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pitterpat 8 year s ago
#2 WRONG. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had the pool installed after having been diagnosed with the Polio virus.
In the 1930's, medical experts around the world claimed warm water bathing was therapeutic and healing to Polio patients. As a result, FDR sought natural springs around the globe.
After much sought after properties, he found a lucrative location in Warm Springs, Georgia.
Since Polio was rampant back then, his retreat became a very popular sight which drew crowds from around the globe in search of healing and relief.
Since FDR was holding office as president and couldn't spend all of his time in Georgia benefiting from these supposed therapeutic pools, he had hundreds of gallons of their natural springs waters transported to a specially constructed private indoor pool in the White House basement.
Years later, President Harry S. Truman conducted the restoration and reconstruction of the White House in 1948. The White House had suffered years of termite, rodent, and mold infestations. It was literally gutted of its wood supports and reinforced with concrete and metal.
There are many sites online with photos and historical documentations. It's really very interesting.
Nixon had nothing to do with turning the pool room into a press room. In fact, after FDR's death, many of the antiques, diplomatic gifts, and decades of artifacts were stored in the pool room during the restoration in the Truman years.
In 1961, First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy was the first person to actually demand sifting through this storage area in an effort to salvage all of the treasures attributed to the White House's history that others had long forgotten or cared about. She had them all restored and preserved in cooperation with the Smithsonian Museum. To this day, if you take a tour of the White House, you can thank her for the preservation of integrity to the antiquity of all the paintings, tapestry's, furniture, china, silver and marble work.
After that first floor back room became vacant President Johnson appointed it for temporary storage of JFK's artifacts and archives until a library was built in his name.
After President Nixon was voted into office after President Johnson, the room had been emptied and lay vacant. Due to its location to circuit breakers, easy access as first-floor location, and exterior parking to visitors, did Nixon appoint its use as a Press Room.
On a side note, FDR did not suffer from the Polio virus. He actually suffered from what's known today as, Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Warm sulfur springs around the south east United States did nothing to heal the Polio virus. The only people to have benefited from them were the landowners and resort owners.
       
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Chickenthief 8 year s ago
Wonder why the latest resident has'nt painted it black and renamed it "The Crib".
       
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Norah 4 year s ago
Now it’s the sh#te house of lies JC-LOL
       
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The press room used to be a pool. Franklin Delano Roosevelt liked to swim, he said it relaxes him. Years later, Richard Nixon decided he didn't need a pool and changed it to a press-conference room.

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Interesting Facts About The White House
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