When President Harry Truman took office for his second term, the White House was falling apart.
The East Room floor was sagging 18 inches. The President's bathtub was sinking into the floor. And the structure could no longer support the third level and steel roof that were added in 1927.
So in 1948, the First Family was forced to vacate to the nearby Blair House — the official state guest house of the President — and the White House underwent a massive four-year renovation that cost approximately $5.7 million.
Photos of the renovation, taken by National Park Service photographer Abbie Rowe and made available by the U.S. National Archive illustrate how massive this undertaking really was.
All of these images are from a batch in 1950, when the project was halfway complete.
Source: U.S. National Archives
In total, the renovation cost $5.7 million.
Source: Truman Library
To support the walls, crews poured 126 new concrete support columns that reached depths of 26 feet.
Source: White House History
See the rest of the story at Business Insider