An American Love StoryTHE MADISONS IN THE WHITE HOUSE, 1809-1816
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T he White House is often considered the ultimate symbol of our nation, but in the early 1800’s, it wasn’t so beautiful. James Madison and his wife Dolley renovated the Presidential Mansion twice during Madison’s terms—just one of the couple’s many accomplishments. Designed by architect James Hoban, the mansion took eight years to build and cost over $232,000, a fortune at that time. In 1809, the Madisons inherited a structurally unsound house with just a few pieces of worn furniture. It needed a total renovation and the President turned this project over to Dolley. She hired Benjamin Latrobe, who had designed the capitol, to head the renovation. Both Dolley and Latrobe understood the mansion had become a symbol of the nation and saw the project as a way to enhance national pride. One of the first rooms completed was the Oval Drawing Room, where mirrors, candelabra and sconces were installed with Dolley’s choice of red velvet draperies. The guests who entered the room on New Years Day in 1810 were impressed. So began Dolley’s remarkable career as “Queen Dolley.”
James Madison was seventeen years Dolly’s senior. He was reserved and quiet; she was vivacious and outgoing. As Washington Irving said, she was “a fine, portly, buxom dame who had a smile and a pleasant word for everybody”, whereas Madison was “but a withered little applejohn”. Madison might have been reserved at large gatherings, but he was witty with friends and Dolley. She wrote to a friend of how thrilled she was that the “great little Madison” wished to see her that evening. They were married in 1794. The Quaker Society disowned her because Madison was an Episcopalian, but this only left Dolley free to express herself with elegant dresses and turbans trimmed with feathers and jewelry. She even took snuff, which quickly became the rage with fashionable women.
Dolley’s dazzling personality and parties greatly aided her husband’s career. When widowed President Jefferson appointed James Madison Secretary of State, he asked Dolley to be his official hostess, and she was able to sharpen her entertaining skills at presidential parties. When her husband became President, she already knew the ways of Washington society. She hosted parties at the mansion where her diplomacy, popularity and political instincts made her a trusted confidant of the President.
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Her crowning achievement was the “drawing rooms” she hosted every Wednesday night. These were most unusual because the public–at least the public personally acquainted with the Madisons– was invited. Dolley is often remembered for saving the portrait of George Washington during the War of 1812. The British were nearly at the front door when she had an aid cut the painting from its frame so she could take the canvas and leave. That night, Washington was torched. When Dolley and James returned, they found the mansion gutted. Dolley couldn’t speak without breaking into tears. The question of moving the capital back to Philadelphia was debated and dismissed, and Congress hired Hoban to rebuild the mansion. While legend has it that the mansion got its present day name because of the white paint used to cover the char marks, in fact the house was first painted white in 1798, and was only officially recognized as the “White House” when Teddy Roosevelt put the term on his stationery.
When James Madison finished his presidency, the couple retired to Montpelier. James suffered from poor health for years, but Dolley never left his side. He died at 85, and Dolley moved back to Washington, where she lived for the rest of her life. By all accounts, their forty-two year marriage was blissful.