Collection The Presidents
Biographies & Portraits
White House Plumbing Installation
President John Quincy Adams was an avid gardener who expanded the White House garden to two acres. An iron garden pump with "nine spout holes" was attached to a well at the Treasury building and provided water for the grounds. The Committee on Public Buildings discussed piping running water into the house in 1829 for fire protection, not convenience. President Monroe had purchased a fire engine, no doubt with the destruction of 1814 in mind, which was kept parked with the White House coaches.
A detail from a watercolor of the White House grounds about 1827. Shown with the White House are Jefferson’s stone wall; the orchard and vegetable garden, fenced in rails; and several workmen’s shanties left over from the reconstruction.
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