Every president since John Adams has lived at the White House and nearly every family has left their mark on it. Here in photos and text are the well known stories, such as Dolley Madison, pausing in her flight from the British, who saved the portrait of Washington. Lesser known facts include how the Monroes selected the exquisite bronze-dore table decorations that still adorn state dinners, and Carrie Harrison designing her husband's presidential china and starting the collection that now represents every administration. Joyous births, festive weddings, disabling illnesses and even deaths have occurred in this noble place. Victorian embellishments replaced by an earlier style, changes brought by Jackie Kennedy and Patricia Nixon, these histories add to an appreciation of this most historic domicile.