Inauguration news and wishes

Keith Olbermann just announced that Barack Obama will keep the Bush 2 Oval Office decor. Most presidents keep the incumbent decor for a while (Bush 2 actually used the Reagan rug), but I bet he gets his own rug eventually... or at least drapes (please drapes).

If this is true, tho, it means a lot less work for Pete in updating the Oval Office model. ;-)

Whatever the case— Best wishes to the Obamas in their new home, our favorite house, this mansion of democracy, this palace of the republic, this old white house.

Also, Vice-President Dick Cheney reportedly injured his back moving boxes and will attend the inauguration in a wheelchair. Best wishes for a quick recovery.

Jack Ford

I've posted some of the photos from the 1976 Rolling Stone with Jack Ford. And I updated the mirror site.

Also, I received the 1968 Life with juicy oblique cutaways of the West Wing as well as the WH and East Wing we used to create the current East Wing floor plans.

There's also a really neat showcase of houses each president was born in (including Johnson), which together make about the ugliest neighborhood I've ever seen.* It sort of starts out as Genteel Town, proceeds to Poverty Row, then on to Middleclass Muddle, with brief jaunts up Old Money Lane. I have a feeling that continuing the trend would look like a tour of Old Money Lane.

* Insert your own "Then you haven't seen wherever" joke.

1934 West Wing

I've added the scan of the historical West Wing from Life (who reprinted it from Time), as well as a couple of other photos from the issue. There was even this photo of the Joseph P Kennedy family.

Resources

Received the 1976 Rolling Stone with Jack Ford in it. Pulp paper makes for bad photo reproduction, but I'll scan his bedroom at least anyway.

I also got the book White House: An Architectural History. It's got reproductions of the Truman floor plans (from the CREM report), good pics of failed expansion plans I haven't seen before, and more. I'll have to spend some time going thru it.

And last, I got the 1937 Life issue with the Roosevelt West Wing floor plan. I'll scan that and post quickly. I had hoped for a lot more; namely photos of the interiors of some of the rooms, but alas... a lack.

Get me Rewrite!

I've added several photos from Life showing the old Press Room from the 40s and 50s and also the West Wing Lobby from the 30s to the 60s, where journalists hung out.

I'm curious to know more about the strange stand-out wall with a bulletin board (and deer trophy). It seems to have been added in the early 40s, perhaps to avoid all the noise of opening and closing the door.

West Wing history

Visitor Alec sent me photos of a tiny government publication from 1995 called Architecture of the West Wing of the White House. He made modifications to the c1911 diagram to make it a more authentic 1909 diagram, and I used the photos he sent to create a 1935 diagram from the 1945 one. Other photos confirmed Pete's current floor plan. See the First Floor of the West Wing History page.

Thanks Alec!

The elusive Dana Perino

I happened to catch part of The Situation Room on CNN that showed a short video of Dana Perino in her office. That's the first I've seen of that scenario and yes, she uses the same rounded L-shaped desk I've come to know and love.

Does Perino not do gaggles? Are photos not allowed in her office? She can't be camera-shy.... Given her rather fabulous good looks*, you would think photogs would be crawling over each other to snap her picture in every venue.

It also occurs to me that, judging by this photo, she is all of about 5 foot 2, so she'd have to do press gaggles in her office standing on a chair.

* This site is apolitical, but not blind.

Roosevelt Room in 3D

Peter Sharkey has just released his terrific 3D model of the Roosevelt Room, which I have now added to the site. Typical of his painstaking work, it's got amazingly realistic leather chairs, flags standing at the side, great-looking artwork on the walls, and all. Just fantastic.

Thanks, Pete!

President's offices and servants' stair

I've added a few new photos of the President's Secretary's Office and Private Study. I've also removed the pictures of Rose Mary Woods and put them on a hidden page for reference, since I'm sure the room is not the President's Private Study, Dining Room, or Secretary's Office.

Also, I've added a couple of pics from the recent History Channel special sent by Stephen of the staircase between the Butler's Pantry and the Pastry Kitchen.

More Life

I've added a dozen more photos from Life, mostly on the ground floor, mostly from the Eisenhower era, and some in great color (once I heavily processed them).

Also, I've added all the recent photos to the mirror site also.

Election day celebration

Visit the What's New page for an election day extravaganza sourced from Architectural Digest and documenting Bush 2, Reagan, and Kennedy rooms. Some of these images were already posted in inferior form; the AD scans are top quality and just beautiful.

Also: don't forget to vote!

Semi-secret museum semi-secrets

The addition of pictures to the Sub-Basement page brought up the subject of "semi-secret" WHM pages. These are pages—or even just individual pictures—that you might not be aware of even if your are a fairly thoro visitor to this site. They aren't semi-secret because of any inherent security concern, but merely because they are labeled or are otherwise unexpected.

The horseshoe pitch is right next to the pool (very clear on Pete's 3D rendering). There is a link to it on the main Grounds page, but that part of the map is not colored, so you might not have found it. Same goes for the Andrew Jackson milk trough on the south lawn.

First Lady's Office hall. Just a dude in the hallway outside the First Lady's Offices, available from the EW second floor page. The East Wing Entrance, altho labeled on the EW first floor page, is easy to miss.

A back staircase photo is available from each of the Residence floor pages by clicking on the staircase next to the Family Elevator.

The Pastry Kitchen is on the first floor mezzanine level and available by a link on the oblique diagram.

The arched hall on the third floor is available from an unlabeled link on the third floor page. The mysterious Bathroom 315, near the Family Elevator, is likewise available, marked only with a "B". And the third floor storage rooms under the roof have a page of their own as well, with an unlabeled link.

The West Wing Navy Mess reception desk is represented by an unlabeled photo link in the middle of the hall on the WW ground floor. Not far away is an unlabeled link to the Situation Room entrance, altho this is probably different since the area was remodeled.

The West Wing stair corridor and east entry corridor are available from unlabeled links on the WW first floor page. A little lavatory off the Oval Office Corridor is on its page.

Then there's the Front Page Gallery page, available only from the Site Map page. The Truman Reconstruction page includes a thumbnail of the 1945 WW expansion plan and tiny links to large images of the ground, first, second floor plans, side view and cross section, and a smaller second try at coaxing Congress into paying for it.

White House overview

Pete pointed me to this pic of President's Park on Picasa showing shadowy shapes on the east and west where work on the wings is proceeding, so I cleared up its cloudiness to clarify the clues.

Navy Mess

Pete sent a link to a SF Sentinel article on DC power eateries. The first part is about the West Wing's Navy Mess. There aren't many photos, but there is one of the menu.

New additions

I added a terrific layout of the second floor of the East Wing created by Pete Sharkey (thanks, Pete!) from materials dating from LBJ, I believe, but probably not changed much since.

I've also begun adding photos that Pete found. The first are a couple from the West Wing. Next will be some from the second floor of the Residence. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Fixed the What's New page. It had become corrupted somehow.

White House Historical Association tidbits

Mike B notes:

The White House Historical Association has a supplement to the Historic Guide 22ND edition [PDF]. Some great photos here, especially one of the Lincoln Sitting Room I've never seen before!

The Lincoln Sitting Room looks great, and the President's Dining Room is beautiful, altho I'm not crazy about the O'Keefe. There are also some nice photos of the West Wing rooms.

The WHHA site has been somewhat redone. While I was there I ordered a couple of the WHH journals I didn't have yet.

New front page - West Sitting Hall

I changed the front page to one of the West Sitting Hall around 1937.

Also, I noticed that in the Truman 1945 renovation plans for the West Wing (which were never realized), there was a better layout for the first floor than I had for anywhere near that era, so I combined it with the 1960 plan to create a composite that should be pretty accurate (if not entirely complete on the north side).

West Wing Tour

Visitor Colton passed along a link to a great set of photos on Flickr documenting a recent tour of the West Wing. Great pics!

West Wing Lobby clock

Visitor Jim writes:

Recently my wife was privileged to a White House tour. She was particularly interested in a “federal” (?) style clock on the wall in the West Wing Lobby, first floor (see attached pic. from your site). Can you tell us anything about the clock’s mfg., age, history, etc??

Anybody got any help for Jim?

Problems in the West Wing

No, it's not political. It's hydrological. As usual, the Hou Chron blog is there... and ankle deep in water.

Oval Office 2008

Very nice photo of the Oval Office the other day, courtesy of Time's WH blog.

The president's call button

Time has graciously served up a nice photo of the president's call button, under discussion here recently. Thanks Brooks Kraft!

The president's box

Got a note asking about the box with the medallion on top that appears in some of the photos for the President's Dining Room. It's quite prominent in the one I added recently. A similar box appears in photos of the Cabinet Room. I believe these are buttons the president can use to summon a White House steward into the room for more water or to clean up a spill or something. Anyone with more info? Are they radio controls or wired? I think that presidents have had similar call buttons since the house was wired for electricity (and bell pulls before that), but this president seems to like to keep his on display.

New front page - Trumans

Changed the front page to one of Truman being sworn in in the Cabinet Room, with Bess and Margaret by his side.

Front page gallery.

South Portico sun room?

Along with the better image of the 1911 lights picture, Robert Martin sent along a good one of Cortelyou in his bay-windowed office in the old West Wing and an interesting one of Coolidge with bankers outside the South Portico, where there appears to be a glassed-in room built between the columns. (LOC page for a higher-res look.)

Photoshop 1903?

Just added a suspicious pic of TR with his Cabinet in his "executive office" in the old West Wing. How many of these characters do you think were actually in the room with him at the time?

The legend reads

Cortelyou, Knox, Payne, Moody, Hay, Roosevelt, Hichcock, Root, Shaw, Wilson. The President reading his message to the Cabinet before sending it to Congress.

Update: Let me stress that the photo is a genuine 1903 print. I haven't done anything to it myself, and I doubt the Library of Congress did. But clearly the original publisher optically printed in several of the figures.

President's Dining Room

Added three new photos to the President's Dining Room page, showing the Carter decor in color and showing the Bush 1 redecoration in 1989.

Palm Room

At last! A sweet snap of party preparations in the Palm Room from Time.....

Girl power

Visitor Christina pointed out that the Ford Library has posted some additional photos of the Fords, including a great one of the first lady in her dressing room with an ERA banner.

Coolidge revisited

Added a couple of Coolidge era pics and also one of the diagram of the Kennedy Vermeil Room in blue and the Ford Library. I still haven't identified the location of those mysterious ones, but these seemed interesting.

I've basically run out of sources that I know of, altho there are a couple of magazine pictorials that I don't have.

Oval Office

Stumbled across this piece on the Clinton redecoration of the Oval Office. Among other things, it mentions the cost of rug: $28,500.

UPDATE: Got the link working. Blogger has been keeping me from posting at all and still isn't working right. I can't get it to insert the picture directly....

Pete Sharkey: model citizen

Pete has passed along a link to his new blog Wingnut's Workings, where he is documenting his progress on his fantastic White House models. Anyone who has read this blog should be familiar with his Oval Office and White House exterior models, but now he's completing the West Wing interior! It will take months to finish, he warns, but already he has dizzyingly gorgeous pics of the Cabinet Room and others. To Pete, I award the Charles McKim Astonishing Accomplishment Loving Cup (the "Charlie Cup").

Inside the White House

Added several photos I got from Inside the White House by Betty Boyd Caroli.

Big storm knocked out access to the series of tubes that is the Internets. Just got access back after about 28 hours. What did I do in the meantime? Law & Order marathon on USA. And bailing water out of my basement.

Miscellany

Added a few various photos, including a couple sent by Stephen B that include the Carter bedroom. Anybody know what issue that came from?

In DC

Made it to DC and went down to the White House before sunset and shot some pics (see What's New). For some reason, there were terns flocking all over on the south side. Maybe the chefs ruined a big fish dinner and tossed the evidence out on the tennis court. White-soled shoes only, birds!

I also went around on the south side and shot the new structure there. It looks temporary to me, but certainly very solid. Perhaps it's meant to cover some extensive below-grade expansion about to begin. I also noticed some earth-moving equipment hidden in the trees on the east side, but I think there has been some work going on there for a while.

UPDATE: Went out again after dark and got some great photos of the memorials with a tripod and bracketed exposures. I shot the Lincoln, Washington, WW2, and Jefferson memorials and plan to get the White House and other memorials tomorrow night.

Old stuff

Added a few old exteriors in the last couple of days.

West Wing construction

Hmmm. What's going on at the West Wing? Structural steel beam construction? Is the president adding on a rumpus room?

Jefferson's White House and ours

Finally got a chance to read thru WH History #17, which explores Jefferson's White House and includes a few terrific recent photos, which I've added. The part on Jefferson is rather thin on details about the house itself and deals more with servants and dining, but it did provide some interesting tidbits that I added to the 1803 first floor plan. I've also added a separate page for Jefferson's enhancements to the house.

UPDATE: New Green Room from Time.

Coolidge

Added a few Coolidge-era photos from the WH History collection, including state rooms and West Wing.

Kennedy revisit

Added several images from the Kennedy era showing some of the renovation. Also included the layout of the West Wing at the time.

Oval Office rug mouse pads

After I mentioned it on the Facebook discussion about WH product wish-lists, I traded a couple of notes with a contact from MouseRug about the possibility of them creating mouse pads of the Oval Office rugs. They're going to look into it.

I've added pics of the Reagan and Bush 2 rugs and improved the Clinton one, but the quality isn't the best (the Bush rug is really Pete's repro). I had inquired with the National Archives a year ago about photos of OO rugs and got an ambivalent response, but no follow-up.

Old West Wing

Went back thru my LOC collection and added some pictures of the Taft-Hoover Oval Office, old Cabinet Room, and old laundry.

UPDATE: I noted the presence of future presidents Coolidge and Hoover in the Harding Cabinet pic and Hoover in the Coolidge Cabinet.

Oval Office history

Posted a few old photos of the original and modern Oval Office at various times, consisting of Taft, Wilson, and Eisenhower. I find it interesting to look over the original Oval Office. It's obvious now, for example, that FDR's eagle valances were practically taken right from Hoover's windows before the office was moved, altho Seale says Gugler designed new ones. They go right back to Taft so were presumably green all along, as Seale says, altho they've always looked blue in pictures I've seen, at least until I saw one from the FDR library.

Also, yesterday, I added a few other historical pics.

Miscellany

Added some miscellaneous stuff the other day from Truman and Bush 1.

Also, I got a nice note from a retired USSS man (Ike and Johnson eras) and chatted with him by phone about the history of the USSS in the WH. He says the USSS has added an archivist who is gathering history to assemble a better picture of the service over the years.

He described the decision to convert a storage room under the Oval Office into a USSS shift leader office around 1965 (the press was lobbying for that space, but his security detail convinced LBJ that having journalists a few feet directly under his office was a bad idea). That's the only security office I have labeled. I've been very hands-off when it comes to WH security measures, but if the officials in the service see fit to release a comprehensive book, I'll borrow from that to add to the site.

Steven and Stephen

Added several terrific pictures send by Steven B and Stephen M, including some of the early Blue Room and Oval Office and some of the family quarters in the Reagan and Kennedy eras. Thanks guys!

UPDATE: I hereby award John in NOLA and Dennis the JB West Attention to Detail Award.

More from the Truman Library

Looking over the Truman renovation report again, I noticed that the west side of the third floor, aside from being labeled "pent house," is described in the New Furnishings section as "Servants' Rooms #315-#322."

That led me to search the Truman Library collection again and add a few more pictures, including a new separate page for Bathroom 315 and the Master Bathroom.

Ike-o-rama

Andy send a note tipping me off to some Eisenhower WH photos now available on the Ike Library site. Great mansion interiors and exteriors and color Oval Office snaps! Wow! More here...

Thanks Andy! I'll get right to work on these. The WHM has been light on Ike all along.

UPDATE: Stuck in ORD for three hours, I added 16 Ike-era images, which nicely filled in holes on a dozen pages. Check out the porthole TV in the West Sitting Hall!

Andy's link to the Kennedy before-and-after photos. These are already included in the WHM.

Stephen Colbert in the White House

For some reason I haven't figured out, fake pundit Stephen Colbert visited the White House Press Briefing Room the other day. The Hou Chron is there....

Also, I've added Pete's review of seasons 4-6 of The West Wing to the Movies & TV page.

West Wing ground floor

Substantial changes to the WW ground floor based on info from knowledgeable sources, now showing, for example, the fact that the Navy Mess pick-up window was moved.

More mess

The Navy Mess post prompted more input from knowledgable sources. More changes soon....

UPDATE: Changed the ground floor layout and added some new pics provided in kindly fashion by Pete.

What a mess...

Bryan D e-mailed me about a recent minuscule change to the WW ground floor page where I added a label for "Ward Room." I got a tip about the Ward Room some time ago and had only managed to research it enough to feel I understood what and where it was enough to add a reference. On a ship, the ward room is an officers' mess and lounge room, so I think the WH Ward Room is probably a fancier dining room just off the Navy Mess dining room. It seems likely, then, that some of the pictures I have on the Navy Mess page are actually of the Ward Room, so I made mention on the Navy Mess page.

• Rush Limbaugh 2006 (lunch with Rove, "seats about 14 people")
  
• Bob Novak 2005 (policy meetings)
• WSJ 2003 (lunch in "dark, wood-paneled...," quoted half-way down)
  
• Washington Monthly (VIP lunch)
  
• Time 1997 (political strategy session, about 2/3 down)
  
• Time 1996 ("a small, private conference room next to the White House mess," about half-way down)

Open post: PBR

Added a few more pics of the briefing room. Now that we've seen it, what are your reactions?

Another Hou Chron blog entry from Julie Mason.
Mark Silva's The Swamp blog entry.

Press Briefing Room

Briefing room is due to be unveiled today. Pete points out that around 8:00 AM "people may want to try to tune in to CNN or something like that to see George and Laura host the unveiling ceremony." I'll post updates during the day as better pics become available. I expect Time's WH Photo of the Day to have a good one early.

UPDATES:
WH release
WH fact sheet

ABC/AP story, with gut-wrenching "President Bush is a real cut-up" lede.
Examiner/AP story, same writer, leaving the excrutiating turns of phrase to the president.

FLASH: Hou Chron's Julie Mason rocks the inside scoop--pool pics!

President Bloomberg's White House

Weird article on how Michael Bloomberg might alter the West Wing... if he wanted to make it like his current offices.... if he were to become president... if he were to run....

Press Briefing Room

Still awaiting decent pictures of the new Press Briefing Room and Press Offices.... Here is another article, with images that will make any photographer wince. Why pay professionals handsome salaries if you're only going to display their pictures 274 pixels across?

The article says they haven't enlarged it at all and have even kept the pool—the pool that's been covered and unused for fully half its existence.

UPDATE: Added pics to the Press Briefing Room and Press Offices pages, including a mind-blowing photo of the brand-new Nixon briefing/tea party room from a great article passed along by both Robert and Pete.

A dip in the press pool

Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle has indeed come thru with pics of the new press area! I didn't realize it at first because the Chron bloggers moved to a new site.

I also missed the tee-ball coverage.

Open post: Press room

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

Or maybe not.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Situation Room

Not only did we get a good photo of PM Blair joining a meeting in the new teleconference room, Pete points out a good one of the ribbon-cutting for the new space.

UPDATE: Link to a new WH video on the Sit Room.

Yo, Blair!

The WH has posted some pretty good photos with PM Blair, including the Sit Room and Colonnade.

UPDATE: Added the pic of the new teleconference room to the Situation Room page.

LBJ's green-topped desk

I got a very nice reply from Renée Gravois at the Johnson Library about LBJ's Oval Office furnishings.

An antique desk was found in the Senate Office building for LBJ’s use in his ranch office. This was a pedestal desk of late Sheraton or early Regency design, made of Honduran mahogany. Johnson liked this desk so much that he asked Joe Duke, Sergeant of Arms at the Senate for another desk for his Majority Leader office. The Senate cabinet shop made a desk just like the antique one, and inset green tooled leather on top surface. Maybe it was a little too much like the original—blocks had to be added under the ball fee to raise it up for LBJ. He then used it in his VP office and later in the Oval Office.

After it was installed in the Oval Office, Frank Stanton and others removed the blocks under the feet and added an extra row of molding above them to make up for the difference. A cane modesty panel was added at the same time.

Gravois also included some information about the reproductions of other furniture in the Library's Oval Office. However, there's no answer (yet, at least) about exactly when LBJ swapped the Boudin run for Truman's.

Fishin' in the LOC

I went looking thru the Library of Congress collection again and came up with several more photos of a little bit of everything to add to the site. A few are rather unfortunately poor quality (which is why I didn't get them when I first scoured the digital collection last year), but just having them is nice. Maybe the LOC will eventually add high-resolution versions, and it will be easy to go back and get those to replace the crummy ones. Particularly of interest are the floor plans from 1853, which—I realized once I collected them all—document the entire White House at the time. However, the images are too low resolution to read the room labels, unfortunately.

UPDATE: I found the same ground and second floor plans in Seale's WH: Idea, where they are clear enough to read the labels, so I've added them.

More Johnson and a little more Truman

Visitor Todd S sent a note about a mysterious picture in the Truman archives that turned out to be a mislabeled pic of the Vermeil Room in 1952 1948. While I was nosing around, I also found a pic of the Library in 1948, something else I didn't have. Now if I could only find some ground floor pics from the 1902 renovation....

Also, I added a several more images from the Johnson archives, and a pic that John in NOLA sent a while ago of the Nellie Custis (Washington) sofa.

Johnson archives

Prompted by an e-mail asking when LBJ exchanged the Boudin red Oval Office carpet for the old Truman bluish-greenish-grayish carpet, I began trolling the Johnson Library archives and found numerous good photos that I'd never come across before, including a May '64 pic that show the red carpet in the Oval Office and a Nov '67 pic that suggests that Johnson may have used it in the Fish Room (today's Roosevelt Room).

UPDATE: Just found a photo of the OO with red rug in February 1965, much later than I thought it was there.

Kennedy rooms

I've posted several photos from the 1962 Guide, including some from the West Wing and Residence. It's interesting to finally see some of the pre-makeover decor in color, looking pretty much as it looked in the Truman and Eisenhower eras.

1962 Guide

Arrived home to find the 1962 Guide waiting for me, a bargain from Ebay at 99¢ + $4.75 shipping. It features JFK's Oval Office with Truman decor, the Truman patterned Blue Room, and my first glimpse of JFK's Pre-Roosevelt Room "Fish Room," with mounted sailfish! Several other rooms are shown before their makeover also, including the Family Dining Room, which also includes an 1889 pic that I've never seen before. I'll post photos in a day or so.

John in NOLA, I think you mentioned some time ago how to tell if it was a first edition or second edition. Can you refresh my memory?

Cabinet Room lamps

Stumbled across an article on the recreation of the original Cabinet Room lighting fixtures. Kind of cool.

Turn of the (previous) century

I've posted several photos from the 1908 White House book I got on Ebay. It has some interesting insights, altho I haven't been able to read much of it yet. The photos are c1903 Master Bedroom, Yellow Oval Room, President's Office (Lincoln Bedroom), Cabinet Room (Treaty Room), Cross Hall, and West Wing. There are a number more of the state floor rooms, but I already have good ones of them. Too bad there is no pic of the West Sitting Hall. There is an interesting one of the stables, but I'm pretty sure that the stables had been moved out of President's Park well before 1903. (Anyone know which Starbucks now occupies the location?)

UPDATE: John in NOLA pointed out that the Yellow Oval Room pic had to be pre-1902 and sent a terrific c1910 photo of the room showing the fresh walls and new mantelpiece. Also, Robert M sent a juicy stereograph of the Cleveland's West Sitting Hall (first or second term, I can't tell--there's no slim, girlish Frances or chubby, matronly Frances).

A house divided...

After adding the new pics to the Oval Office page, I noticed that it now has 40 photos. Other important rooms have only about 30. I'm concerned that, with all the photos, the pages won't load fast enough for casual viewers. I'm wondering about dividing the OO page out into:

• Today
• Earlier

or by era:

• Today
• Reagan to Clinton
• Johnson to Carter
• FDR to Kennedy
• pre-FDR

The "today and earlier" idea would work pretty well for other rooms as they get longer, altho there are surprisingly few good photos of many rooms as they are today.

UPDATE: For the time being, I've broken the page out into Oval Office and Oval Office History. You can compare it to the previous version.

Other oval rooms

I added a couple more images sent by Mimlog to the Oval Office page. One of them is Nixon's OO just after moving in and the other is Nixon talking to the Apollo astronauts. In both, we see Johnson's decor, but I noticed that the curtains changed: there is blue edging in the 1969 pic. In the 1964 guide, Johnson's OO has Boudin's original curtains with red edging, but I'm not sure who made the change.

Also, while I was looking at the '64 guide, I decided to add a couple of images to the Yellow Oval Room page: the room in '64, and a bridal pic of Lynda in '67 that I had been too lazy to place and date. (I also reprocessed a Kennedy pic.)

A peek at the 1930s

Mimlog sent several photos that capture the early 1930s West Wing, Blue Room, and Kitchen. And the 1969 Cabinet Room shows the room before Nixon converted it to match the empire style of the mansion.

Oval Office

Visitor Dennis pointed out that the picture of Ike in the Oval Office had to be wrong, because the fireplace wasn't historically correct. I realized that I didn't have a good picture of the Oval Office fireplace anywhere, but I found a nice one on the Truman Library site.

Update: The paneling is like the paneling in the family residence, not the OO, but the mantel is still a mystery. Perhaps this is actually a location in Ike's library or home that happens to resemble the WH.

Grab bag and a puzzle

Dropped a few new photos in of various areas, including an intriguing one of the Roosevelt Room. The new one shows the ceiling very well with what appears to be a skylight. My (well, Pete's) floor plan of the second floor does not show a skylight well, so I wonder if it's really just a flourescent fixture, but Pete pointed out that there is a roof pylon in the right place that presumably is a skylight.

Press Briefing Room

Wingnut points out that a Politico article on Helen Thomas mentions that the Press Briefing Room won't be ready until May or June, meaning that the room will have been out of commission for 10 or 11 months. We saw in Barney's holiday video that the room was no where near done in December, so that seems accurate, but the long timeline is a stumper. Aside from the possibility that the administration has an ulterior political motive for keeping the press out of the WH, what could be the delay? Charles McKim restored the whole mansion in the same time frame.

My guess: they're building in additional facilities of some sort underground.

Ford revisited

I got a 1975 WHHA journal the other day off Ebay and pulled several pics from it to fill out the era of the Nixon decor. It gave me my first good look at the Nixon Blue Room, for one thing, and great pics of the East Wing Garden Room, and West Wing Lobby.

TR vs Taft

On the comments for the Reagan post, visitor Anonymous noted that one of the West Wing page pics looked a little odd (specifically, the one that says "(note the clothes line on the east side)"), which sparked a reevaluation of the early WW images. John in NOLA noted that the Roosevelt colonial Rose Garden was intact that pic, so it couldn't be 1920 as I had labeled it and in fact looked to be freshly expanded by Taft in 1909.

I agreed and made the change and then noticed that what had led me to label that pic "1920" was my mistaken understanding of the evolution of the WW roof. Once I looked harder at the west side, I realized that a pic that I thought was circa 1910 (post Taft expansion) was probably 1908 (pre Taft expansion). The difference is in the roof shape, window count (5 for TR; 9 for Taft), and the addition of a west side entrance. This is great, because I was hoping to find a good pic of the WW in TR's time, and didn't realize I already had one. That pic is now captioned "Theodore Roosevelt's original Executive Office Building, circa 1908."

Reagan additions

Visitor Geoffrey M pointed me in the direction of some Reagan-era photos new to the Reagan Library site since I visited there last. I've added eight to all different pages. I've also enhanced the Oval Office Patio page with a couple of new pics and some from other pages. See What's New.

Old-timey White House funtacular

Pete S sent me a bunch of scans from one of the WHHA collections that I don't have (but which I will order shortly), with a treasure trove (is there any other kind of trove?) of old-timey TR and Coolidge era pics of the family residence and old temporary Executive Office Building, which I've incorporated in too many places to list. Check the What's New page.

There is an especially juicy diagram of TR's original EOB, which I had tried to add before but which I couldn't get a good image of. I've relabeled the rooms so you can see the layout of it really well.

Nixon pics

Found a few Nixon pics in the Mason University archives, including Roosevelt Room, Family Dining Room, and Library.

Also came across a pic of Spotty by the pool. And yesterday I added a pic of a Clinton dinner in the East Room. And visitor Geoffrey pointed out a nice one of the West Wing entrance on the Time WH blog.

West Wing miscellany

I posted Pete's review of The West Wing season 3 (and my review of Backstairs has been up since I blogged it) on the Movies & TV page.

As a result of Pete's interest in the failed Truman West Wing addition, I posted pics of the fulls set of drawings on the Truman Reconstruction page. There's floors G, 1, & 2, pics of Side and Cross section and revised version 2.

Update: White House just posted pics of Bush with Merkel, including a teleconference in the brand new Sit Room. Added to the What's New page. And, I've added links to the What's New page to the front page, About, and the menu.

Solar White House

I've added pics of the 2003 Swimming Pool cabana renovation, which added a solar collector. And I added a couple of pics of the solar panels that Carter added to the roof of the West Wing and which were recently re-added.

Postcards in glorious fake color

I just got a packet of vintage color White House postcards delivered from Walt's Postcards. I've photographed them and added most of them. So far I've added Truman's China Room, a better image of Taft's Blue Room, and Taft's West Wing.

With the West Wing photo, I'm starting to wonder if the one below it (labeled c1910 from the LOC) isn't really c1904--pre-Taft expansion. I'll look for corroboration from Seale.

I've also got something fairly astonishing. It's a picture of the Red Room, pre-McKim makeover, arrayed in green and labeled "East Room"! I believe the postcard is German, and at first I figured it was a fanciful hand-tinting job. But I've just noticed that another pic from the same era is labeled "Green Parlor" by the LOC, which I had always assumed was a simple mix-up. Now I wonder if that room was indeed done in green prior to TR's renovation. I haven't read such a thing, but I've been meaning to read more about that era. Can anyone help me out?

I also have a couple of exteriors that I think I'll reshoot.

They're spying on Nicolas Cage!!

Pete sent a link to a New York Times article showing off the nearly-completed Situation Room. Great pic of the conference room, but check out the video feed of Nick Cage on the right! They're monitoring his movements! I always figured that guy was a national security threat. Serves him right for stealing the Declaration of Independence.

Update: WaPo article - no pics.

TR renovation

I've posted a page for the TR renovation. I'm still not satisfied with the structure of these pages, tho. I've linked to the major renovations from the Residence page but also from the East Wing and West Wing pages, where they are also relevant, and it seems a little circular.

The 1960s

Got around to setting up my camera and got out my Kennedy-Johnson books and shot a number of photos of photos from the era, including the Kennedy Press Briefing Room swimming pool mural, the Johnson Yellow Oval Room, Kennedy and Johnson Family Dining Room, Johnson and 1890 West Sitting Hall, Luci's wedding reception in the East Room, and the Diplomatic Reception Room. I have several more I'll do later.

Update: Added the Kennedy Library, Queen's Bedroom, Treaty Room, and the Oval Office with Boudin's red rug and LBJ's desk and the Cabinet Room.

Update: Added JFK, Jr in the President's Secretary's Office, the replanting of the Rose Garden, the Kennedys playing in the South Fountain (!), and Caroline's kindergarten class in the Sun Room, the third floor Central Hall, and the Family Theater.

TV West Wing page

Using a new, more accurate layout by Pete and screen caps from the DVDs, I've created a page just for The West Wing's version of the West Wing. However, this now creates a weird situation where Pete's detailed reviews of TWW by season are on the Movies & TV page and the floor plan and photos are on another page. I hesitate to put the detailed reviews on the new page with the floor plan and photos because I'm afraid they're going to end up quite lengthy once Pete has reviewed a few more seasons.

I'm hoping for some comments that will help solve this dilemma. What would WH enthusiasts prefer and what would TWW enthusiasts prefer?

PBR Photographer identified

I got a note from Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter requesting credit for the terrific photos that illustrate the Press Briefing Room. I don't recall where those pictures came from, so I never knew who to credit. If any other visitors find uncredited photos of theirs that I've used to illustrate the White House, please contact me. I'm very happy to give credit and link the credit to any page you like or to remove them from the site.

Oval Office & the Resolute

I created a separate page for the Resolute desk to get its history off the Oval Office page and so I had space to add some trivia about Truman's "The Buck Stops Here" motto and Kennedy's distress-call coconut. I can't think of anything else that is particularly famous or interesting that has been displayed on the president's desk, but suggestions are welcome.

West Wing and other bits

Got some new information about the layout of the West Wing ground floor and made a couple of minor changes (Homeland Security Council office now occupies the old Barber Shop, for example).

Also, I added a couple of pics of the South Portico, Private Dining Room, Beauty Salon, and third floor Promenade, for which I created a new page.

Thanks to Pete, in both cases!

West Wing second floor

I added a page for the second floor of the West Wing, similar to the one for the East Wing. I've hesitated up till now because:

• There's not much there other than ordinary working offices
• The furnishings and occupants of those offices change pretty frequently
• I don't have many good contemporary photos
• I don't have any historical photos
  

However, it's interesting to see the general look of it at least. The photos were provided (like most of the contemporary photos and layout of the West Wing) by Pete Sharkey from a White House video of some sort. Thanks Pete!

Miscellaneous pics

Added half a dozen more pictures from those sent by Pete Sharkey, including LBJ in the Cabinet Room, listening to heart-wrenching tapes from his son-in-law in Vietnam; Hillary redecorating the Blue Room; Mamie in a storage room and the laundry in the basement; and the White House draped in black crepe (for, I think, Harding; Pete thinks Lincoln); and the mysterious Secret Service Office (or, at least, the "lounge" part of it) on the West Wing ground floor.

Update: The black crepe was for Garfield.