WASHINGTON (AP) — Betty Ford has reportedly said that if the White House's West Wing is the “mind” of the nation, then the East Wing – the traditional seat of power for first ladies – is the “heart.”
That “heart” beat for more than 100 years as first ladies and their teams worked from their East Wing offices on everything from ending drug abuse and improving literacy to beautifying and preserving the White House itself. It was here that they planned White House state dinners and discussed the elaborate themes typical of the US holiday season.
That story came to an end after emergency crews demolished two floors of the office and reception wing last week. Gone is the White House's own movie theater and covered walkway, which has been captured in many photographs in recent years. Photos show that the East Wing garden dedicated to Jacqueline Kennedy was also uprooted.
Republican President Donald Trump ordered the building's demolition as part of his yet-to-be-approved plan to build a $300 million ballroom.
The former real estate developer has long been fixated on building a grand White House ballroom. In 2010, he called Democratic President Barack Obama's top adviser and offered to build it. Trump has made no secret of his distaste for the practice of holding elegant White House state dinners under tents on the South Lawn. The proposal was not implemented.
Now in his second term, Trump is moving quickly to make his desire for what he calls the “Great Legacy Project” a reality. He tried to justify the demolition of the East Wing and his plans for the ballroom by noting that some of his predecessors also expanded the White House over the years.
First ladies and their staffs witnessed history in the East Wing, “a place of destination and service,” said Anita McBride, who served there as first lady Laura Bush's chief of staff.
“Tearing down those walls doesn't take away from the work we did there,” McBride told The Associated Press.
McBride said she supported the ballroom addition because the “large, expensive tent option” used when guest lists stretched longer than could be comfortably accommodated inside the White House “wasn't sustainable.” Tents damage the lawn and require additional infrastructure such as outdoor toilets and carts to move people around, especially in bad weather, she said.
Others feel differently.
Krish O'Mara Vinarajah, who was first lady Michelle Obama's policy director, said the demolition was a “symbolic blow” to the East Wing's legacy as a place where women made history.
“The East Wing was a physical space in which the first lady's role had evolved from being a social hostess to being a powerful advocate on a range of issues,” she said in an interview.
Here's a quick look at the history of the East Wing and the first ladies who spent time there:
Rosalynn Carter
She was the first First Lady to have her own office in the East Wing. Most first ladies before Carter worked in private living quarters on the second or third floor of the residence. Carter wanted a place where she could separate work and home.
“I always need a private place where I don’t have to get dressed and put on makeup,” she wrote in her memoir. “The First Lady's staff has always had their offices in the East Wing, and I thought it would be the perfect location for my office.”
In her memoir, Carter wrote about her favorite route to the office during the winter months. She walked through the basement, past laundries, workshops, and the bomb shelter reserved for the President and his administration. The thermostats in the upstairs residence were set to low because of President Jimmy Carter's energy conservation program, making it so cold in the east wing that she had to wear long underwear.
The underground passage shown to her by a residence employee brought some relief. “Thanks to Jimmy's energy conservation program, this was the only truly warm place in the White House with large steam pipes running overhead,” the first lady wrote.
Nancy Reagan
Photos from the East Wing from the early 1980s show the first lady meeting with staff, including her press secretary Sheila Tate. For a generation of Americans, Nancy Reagan was most closely associated with the single phrase “Just Say No” as part of the anti-drug abuse program she made a hallmark of her time in the White House.
As Reagan once recalled, the idea for the campaign emerged during a 1982 visit to schoolchildren in Oakland, California. “The little girl raised her hand and said, 'Mrs. Reagan, what would you do if someone offered you drugs?' And I said, “Well, you just say no.” And there it was born.”
Hillary Clinton
Clinton broke history by becoming the first first lady to insist that her office be in the West Wing rather than the East Wing. In her memoirs, Clinton wrote that she wanted her staff to be “physically integrated” with the president's team. The First Lady's office moved into what is now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and Clinton was given an office on the second floor of the West Wing.
“It was another unprecedented event in the history of the White House that quickly became fodder for late-night comedians and political pundits,” Clinton later wrote.
Laura Bush
Bush wrote in her memoirs about what it was like in the White House after the September 11 attacks. Most of her staff, then in their 20s, “kicked off their high heels and fled the East Wing” after being told to “run for their lives” when reports said the White House was the target.
“Now they have been asked to go back to work in a building that everyone thought was the goal of becoming president and a country at war,” she wrote.
Michelle Obama
Obama was the first black woman to serve as first lady, becoming a global role model and style icon who championed improved nutrition for children through her Let's Move initiative. She and her staff in the East Wing also worked to support military families and promote higher education for girls in developing countries.
Photos from the time show Obama typing on a laptop during an online chat about school meals and the White House garden she created.
Melania Trump
Trump pushed the boundaries of serving as a first lady without living in the White House during the early months of Donald Trump's first term. She stayed in New York with their then school-aged son, Barron, so that he would not have to change schools mid-year. When she eventually moved into the White House, she and her East Wing aides launched an initiative called “Be Best,” focused on children's well-being, opioid abuse and online safety.
Jill Biden
Biden became the first first lady to pursue a career outside the White House. As a longtime English professor at a local college, she taught twice a week while First Lady. But in her work in the East Wing, she advocated for military families; her late father and late son Beau served in the military. Biden has also championed cancer research and secured millions of dollars in federal funding for women's health research.
