Helen Herron Taft
Helen Taft made immediate and drastic changes to the running of the White House, many of which were intended as much to be politically symbolic as practical.
The most obvious change she made was seen at the time as a positive one for African-Americans. As First Lady, she replaced the all-white male ushers who greeted visitors at the White House with African-American ushers in uniform. Even though "usher" was a position on the domestic staff, it was considered highly prestigious. The white backlash to the move feared by the President's military aide Archie Butt never happened; instead, a New York Times editorial praised her for it.
For her personally, the greatest social event of her tenure as First Lady was the June 1910 Silver Wedding Anniversary party. Among the hundreds of guests were children of former Presidents, members of her original wedding party and leading business, political and religious leaders. The President and Mrs. Taft also received an extraordinary amount of gifts made from silver, the traditional metal used to signify a 25th wedding anniversary.
In contrast to the social codes of Edith Roosevelt, Helen Taft widened the chances for different people to attend White House events. She lifted the ban on divorced individuals. Instead of strictly society figures, she invited all members of Congress, as well as their family members, and all ranks of the military stationed in the area. She enlarged the social schedule of dinners to include a season of musical concerts, enabling her to invite even more different individuals. She also refused to hold events on Sundays, encouraging public figures to stay home and enjoy their families. At the large New Year's Day Reception and Easter Egg Roll, she provided refreshments, seats, rest areas, first aid and other services for the thousands of members of the general public who attended.
The great legacy of Helen Taft's years as First Lady was the creation and development of what is now known as West Potomac Park. Most famously, she brought to reality her vision of the area being surrounded with Japanese cherry blossom trees, which bloomed white and pink flowers every spring. She had been inspired by the Luneta Park in Manila, impressed that all races and levels of society would come together in early evening in the park to attend musical concerts. On 1 April 1909, Helen Taft drove to a swampy spit of land popular with speeding motorists, known as "the Speedway." Within hours, she had decided where she wanted a massive bandstand built for the Marine Band to conduct twice weekly concerts for the citizenry.
It would take three years, but Helen Taft's effort would result in the first official federal act initiated by a First Lady to affect a large portion of the Washington working-class. Under the headline "Aided by Mrs. Taft" the 17 March 1912 Washington Post reported that executive order number 1498 provided for Bureau of Public Health inspection of all executive branch government buildings and offices, and to standardize and maintain sanitary and safe conditions. Lighting, plumbing, ventilation, heating, running water were all ordered, even if requiring substantial structural changes to the buildings.
In July 1912, Helen Taft again broke precedent when she attended the National Democratic Convention in Baltimore, becoming not only the first incumbent First Lady to attend a convention, but the only one to ever attend that of the opposition party. Although Taft was defeated by Democrat Woodrow Wilson, it was a partial success to Helen Taft: her ambition as Election Day neared was to see Roosevelt defeated.
The day before she left the White House, Helen Taft's general sympathy for eventually granting all American women the right to vote made itself known: she ascended to a prominent place on a grandstand to review a parade of suffragists and encourage their demand of the incoming president to support a woman's right to vote.
