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State Dining Room
The State Dining Room, which now seats as many as 140 guests, was originally much smaller and served at various times as a drawing room, office, and Cabinet Room. Today's State Dining Room incorporates the space that President Thomas Jefferson used as a private office. Tall and generously proportioned, the room had fireplaces on the east and west and was flooded
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The Blue Room
The Blue Room with the Yellow Oval Room above and the Diplomatic Reception Room below it, form the most elegant space of James Hoban's plans for the White House. For the south wall of the Blue Room, he designed French doors flanked by long windows. An oval portico with curving stairs that descended to the South Lawn was included in
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The East Room
Ascending from the Ground Floor Corridor, a marble stairway leads the White House visitor to the State Floor level. Off the landing to the right is the East Room. The largest of the State Rooms, it was designed by James Hoban and George Washington to be a "Public Audience Room." Second President John Adams and his wife First Lady Abigail
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The Entrance Hall
The Cross Hall and large Entrance Hall are at the center of the original plan by James Hoban for the State Floor of the White House. The basic floor plan has not been altered substantially, although modifications have been made to the design and placement of the principle staircases. The plan is arranged so that the Cross Hall connects all
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The Green Room
James Hoban, the original architect of the President's House, intended that the space now called the "Green Room" be used as a "Common Dining Room." An 1801 inventory revealed that first residents President John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams actually used it as a guest bedchamber. However, the next chief executive, Thomas Jefferson, did serve meals in this room. Jefferson
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The Red Room
Benjamin Henry Latrobe's 1803 drawing of the State Floor indicates that the Red Room served as "the President's Antechamber" for the President's office and Cabinet Room next door. During the James Madison administration, the room became First Lady Dolley Madison's famous salon. A sunflower yellow, not red, dominated the room's decor. Visitors were received at her famous Wednesday night receptions in
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The Second Floor
When John Adams first occupied the President's House in 1800, the Second Floor was generally reserved for private and family use. President Adams kept a small office adjacent to his bedroom on the southwest corner of the house, but other early presidents chose to work in rooms on the State Floor. Around 1825, the two rooms that we now call the Lincoln
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Civic Contributions and Family
In 1802, Congress granted the citizenry of the District of Columbia limited local government and James Hoban served on the twelve-member city council for the next two decades, except for the years during which he was rebuilding the White House.Founder of Grand Lodge Number One of the Masonic Order, captain of a local militia company, a city councilman, and successful
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Board of Directors
The White House Historical Association, chartered in 1961, is a nonprofit historical and educational organization that plays a vital role in preserving the White House and recording its unique history. To enhance the understanding and appreciation of the President's home, the White House Historical Association has published and distributed more than eight million books, as well as videos and other educational
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Conservation of the White House Collection
Care of any museum collection includes the conservation of objects to correct or stabilize deterioration from age or exhibition. Although the White House is an accredited historic house museum, it does not provide the traditional exhibition setting of objects under glass or behind ropes at all times. As the official residence of the president of the United States, objects from
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Top Dogs at the White House
Families taking up residence at the White House since the Theodore Roosevelt administration have encountered the public's insatiable appetite for stories of everyday life in the Executive Mansion. With the common reproduction of photographs in newspapers and magazines by the early 20th century, presidential pets had to accept the same scrutiny as their distinguished masters. Whether providing companionship or humanizing
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White House Pets: Merry Menagerie
Two of the youngest presidents to reside in the White House brought their families and a menagerie of pets along with them. A pony, sheep, dogs, cats, a macaw, guinea pigs, rats, a snake, and many more animal friends lived at the Theodore Roosevelt White House. In 1908 the Washington Evening Star observed, "There is no home in Washington so full