It had long been an accepted fact that the White House had become inadequate for the official entertaining, and still more so as a residence for a fair-sized family. Though many White House mistresses had cogitated on ideas of remodelling, Mrs. Harrison having left a splendid plan for this, it was not until 1902 that Congress made the appropriation of $65,196 for the necessary repairs. Work began almost at once that enlarged, renovated, and beautified the building. Two connecting wings were added, one of which took the office and its growing staff away from the house altogether. While the work was being done, the President occupied a house on Jackson Place, now the home of the Women’s City Club, as the temporary White House. [Illustration: THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND HIS FAMILY As they appeared when he became President.] In the summer of 1902, President Roosevelt decided to make a tour of New England for about ten days. On the last day of this junket, a collision between a trolley car and the vehicle containing his party resulted in the instant death of one of the White House Secret Service men, affectionately known as “Big Bill Craig,” who was seated with the driver, and injuries to the President and to Secretary Cortelyou. The uncertainty over the extent of the President’s injuries and the lack of details of the accident, owing to the fact that the conveyance with the newspaper men had been separated from the party and no members of the press were at hand, caused the greatest excitement and alarm when rumours of the accident reached New York and Washington. The Associated Press rushed its Washington representative from New York to Oyster Bay in a spectacular dash against time. Upon Mr. Roosevelt’s arrival at home, long delayed, he received the representative of the Associated Press at Sagamore Hill at ten o’clock that night, and despite a swollen lip, injured hand, leg, and various severe and painful bruises, he paced up and down his library floor and dictated the story of the accident, refusing, however, to allow the account to carry his name. He had already planned a series of trips he intended making, and as the next on the list was to attend a labour convention at Chattanooga during September, he decided to accede to the demand of his home folks and family acquaintances to receive them before his next departure. Accordingly, one Saturday afternoon, early in September of 1902, President and Mrs. Roosevelt invited their neighbours and friends to a reception at Sagamore Hill. All day long the trains and boats poured out a stream of “neighbours.” It seemed as though everybody on the Sound were coming to pay his respects to the “Colonel” and Mrs. Roosevelt.