Open post: Press room

Press Briefing Room and offices are apparently nearly finished. Perhaps Julie Mason will get us some pics!

Or maybe not.

Grounds

After a busy family weekend, I've added a couple of photos sent by Steven Brawley from his tour of the gardens. Others are available on his site, PinkPillbox.com.

Mrs. LBJ hospitalized

Lady Bird Johnson has been hospitalized. Best wishes to her and her family.

Mrs. Madison's Oval Saloon

Posted an interesting artist's conception of Mrs. Madison taking down the red curtains in the oval drawing room to spririt them to safety before the British regulars arrived and made coats out of them, or whatever she imagined would happen. I'd love to see more reconstructions of this sort of thing. Heck, they do it for dinosaurs.

...Not that I want to see Dolley Madison with a reptilian snout and feathered arms....

Also, I've switched the second floor layout back to show the spiral stair in place of Margaret Truman's bathroom. I've tried to figure out how to wedge a lavatory in there, but it doesn't seem possible without making the kitchen considerably smaller. Maybe that's correct, but I won't bother without more evidence.

AND, I redid the 1880 second floor layout and added an 1880 first floor layout.

Picture day!

Picture day at the White House! The staff apparently organized several college groups in different rooms around the Residence, and the president ran from one to the next to pose with them. Putting the Berkeley group in the bathroom seems partisan to me, but maybe they requested it.... ;-)

Note: A quick check reveals no flip flops! That's probably a WH photo op rule now, but you gotta know that some showed up in them anyway and had to borrow Laura's pumps.

Kennedy kitchen remodel

Stephen M sent a note about the history of Margaret Truman's bathroom and the kitchen elevator that convinces me that the bathroom still exists in place of the spiral stairs. The basic gist is that, "according to Carl Sferrazza Anthony's book, The Kennedy White House (see page 66) the bathroom was retained." I've changed the floor plan accordingly.

Harrison china

Visitor Rafael passed along photos of a piece of Harrison china he's interested in selling.

I have an original China from Benjamin Harrison, it is a commemorative China, that was given by Harrison to a Cuban Senator. Its made by Limonges, painted by hand.

The imprint may be of help to anyone who's interested.

Oval Office rug replica

Came across this interesting photo of the rug for the Oval Office replica in the Clinton Library being manufactured. The caption reads, "Being made at Scott Group Custom Carpets in Grand Rapids. It is a replica of the one they made for his Oval Office in the White House."

Also, came across a good early pic of Bush 2 in the Oval Office with the Reagan rug.

First Lady's gilded cage, Burma remix

The White House has posted a terrific picture of the first lady in her offices, meeting with Burmese representatives. Comparing this to the recent West Wing corridor pic, I see that the room has the same carpet as the West Wing.

Sit Room

Ever-vigilant Pete has passed along links to new Situation Room photos from Getty Images, including a really fantastic one of one of a privacy booth for phone calls. No telling if the phone booth hides an elevator down to a secret additional conference room with a Cone of Silence.

Also found a couple of old ones from the Clinton days.

JBK videos on YouTube

Pete sent a link to the Kennedy tour videos on YouTube, so I added them to the appropriate pages on the first floor and second floor. The two videos start with the State Dining Room and the Lincoln Bedroom. If would be nice if the videos were pieced out to separate each room, but I've given the time code for the start where appropriate.

Lady Bird's gilded cage

Pete dug up a great image of LBJ, Mrs., in what appears to be her dressing room off the Master Bedroom in 1968, via NARA. It has wallpaper and furniture I've never seen before, but she appears to have kept Jackie's curtains.

Open post: renovations

The Bushes have opened up some of the Truman-era architectural details hidden by the Kennedys in the second floor Central Hall. There are also plans for a Green Room redecoration.

Link to a preservation committee article.

Link to the Lincoln Bedroom redecoration article.

Oval Office corridor

Visitor Michael pointed me to a Guardian UK page with an interesting Blair WH visit slide show, under "Washington." (On the Guardian UK page, click on the picture that looks like the one at right.) I've taken a fine one of them in the corridors of the West Wing and added it to the appropriate page.

There are also a couple of great ones of the PM in the second floor Central Hall, under "A Month With Blair," one of which I nabbed as well for that page.

Kennedy renovation

Luke sent along a link to an interesting page on the Kennedy renovation, complete with scans of documents and photos of moving furniture. Unfortunately, it seems to be more of a teaser than an attempt to actually make the documents available on the Web. Few of the documents are readable.

Press Briefing Room

Looking forward to the refurbished briefing room any time now. Pete sent this link to an article with a photo of moving-out day. Note the worker coming out of the swimming pool storage area under the floor.

New front page

I've changed the front page for the month of June. It's a fantastic tinted photo portrait of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt, looking as regal as can be. Pity poor Ted, who said he could control the country or Alice, but not both.

Gallery of front pages