From bowling alley to ballroom – Trump isn’t the first to remodel the White House

The Rose Garden lawn has been paved with stone tiles. The Oval Office has been goldened with some signature “Trump touches”. And now bulldozers are tearing away the facade of White House’s East Wing – making way for a brand-new ballroom.

But this is not the first time the White House has been renovated – the building has been a constant work-in-progress.

Whether it’s FDR’s indoor pool, Truman’s bowling alley, or Obama’s basketball court, the upgrades have left a mark of their own.

Here are some of the biggest remodelling projects the White House has seen.

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt called on architect Charles McKim to help with a major renovation of the White House.

The most noticeable change was replacing the Victorian-era conservatories – glasshouses for growing plants – with the West Wing, where presidents and other officials now have offices.

But the construction project was not beloved by all.

Some lawmakers in Congress were upset about the $65,000 (£48,000) bill, which would amount to more than $2m in 2025. Others were upset over the destruction of the traditional conservatories, according to the White House Historical Association.

The White House once had an indoor swimming pool.

It was created in 1933 for President Franklin D Roosevelt, who suffered from polio and swam at therapy pools.

The pool has since been covered but is underneath the floor of the press centre, according to the White House Historical Association.

One of the most massive restructurings of the White House came nearly 150 years after the building was first built.

When President Harry Truman first moved into the White House in 1945, it was in desperate need of repairs after years of neglect. In 1946, Congress authorised $780,000 for the remodel.

Truman oversaw the construction from 1948 to 1952, which gutted most of the building while leaving in place the exterior White House walls.

The project also included the addition of a bowling alley and a balcony.

During President John F Kennedy’s administration, his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, launched her own project to restore the interior of the White House.

She hired renowned collector Henry Francis Du Pont, who had transformed his home into the first Museum of American Decorative Arts in 1951.

Philanthropists donated antiques, fine paintings and other upgrades for the building.

After the $2m restoration, Kennedy offered a televised tour of the White House – the first of its kind from a first lady – that was broadcast on Valentine’s Day in 1962.

The first lady also had the Resolute Desk, a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B Hayes in 1880, restored in 1963.

Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama, a basketball fan, transformed a tennis court so it could be used for both tennis and basketball.

He also added a rug that featured the Martin Luther King Jr quote: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”