The White House - Proposed Truman Expansion

Here is a plan of Truman's proposed West Wing Expansion (circa 1945).

The main feature was a 350+ seat auditorium in proximity to the oval office.

Carlton Palace (House), London, England

Construction began in 1784; when these rooms were visited in September 1785 by the usually critical Horace Walpole, he was impressed, writing that when completed, Carlton House would be "the most perfect in Europe".

"There is an August simplicity that astonished me. You cannot call it magnificent; it is the taste and propriety that strike. Every ornament is at a proper distance, and not one too large, but all delicate and new, with more freedom and variety than Greek ornaments; and, though probably borrowed from the Hotel de Condé and other new Palaces, not one that is not rather classic than French."

When completed, Carlton House was approximately 202' long, and 130' deep. Visitors entered the house through a hexastyle portico of Corinthian columns that led to a foyer that was flanked on either side by anterooms. Carlton House was unusual in that the visitor entered the house on the main floor. (Most London mansions and palaces of the time followed the Palladian architectural concept of a low ground floor (or rustic) with the principal floor above.) From the foyer, the visitor entered the two story top lit entrance hall that was decorated with Ionic columns of yellow marble scagliola. Beyond the hall was an octagonal room that was also top lit. The octagonal room was flanked on the right by the grand staircase and flanked on the left by a courtyard, while straight ahead was the main anteroom. Once in the anteroom, the visitor either turned left into the private apartments of the Prince of Wales, or turned right into the formal reception rooms: Throne Room, Drawing room, Music Room, Dining Room.

Chateau Neuf de Meudon, France

The former Château de Meudon, on a hill in Meudon, about 4 kilometres south-west of Paris, occupied the terraced steeply sloping site. It was acquired by Louis XIV, who greatly expanded its as a residence for Louis, le Grand Dauphin. It was largely ignored under Louis XV and Louis XVI, but became the official residence of the King of Rome from 1812, and was occupied by Jérôme Bonaparte under the Second Empire. The main building was largely destroyed in a fire in 1871, and it is now the site of the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon.

William A. Clark House, New York

The William A. Clark House was a mansion located on 950 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side in New York City.  It was built for William A. Clark, former U.S. Senator and Industrialist.

The youngest daughter, Huguette Marcelle Clark, a reclusive and eccentric heiress, died on May 24, 2011 at the age of 104.