the memory of these iconic American spaces.
The Death of a Troubled Old Friend
— Donald Menzel
No, I’m not talking about a troubled man in a raincoat or a porno movie in the White House theater, that is no longer there. Rather, you guessed it—the obscene spectacle of the destruction of the East Wing of the White House, a laser fast spectacle that took a mere three days. So what, not a big deal. After all, the East Wing only housed the first Lady’s offices, the social office where letters are answered, tours are staged, and military families wait to meet a president who will say, “We remember” (Wilson 10/22/25). Okay, the remembering part is a big deal!
But there’s more, a great deal more. As Rick Wilson writes, “It was the workbench of the republic’s rituals, the place that once transformed policy into hospitality, power into presence, memory into history.
The first thing worth knowing is that the East Wing wasn’t always there; that is no defense of its obscene desecration today. Teddy Roosevelt’s 1902 renovation gave us colonnades that linked the Residence to the outer offices, a balancing act of symmetry and purpose.
But the East Wing as we know it rose in 1942, a wartime facade to conceal the excavation of a bomb shelter beneath the lawn. We built gentility over fear; a classic American move, the practical architecture under the poised exterior. We added a Family Theater, because even during the worst of it, movies shaped our culture, the flickering consolation of stories in good times and bad.” And, it’s worth remembering that the property does not belong to the occupant of the White House.
No more East Wing as we used to know it, so what’s next? Oh, a $300 million 90,000-square foot gold gilded ballroom that can host 1,000 guests. President Trump says that he and his friends will pay for it. No need to bother Congress, nor to use taxpayers’ money. Bravo! Still, as conservative columnist Kathleen Parker dryly remarks about doing the deed during a government shutdown: “That no public funds are being spent on the ballroom is cold comfort when you’re asked to serve without pay, otherwise known as indentured servitude.” And then, there are unanswered questions about what donor friends and corporations expect in return for their contributions. Mum is the word.
Neither the White House nor donors or contractors have commented on the donors’ expectations. Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, asked whether donors are seeking to purchase influence with the Trump administration by contributing to the president’s pet project. Weissman contends, “It would be preposterous to imagine they’re making their donations out of a sense of civic pride.” (Diamond and Edwards 2025).
Speaking approvingly of the sparkling new ballroom, Senator John Thune, Republican Senate majority leader, thanked President Trump “for everything you’re doing to make this such a beautiful place.” Dear Reader, have you looked carefully at the golden touches in the Oval Office? Maybe it’s true, as the country western tune puts it, “everything that glitters is not gold,” but it’s not so in the Trump White House. Nor is it likely to be so in the cavernous sparkling East Wing building that will double the footprint of the entire White House complex. No Saudi prince or foreign dictator will be unimpressed. After all, big is beautiful—is it not so?
It is my most humble and sincere wish that the new White House addition does not fall prey to an unkind presidential history. Of course, it may take another 123 years for that to happen unless the current administration is handed a “pink slip.”
Sources: Rick Wilson, “The East Wing Obscenity” October 22, 2025
Kathleen Parker, “Trump’s Ballroom is a Gilded Warehouse.” October 25, 2025.
Dan Diamond and Jonathan Edwards. “Democrats ramp up probes into Trump’s $300million White House ballroom.” Washington Post. October 29, 2025.
Donald C. Menzel, Ph.D. is a past president of the American Society for Public Administration, author and international speaker on ethics reform. Don organized OLLI-USF’s China Special Interest Group. He also served as an OLLI-USF faculty member for over 10 years. Together with his wife, Kay, Don divides his time between Florida and Colorado, and contributes commentary on life’s moments and current issues in both locations.
The AAEC Meeting with JFK at the Rose Garden — 1963
In 1963 Art Henrikson attended a gathering of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists hosted by President John F. Kennedy in the Rose Garden, one year after First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s renovation was completed. Photos of the event, taken by the National Park Service, exemplify the strong relationship between the press and President Kennedy. The photos and audio, obtained from the Kennedy Library Collection, have been packaged into a video which is displayed in the mixed media presentation below. Other illustrations include images of an article published by the AAEC after the event, an official White House typed copy of JFK’s remarks at the event and Art’s impromptu sketch of the President. JFK invited the editorial cartoonists from the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists to a private reception, where he autographed impromptu sketches of himself and even commented on the caricatures displayed on the bulletin boards near the walkway. The cartoonists’ association gifted him an original Thomas Nast drawing. Not every cartoonist drew JFK in a flattering way, but he welcomed them anyway. Art can be seen in the center of the throng. The impromptu sketch JFK graciously autographed is in the gallery below.
We’ve examined the history and destruction of the East Wing quite thoroughly in this issue’s Observer. Here’s why. The White House is “the people’s house”. Not “the Liberals’ House”. Not “the Conservatives’ House”. Everyone’s house. The East Wing’s passing was sudden. Unexpected. Jarring. We didn’t have time to say a proper goodbye. An elegy is the best we can do. And the least we could do. That’s our take on it. Yours may differ. Either way, we want to hear your thoughts. We always want OLLI Connects to be a conversation, not a lecture. You may be moved to write an opinion piece as Don Menzel often does. You may simply want to dash off a Letter to the Editor. Either way – great! We’re connectsolli25@gmail.com. We hope we’ll find your thoughts in our IN box. — Editor
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