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Walter’s 1853 plan shows the 1809 extension as two rooms, the western one being the carriage horse stable and not the servant’s room or the “hen house,” as intended on the original Jefferson plan. Latrobe’s initial task at the White House was to replace a leaking roof of slate embedded in mortar and gutters that were letting buckets of water into the house, threatening to destroy the few newly installed architectural finishes. Jefferson also called upon Latrobe to fix the two new water closets on the Second Floor that were fed from rain-collecting cisterns in the attic. Jefferson redesigned the grand, but unbuilt, west stair- case that Latrobe would construct off-axis in order to open the vista and public access to the terrace promenade once there was a wing built to support it. A similar glass door was retrofitted in the similar eastern Serliana or venetian window for east wing terrace access. This letter informs us of a number of important issues respecting the immediate and continuing construction of the wings.
Delve into the history of the White House and the president who built the West Wing.
In 1902, the executive offices were relocated from the second floor of the White House’s main residence to what was planned to be a temporary structure built to the west. Then President Theodore Roosevelt’s personal office was located where the current Roosevelt Room stands. In the years following, the building was expanded and renovated several times, becoming what we know as the West Wing today. The west wing continued to house servants and laundry functions, but McKim and his government contact Colonel Theodore Bingham added an important new building just west of the old wing. A presidential and staff office building allowed those functions to depart the Second Floor of the White House, leaving their spaces to be remodeled for the needs of a good- size presidential family.
When Was the White House Built?
Officials caution this will be a challenging investigation, and while there are some cameras in the West Wing, it's unclear if anyone was captured on those cameras with the bag of cocaine. White House staffers frequently give guests tours of the West Wing, often at night and over the weekend. Guests must pass through security before entering the White House complex and then are asked to leave phones in small cubbies. POLITICO's West Wing Playbook serves as a guide to understanding the people and power centers within the Biden administration, shedding light on the significance of the West Wing in today's political landscape.
Evidence for the Design of the Wings
A new east wing was constructed in 1942, its cloakroom transformed into a movie theater. Many of our most celebrated national figures have participated in historical events that have taken place within the EEOB’s granite walls. Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush all had offices in this building before becoming President. It has housed 16 Secretaries of the Navy, 21 Secretaries of War, and 24 Secretaries of State. Winston Churchill once walked its corridors and Japanese emissaries met here with Secretary of State Cordell Hull after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day"
One here in the West Wing, and another — officially called the Vice President's Ceremonial Office — is about 150 feet to the west in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The first Oval Office was built in 1909 for President William Taft, and became the official work place for the president. The Oval Office was later rebuilt to its current location at the southeast corner of the West Wing during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, in part to accommodate easier access for his use of a wheelchair. The unique shape of the office was designed to echo the oval shape of the Blue Room in the White House’s main residence. The press secretary and other communications personnel offices are located near the northeast corner of the West Wing, in close proximity to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
The Terrace Deck and Coach Houses
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The room that honors these two presidents highlights their political achievements and serves as a reminder of their dedication to the nation. Adorned with portraits of past presidents, historical artifacts, and presidential memorabilia, it represents a tangible link to our political history and national heritage. On January 1, 1801, John Adams held the first presidential reception in the upstairs oval parlor. In 1889, the Harrisons placed the first documented White House Christmas tree in this room used as a library and family parlor. President Franklin D. Roosevelt converted the room into his study, and it was in this room on December 7, 1941, that he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
History
On the right, the south wall, can be seen the first lunette window bay adjacent to the ice house, with a later doorway below it. To the right of that bay is the “ghost” of a missing wall that separated the ice house from room two. The second bay shows the sill of a doorway accessing the wood room that was later filled with brick. The evidence would seem to confirm the Walter plan’s depiction showing a window in bay two. A surviving drawing helps establish the size of the initial west wing (illustration 9). If it is related to working out the dimensions of Latrobe’s design of a pilaster and pier, it would date to 1807 or 1808.
Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President
What's more, leaks within the White House as well as the lower lobby of the West Wing were worked on. A checklist of materials and methods was generated for future conservation and restoration. A tradition evolved in the latter part of the twentieth century of each new administration redecorating the office to the president's liking.
Also known as the “45 second commute,” the West Colonnade was built for Thomas Jefferson to run alongside service spaces underneath the West Terrace, such as the ice house and storage rooms for coal and wood. The open columned walkway is now used by the President and his staff to travel between the West Wing and the Executive Residence. As part of a third major renovation in 1934, a second floor was added to the West Wing to create additional office space as presidential staffs had gotten larger. Until 1902 the first family quarters shared the Second Floor with the president's offices while the Third Floor was simply an attic. James Madison Randolph, grandson of Thomas Jefferson and the first presidential grandchild, as well as Esther Cleveland, Grover Cleveland's daughter and the first presidential child, were both born on this floor in the White House. The upstairs family quarters also witnessed the sorrow of Willie Lincoln's death and the long confinement of the mortally wounded President James Garfield.
The White House today holds 132 rooms on six floors, the floor space totaling approximately 55,000 square feet. It has hosted longstanding traditions such as the annual Easter Egg Roll, as well as historic events like the 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The only private residence of a head of state open free of charge to the public, the White House reflects a nation’s history through the accumulated collections of its residing presidents, and serves as a worldwide symbol of the American republic.
In 1972, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites. Since 1981, the Office of Administration of the Executive Office of the President has actively pursued a rigorous program of rehabilitation of the EEOB. The entire structure has benefited from an upgraded maintenance program that has also included restoration of some of the EEOB’s most spectacular historic interiors. Another item preserved for history is an old phone booth that stood in the complex. Behind that is the main conference room, known as the “JFK room.” To the right are a smaller conference room and two soundproof “breakout rooms.” To the left is the “watch floor,” a 24-7 operations center.
When the EEOB was finished in 1888, it was the largest office building in Washington, with nearly 2 miles of black and white tiled corridors. Almost all of the interior detail is of cast iron or plaster; the use of wood was minimized to ensure fire safety. Eight monumental curving staircases of granite with over 4,000 individually cast bronze balusters are capped by four skylight domes and two stained glass rotundas. At the White House the iron was needed for a hasty retrofit to replace the leaking slate roof and gutters of Hoban’s roof. On the west the subterranean ice house became re-enclosed in brick as part of the west wing in 1805. It constitutes the “room” and contained the wine cellar space referred to in the report to Congress as “cellar for liquors.”25 The proposed Walter plan substantiates the ice house use and location in 1853, since its survival was structurally assured and its function easily reactivated after the fire.
The privies were moved to the space between the wings and the house, freeing up space for servants’ quarters and bathing rooms in the west wing along with the continuing laundry and iron- ing function. The use and function of Jefferson’s rebuilt wings changed over time as frequently as the building they supported. By the end of the 1820s the gardener, John Ousley, and his family were residents of the former fire- proof wing, while cows temporarily resided in the west wing along with servants. Andrew Jackson’s new remote stables near the southeast gate freed the old stable wing for service and as the residence of the vegetable garden- er, Charles Bizet, in the 1830s.
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