Chester Arthur never ran for president, but he got the job anyway. And the first time he walked into the White House as its new resident, he didn’t like what he saw.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

To fully understand what Arthur did to the place, you must first understand why.

To say the White House was rundown by the early 1880s is an understatement.  Let’s be blunt: it looked like a shabby hotel on a courthouse square in a little county seat town. Continue reading →