What Would You Say If You Met the President?

by Mike Purdy | Oct 20, 2019 | Donald Trump, White House

For nearly three years, many Americans have held their collective breath watching the unfolding instability erupting from the White House. As we witness the shattering of longstanding political and societal norms, we wonder if the next verbal attack or crisis will...

Barely Avoiding Disaster

by Mike Purdy | Sep 25, 2018 | Harry Truman, Uncategorized, White House

When Harry Truman assumed the presidency in 1945 upon Franklin D Roosevelt’s death, the White House was a dangerous place. The 145-year-old home of the president was ready to collapse and presented serious safety issues for those working and living in it. White...

The Hands and Halls of Power

by Mike Purdy | Sep 3, 2018 | Calvin Coolidge, Donald Trump, Events, John Tyler, Presidential Sites, Secret Service, Uncategorized, Vice-Presidents, White House

I left the air-conditioned comfort of the elegant Willard Hotel – the long-established “Residence of the Presidents” – a little after 5:00 pm. I immediately felt like I had just been immersed into a hot and muggy sauna. Welcome to Washington, DC! It was a sweltering...

If I Meet President Trump, What Should I Say?

by Mike Purdy | Aug 13, 2018 | Donald Trump, Events, White House

I’ll be in Washington, DC attending the Presidential Sites Summit during the last week of August. It’s a conference sponsored by the White House Historical Association and will bring together more than 200 presidential historians, archivists, museum/library managers...

Electrifying News From the White House!

by Mike Purdy | Feb 20, 2017 | Benjamin Harrison, White House

Watch this “live” TV news report from September 28, 1891 about what President Benjamin Harrison required his staff to do after he had electric lights installed in the Executive Mansion. It’s part of a series of short videos I’ve done about what...

How the White House Almost Collapsed

by Mike Purdy | Mar 8, 2016 | White House

I gave a talk on February 25, 2016 to the Construction Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association on the reconstruction of the White House in the early 1950s. I titled my talk “Barely Avoiding Disaster: Lessons Learned from the Reconstruction of the...