Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Laurie for sending a reply and photo from Sarah Leavitt, curator of Washington's National Building Museum.

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Dear Ms Verge,

Thanks so much for your question about St. Elizabeths. I do not think you can see (or ever could see) St. Elizabeths from the White House. I suppose it’s possible, it just seems like the topography would not work. You could (and can) see the Capitol from St. Elizabeths, but I don’t think the buildings at St. Elizabeths rose high enough to be able to see them from the White House (though you would perhaps know better what one might be able to see from the upper floors across the river). I suppose it’s possible, if you were as high up as possible in the WH, and knew exactly where to look. I’ve never seen an eye-witness report of that, however. Could you share what you’re looking at?

As for white buildings in 1862, there were two of them, the West Lodge and the East Lodge, for African American women and African American men. The West Lodge was finished in 1856 and the East in 1861, so they both would have been there, and they were white. The only other building at that time would have been the Center Building, which was red brick.