COPY - Original document is filed under "Reconstruction"

April 23, 1952

Dear Mrs. Soliday:

I have been asked to reply to your letter of March thirty-first regarding the renovation of the White House.

I think you should know that the President had no responsibility for either the cost or the nature of the remodeling. By Act of Congress, this responsibility was vested in a Commission composed mostly of members of Congress who made recommendations to Congress for the work and obtained the necessary appropriations.

Incidentally, the cost was not seven million dollars. It was $5,761,000. All of the work was done by contract after solicitation of bids.

The work necessitated by the crumbling of foundations which could have at any minute collapsed all of the floors in the White House, consisted of removing the entire house inside of the outside walls, and building an entirely new house inside the old walls. The Commission decided to preserve the old walls for sentimental reasons.

Sincerely yours, JOSEPH SHORT Secretary to the President

Mrs. Phillip D. Soliday,
Soy Bean Acres,
Vermillion,
South Dakota.

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