Thrifty Household

National Capital Parks Reservation No. 1 attracted 826,543 sightseers last year and cost $366,200 to run. Its name: the White House.

In 1885, President Cleveland's White House maintenance cost $12,500, but many another household budget has also soared in 70 years. When the House Appropriations Committee last week approved next year's Executive Mansion budget (the same as this year's), the figures disclosed much more than the sightseers see of where the money goes.

The White House has 72 full-time maintenance and domestic employees, but, with 1,600,000 cu. ft., it is as big as 100 average homes, and its grounds cover 18 well-manicured acres. At $5,245 a year, the highest-paid staffers are the principal operating engineer, the foreman carpenter, the foreman electrician and the foreman gardener. The lowest-paid is the pantrywoman ($2,500). President Eisenhower's valet earns $2,750.

Maitre d'Hotel Charles Ficklin gets $4,745; his brother, First Butler John Ficklin, $3,575. They, the second butler and two other butlers, two housekeepers, five housemen and eight maids, must keep track of 2,200 pieces of table linen, 2,427 of glassware, 10,114 of chinaware, 6,201 of silverware, 2,630 of furniture, to say nothing of lamps, rugs, draperies, portraits, blankets and assorted bric-a-brac.

Foreman Gardener Robert Redmond spends $8,000 a year for grass seed, fertilizer and other outdoor needs. Ferns, palms and cut flowers used indoors cost $9,000. Worried by pests that have attacked a magnolia tree planted by President Andrew Jackson, Redmond last week painted it with bands' of insecticide. The White House's annual electricity bill is $30,890, more than half of it for air conditioning, some of the rest for seven elevators, two dumbwaiters and radio-TV facilities.

The $366,200 budget does not include steam heat (which comes from the Old State Building across the street), food (which is paid for by the President out of a $40,000 accountable expense allowance), office staff, ushers or personnel who work for other departments, e.g., the Treasury's Secret Service men and White House police, the Pentagon's soldiers who drive White House cars. Chief White House Usher Howell Crim showed Congressmen that he keeps a taut budget: last year he came out with $41 to spare.

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