Birmingham native Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association since 2014, gave an overview of the history of the White House in a speech Wednesday to the Rotary Club of Birmingham.

He answered questions afterward, and one involved the controversial 2020 renovation of the White House Rose Garden during the Trump administration, which was mocked at the time by many as First Lady Melania Trump overseeing the ruination of the 1962 redesign by former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

“The Rose Garden now is incredibly beautiful,” McLaurin said. “When you plant a new garden, it looks like a new garden. It takes it awhile for it to grow in. There are now more roses in the Rose Garden than there ever were. It’s beautiful. The Bidens use it all the time. They love it. I think that was a communications breakdown.”

The White House communications team under Trump did a bad job explaining the renovation, he said.

“It was really unfortunate what happened in terms of the controversy,” McLaurin said. “I said to Mrs. Trump this spring when we were talking about that, that I lay that at the feet of their communications staff. There were real reasons that that was done. There were drainage and irrigation problems. Water was pooling along the west side next to the West Wing itself. The plants were so old and so towering that they were overshadowing everything beneath them, so that was all dying out.”

It also needed a practical overhaul for staging events, he said.

“There needed to be a crown in the middle so the water would drain off to the side away from the house,” McLaurin said. “It is an outdoor space used by the president and First Lady and (they) wanted to make it handicapped-accessible and so they wanted to put narrow walkways on each, south and north sides of the garden, and also hardwire it for the media to being able to plug in out there.”

Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon’s Oak Spring Garden Foundation, which designed the Rose Garden for the Kennedys, was used for the renovation also, he said.

“They adhered as much as possible to the history, but I lay it at the feet of the communications staff because they didn’t tell the story,” McLaurin said. “They didn’t explain it. We tried to, but the White House staff at the time said, ‘No, thank you, we’ve got it.’ And they clearly didn’t.”

The Historical Association, which is a non-partisan non-profit founded by Mrs. Kennedy after her husband John F. Kennedy took office as president in 1961, supported the need for the renovation, he said.

“I’ve been privileged to work with three (First Ladies), Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Trump and Dr. Biden, all three terrific,” McLaurin said. “All three did great things for the house.”

He said the White House was in good hands with all of the First Ladies he’s worked with.

“The three that I’ve worked with did four to six projects that were really significant in the White House itself, and each one left it better than they found it, and you can be very proud to have had presidents and First Ladies – Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, that’s not in our equation – we work on behalf of the American people regardless,” McLaurin said.

“When you go into the White House today, everything you see, the furniture, fine arts, decorative arts, carpets, draperies, it’s acquired by, maintained by, restored by funding from the White House Historical Association, not the federal government. They take care of the infrastructure for it.”

Mrs. Kennedy set it up that way, which allows for the maintenance and preservation of the White House, its history and relics without reliance on federal funding. The association raises money through private and corporate donations and the sale of items such as the annual White House Christmas ornament.

“The White House doesn’t belong to Joe Biden, or Donald Trump, or George Bush, or James K. Polk, or Abraham Lincoln,” McLaurin said. “It belongs to the American people.”