Former staffers of first ladies expressed shock and sadness as wrecking crews began tearing down the East Wing of the White House to make way for President Trump's grand ballroom, the Daily Mail reported.
For decades, the East Wing was the home base of first ladies as well as the social heart of the White House. Just one day before it was fully demolished, Trump announced that the entire structure would be taken down, a significant change in plans after he initially said the building would remain essentially intact.
While Trump's ballroom is being privately funded, that has not shielded Trump from criticism that he is destroying a piece of history to put his personal stamp on the executive mansion.
The modern East Wing was built during World War II to make office space for FDR's unprecedented expansion of government. At the time, Republicans accused the New Deal president of trying to embellish his image at public expense. Of course, critics of Trump are making similar allegations about his plans to replace the East Wing with a huge, gilded ballroom, which is being funded by private donors.
The White House has said the $250 million renovation will provide badly needed space for state events. For years, the White House has set up large tents on the South Lawn to accommodate guests, arrangements that Trump finds shabby and inappropriate.
While Trump is not the first president to renovate the White House, the complete demolition of a historic building has produced a great deal of shock, especially among former East Wing staffers.
"I saw over the years the need for a larger space and not the big tents on the lawn some administrations used," Anita McBride, former chief of staff for First Lady Laura Bush, told the Daily Mail through email. "But watching the East Wing come down to make way for it is hard."
Quoting First Lady Betty Ford, McBride added: "If the West Wing is the mind of the nation, then the East Wing is the heart."
Some of the women who worked under First Lady Pat Nixon, the wife of President Richard Nixon, even made a desperate pitch to stop Trump's project from moving forward, to no avail.
As of Thursday, satellite imaging showed the East Wing had been totally destroyed.
"We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, you know, the East Wing was not much. It was not much left from the original," Trump said a day earlier.
"In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure," he said.
Trump, who became famous as a New York city builder with opulent tastes, has already added smaller touches of his personality to the White House space.
He has added gold accents to the Oval Office, and the formerly lush Rose Garden is now the Rose Garden Club with a stone patio evoking Mar-A-Lago.
And Trump is far from finished reimagining the nation's capital. Ahead of America's 250th anniversary next year, Trump has shared plans to build a massive commemorative arch on the National Mall.
