For 18 years Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson,
though millionaire ranch owners back in Texas, put up, when in the
capital, in a modest, nondescript house on the edge of Rock Creek Park.
The house would do for a Texas Senator, but they could entertain only
six or eight people at a time, and as their daughters, Lynda Bird and Lucy Baines , grew up, the need for more room and closet
space for all the L.B.J.s in the family became critical. And, as Vice
President of the U.S., Lyndon felt the need of something a little more
impressive.Lady Bird Johnson now has something impressive: a twelve-room, French
chteau-style house in Washington's Spring Valley section. Its previous
owner, party-giving Perle Mesta, grandly dubbed it Les Ormes , decorated it with all kinds of French furniture, tapestries and
bric-a-brac. The Washington word was that Perle had been asking
$200,000. The Johnsons paid something closer to $160,000, and Englished
its name to The Elms. “Every time somebody calls it a chteau, I lose
50,000 votes back in Texas,” sighed Lyndon.The Johnsons bought much of Perle Mesta's fine furniture, but hired
Interior Decorator Genevieve Hendricks to help give The Elms a touch of
Texas without spoiling the French look. In the living room, paneled
with red-and-gold brocatelle from an old French castle, Lady Bird
upholstered everything in jaspe satin , added a cherry-rose chair ''that seems to say, 'Come in.' ” The
dining room, which Mrs. Mesta had decorated with French wall coverings
of tapestry patterns, was considered perfect as it was. In the foyer
are displayed some dazzling mementos of the Johnsons' recent travels,
e.g., a painting of sampans, from South Viet Nam's Ngo Dinh Diem, a
Gandharan head from Pakistan's President Ayub. From Texas came the
Johnson collection of paintings and drawings by their favorite Texas
artists—Porfirio Salinas, who specializes in scenes of Texas' hill
country, and Kelly Fearing . Says Lady Bird, who mounted a few
of the Texas works near the front door: “I want to see them when ever I
open the door, to remind me of where I came from.”Lady Bird's major overhaul for the house was aimed at the kitchen, to
which she has added a double-oven electric range, two food freezers and
a restaurant-size refrigerator. She has plans to make other minor
improvements as she goes along. “If there is a clash between function
and style, function will win.” says Lady Bird. “I want it to be
gracious enough, but it would be out of keeping to expect us to do
something really very elegant.” Accordingly, there is a brand-new.
$15,000 swimming pool in the backyard. And Mrs. Johnson has her eye on
a “funny little crooked apple tree” outside one of her bedroom windows,
on which she plans to hang temple bells that she picked up in Bangkok.Apart from the bells, the pool and the food freezers, the most
remarkable Johnson addition to The Elms is neither 18th century nor
French. The house has been piped for Muzak in every room.
