The Rose Garden and Divorce

 I have a friend who went through a mean-spirited divorce.  The day before the decree was granted, her husband’s last act of anger was to tear down a barn swallow nest that had been a part of their lives for many years.  The birds had come back every spring to raise their young, making a mess of the porch, but a delightful display for her and her children.  My friend came home to find the ruined nest on the doorstep.  No reason, no sense, no graciousness, just petulant anger. 

Our current President has sent in heavy machinery and destroyed the White House Rose Garden.  He has covered it with concrete, turning it into a large patio, like the one he has at Mar-a-Lago.   Since he has no knowledge of the history of this garden, let me share it with you.

The Rose Garden was created by Ellen Axson Wilson, the first wife of Woodrow Wilson.  She was an artist so gifted that she received her own art show at a prestigious New York gallery long before she was a First Lady.  In 1913 Ellen Wilson created the Rose Garden partially to give Woodrow a photogenic and attractive approach from the White House to the West Wing.  She chose an area that had been used for stables and coaches.  That must have left the Oval Office a place of interesting smells and aggressive flies.  Remember, this was a time before air conditioning in land prone to malaria. 

Ellen built on the initial work of Edith Roosevelt, wife of Theodore Roosevelt.  She had used a conservatory to build a “typical English garden.” But neither Edith, nor Ellen were the only people to work on the Rose Garden.

In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor, used Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (son of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., the mastermind behind Central Park, and architect of Buffalo, New York’s park district) to upgrade the Garden.  Olmsted introduced cast iron furniture and arranged plants and pathways to create unobstructed views across the garden, creating sight lines that make the space feel larger.

During the Nixon administration, his daughter, Tricia Nixon, married Edward Cox on June 12, 1971, in the Rose Garden, setting off a still extant predilection for outdoor weddings.

During the 1990s and 2000s the Rose Garden saw the signing of peace treaties.  Foreign leaders request meetings there instead of the Oval Office.  During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy walked the garden paths, weighing decisions that would affect the world.  The White House staff refer to the Rose Garden as the “outdoor Oval Office.”

But the Rose Garden, with its Pat Nixon rose, a deep red floribunda shading to black, and the Elizabeth II rose, a pink, tight blossomed rose on a tall, straight stalk, are gone.  The history, the gentle beauty, the quiet peace that belongs to all of us has been covered with concrete. 

The White House does not belong to its current occupant.  It belongs to the people of the United States.  It is not supposed to be broken and plastered over by each administration.  It should be preserved with love and changed only by compelling need and judicial care. 

The truth is that Trump did not want a patio, he has other properties that have many patios.  He wanted to destroy something that had belonged to others.  He wanted to vent his anger and take his petty revenge.  He wanted to make clear that he can destroy, that he has been given the power to do so.  Destroying a nest does not show you are a strong man.  It convinces the people who wanted a divorce that they were right to do so. 

Change the course of history.  Keep the faith.