You Might Also Like
-
Page
The Presidency and Historic Preservation Symposium Schedule
Decatur House 8:00-8:45am Light Breakfast 8:45-9:00am Transition to the Carriage House 9:00-9:15am Welcome Stewart McLaurin, President, The White House Historical AssociationPaul Edmondson, President and CEO, The National Trust for Historic Preservation 9:15-10:30am Preserving Presidential Sites This panel will discuss the many challenges of preserving the residences of American presidents, along with how interpretations of those spaces (
-
-
Page
Roland Mesnier - In Memoriam 1944–2022
Chef Roland Mesnier, longtime White House Executive Pastry Chef, mentor and teacher, prolific author, and sought-after speaker, passed away on August 26, 2022, following a short illness. He is predeceased by his wife, Martha, and survived by his son, George Mesnier.
-
Page
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I am not associated with a United States Embassy, but I would like to support this project. How can I get involved? A: The White House Historical Association is a private, nonprofit organization that relies on the support of private gifts. If you, like Mrs. Kennedy’s very first supporters, believe White House history is worth preserving, please join ou
-
Page
White House and Television
Foreword: Absorbing the Reality and Imagining More by Marcia Mallet AndersonHow Television Depicts U.S. Presidents and the White House by Kenneth T. WalshTelevision Comes to the White House to Stay by Rebecca Durgin KerrThe West Wing Takes Television into the White House: Behind-the-Scenes Memories of the Reinvention of Political Theater by Marc FreemanGetting to Sesame Street with the First
-
Page
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
-
Page
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
-
Page
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
-
Page
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
-
Page
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
-
Page
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
-
Page
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