The White House failed to impress Lincoln’s secretaries, who disparaged its “threadbare appearance” and referred to it as “a dirty rickety concern.” A British journalist considered it beautiful in the moonlight, “when its snowy walls stand out in contrast to the deep blue sky, but not otherwise.” The Rev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler thought that the “shockingly careless appearance of the White House proved that whatever may have been Mrs. Lincoln’s other good qualities, she hadn’t earned the compliment which the Yankee farmer paid to his wife when he said: ‘Ef my wife haint got an ear fer music, she’s got an eye fer dirt.’ ” The north side of the Executive Mansion, facing Pennsylvania Avenue, was marred by an immense portico that seemed to dwarf the building, and the statue of Thomas Jefferson on the lawn before the front entrance was a green, moldy eyesore.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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