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But the building--and the presidency--sprang back. The inner structure was rebuilt, and the sandstone shell was repaired and scrubbed down. Coats of white paint were applied, giving permanence to the name White House, which was first used in 1806. President James Monroe eagerly moved in and threw a big party in celebration on Jan. 1, 1818.

The White House was never again captured, although there were close calls. During the Civil War, Union forces occasionally billeted in the East Room and the grounds of the White House. Life inside the building in those years was often chaotic, with job seekers, war contractors and distraught parents allowed to crowd in to seek time with Lincoln. The public could assemble too beneath the north portico whenever startling war news, good or bad, arrived. Lincoln often used a short, candle-lighted passageway from the upstairs quarters to a window over the entrance. There he would stand and talk to the people on the drive below. That small space is still reverently preserved.

As the country grew wealthy and powerful, a good number of Americans became dissatisfied with the modest lines of the White House. There were proposals, which seemed to grow dramatically with the years, for grand palace-like structures to house the President, his staff and family. The discussions grew quite serious in 1889, during the Administration of Benjamin Harrison. His wife Caroline adored her position as First Lady but wanted more living space. Mercifully, all the grandiose dreams died in the face of costs and a growing sense that the country was deeply fond of George Washington's original creation. Theodore Roosevelt's brood dented the mansion here and there; son Quentin would bring a pony through the ground-floor corridor and up the elevator so that his ailing brother Archie would be cheered. All along the way an exuberant country of inventors made sure that early on the White House had running water, indoor plumbing, electric lights, central heating, telephones--even some crude air conditioning way back in 1881 to soothe the dying President James Garfield. Teddy Roosevelt, for all his progressive nature, was too fond of horses to adopt the automobile, though he was the first President to fly in an airplane. Right up to the end of his term in 1907, he insisted on horse-drawn carriages ("Roosevelts are horse people"), although the streets of Washington by then echoed with the growl of gasoline engines.

Woodrow Wilson put sheep on the White House lawn to help with the home-front effort in World War I. In 1925, Calvin Coolidge was the first to try out radio, which Franklin Roosevelt then used so effectively in his fireside chats, broadcasting from the shadowy basement room arched with stone pillars right near the Map Room, where he and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill planned the grand strategy for World War II.

Almost every modern President has made some structural contribution to the place. When the grand piano belonging to Margaret Truman, President Harry's daughter, was hoisted up to the second floor, a leg punched a hole through the ceiling, which led to the total rebuilding of the interior of the White House. About the same time, the Truman Balcony--which raised the hackles of purists--was added and turned out to be a blessing for those living there. Jackie Kennedy recast the decor with fine art and antiques. An outdoor swimming pool was installed for Jerry Ford and a jogging track for Bill Clinton, who not long ago spoke for all the modern Presidents--and, yes, all Americans--when he mused while wandering through the White House corridors, "I love this place."