REFLECTIONS History’s Perspective
it is hard to believe that twenty years have passed since that beautiful early fall morning in September 2001 that changed our lives forever. At that time, I was serving as chief of staff to the president of Georgetown University. Founded in 1789, just three years before the cornerstone was laid at the President’s House, the university is built on one of the highest vantage points in Washington, D.C. From its towers, generations of scholars have witnessed life unfold in the nation’s capital city below. On my way to campus early on the morning of September 11, I drove past the western side of the Pentagon shortly before it was struck by a hijacked passenger plane. I will never forget the smoke that soon crossed the sky to the White House and filled the historic vista that could be seen from the Georgetown hilltop. At the end of the day, our community would be changed and the impact of loss on the university’s alumni and supporters would be felt for years. As the smoke rose from the Pentagon, a dramatic evacuation was unfolding at the White House just a couple of miles away from my office in Georgetown. After 201 years, it was a real possibility that the nation’s most treasured symbol of freedom and democracy could be lost along with the extraordinary archival and fine and decorative arts collections housed within its walls. Almost two centuries earlier, when the White House was just fourteen years old, British troops had descended on the
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President’s House as First Lady Dolley Madison fled, but only after seeing to the safe removal of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington. The fire set by the British consumed the interior of the house and much of its early history. Had the events of September 11, 2001, been different, the White House itself may have been damaged again or even destroyed completely. The magnitude of the impact on the nation would have reverberated well beyond the tragedy that occurred that day. I returned to work on September 12, along with thousands of Washingtonians and the dedicated White House staff, many of whom are featured in this issue. On my daily commute over the next sixteen months, I witnessed the swift reconstruction of the Pentagon. We now look back on the events of September 11 with the perspective that history allows. American presidents, first families, and White House staff have faced fires, wars, pandemics, depressions, protests, and other challenges for 221 years, rose to each occasion, and delivered this extraordinary home—the “people’s house”—to each president and staff who followed. For the past sixty years, the White House Historical Association has been privileged to be the private partner to the White House to support and provide non-taxpayer funding to preserve the museum standards that First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy envisioned, fund historic preservation and acquisitions
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for the collection, and share the rich stories of American history that have taken place in the building we call the White House. As this issue marks the twentieth anniversary of the horrific tragedies of one day in American history, we at the Association also count our blessings for the potential destruction that did not occur on that day and this makes us all the more mindful of our responsibility to carry out the Association’s mission. As I begin my eighth year as president of the Association, I continue to have the privilege of working with the president, first lady, and their staffs. Since 1961, we have worked with twelve presidents and first ladies. Our role on behalf of the American people has remained the same from presidency to presidency. It is our nonpartisan, nonprofit, and public-private partnership with the White House that makes us unique. We owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. Kennedy for her vision to create this organization, and its historic work is her living legacy in the White House. opposite
A view from Georgetown University south to the Washington Monument and across the Potomac River to Virginia, 2021. above
Stewart D. McLaurin stands beside a Double Scottish Rose hand carved from Aquia sandstone. Commissioned in 2018 by the White House Historical Association, the carving is inspired by those that embellish the White House.
A B O V E : W H I T E H O U S E H I S T O R I C A L A S S O C I AT I O N / O P P O S I T E : P H I L H U M N I C K Y/ G E O R G E T O W N U N I V E R S I T Y
STEWART D. M C LAURIN PRESIDENT, WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION