Green Room (White House)
Encyclopedia
The Green Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

, the home of the president of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

. It is used for small receptions and teas. During a state dinner, guests are served cocktails in the three state parlors before the president, first lady, and visiting head of state descend the Grand Staircase
Grand Staircase (White House)
The Grand Staircase is the chief stairway connecting the State Floor and the Second Floor of the White House, the official home of the president of the United States. The stairway is primarily used for a ceremony called the Presidential Entrance March...

 for dinner. The room is traditionally decorated in shades of green.

The room is approximately 28 feet by 22½ feet (approx. 8.5m x 6.8m). It has six doors, which open into the Cross Hall, East Room
East Room
The East Room is the largest room in the White House, the home of the president of the United States. It is used for entertaining, press conferences, ceremonies, and occasionally for a large dinner...

, South Portico, and Blue Room
Blue Room (White House)
The Blue Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House, the residence of the president of the United States. It is distinct for its oval shape. The room is used for receptions, receiving lines, and is occasionally set for small dinners...

.

Furnishings

Descriptions of the Green Room's furnishings before the 1814 fire are limited. Following the 1816 rebuilding, inventories suggest the room initially contained French Empire items bought by President James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...

. Throughout most of the 19th century, the room was decorated in a series of revival styles. In 1902, a major renovation, guided by historical research, was implemented by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...

. Layers of complex Victorian ornamentation were replaced by a style called Colonial Revival, which was more similar to how the house was initially furnished. Heavily patterned floral wall covering was replaced by a simple green silk velvet. The c. 1852 Renaissance Revival mantel was replaced by a French Empire mantel purchased by President Monroe in 1819. A suite of reproduction French Directoire upholstered chairs and white painted caned reproduction English Regency furniture replaced a suite of overstuffed Turkish style sofas and chairs. Subsequent 20th-century presidents mostly maintained what could be described as a "Colonial" appearance with largely reproduction furniture.

The Kennedy restoration, begun in 1961, brought a more academic yet dramatic approach to the decoration of the Green Room. Henry Francis du Pont
Henry Francis du Pont
Henry Francis du Pont , Harvard 1903, married 1916 Ruth Wales was an American horticulturist, an expert on early American furniture and decorative arts – particularly of the Federal furniture, and a member of the prominent du Pont family....

 of the Winterthur Museum, with influence of French interior designer Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S...

, selected the Federal Style for the Green Room. Several significant pieces of antique furniture were acquired and placed in the room. Chief among these were a sofa once belonging to Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...

 and John and Abigail Adam's neoclassical silver hot-water urn. A labeled secretary
Secretary desk
A secretary desk is made of a base of wide drawers topped by a desk with a hinged desktop surface, which is in turn topped by a bookcase usually closed with a pair of doors, often made of glass...

, made by Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

 cabinetmaker Joseph Burgess, was placed between the windows on the south wall. Four lolling chairs, or "Martha Washington" chairs, upholstered in a white and green neoclassically patterned silk, were acquired. A late 18th-century English Axminster carpet in a neoclassical pattern of an architectural medallion surrounded by rosettes, and anthemion in shades of taupe, sage green and pink was donated by an anonymous donor. The walls of the Green Room were hung with a moss green watered-silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

 chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy and Stéphane Boudin in 1962 and manufactured in France by Tassinari et Chatel.
Many changes occurred during the Nixon administration under the direction of First Lady Pat Nixon
Pat Nixon
Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon was the wife of Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, and was First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974. She was commonly known as Patricia or Pat Nixon.Born in Nevada, Pat Ryan grew up in Los Angeles, California...

. Clement Conger, the new White House curator appointed during the Nixon administration, had completed substantial Chippendale and neoclassical interiors at the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

. In the Green Room, as well as in the Blue and Red rooms, Conger addressed correcting the generic traditional plaster moldings installed during the Truman reconstruction, installing historically accurate crown molding and ceiling medallions. Conger commissioned Edward Vason Jones
Edward Vason Jones
Edward Vason Jones , a neoclassical architect and member of the Georgia School of Classicism, began his career in 1936 with the design and construction of the Gillionville Plantation near his hometown of Albany, Georgia...

 and David Byers to design new draperies of striped cream, green, and coral silk satin
Satin
Satin is a weave that typically has a glossy surface and a dull back. It is a warp-dominated weaving technique that forms a minimum number of interlacings in a fabric. If a fabric is formed with a satin weave using filament fibres such as silk, nylon, or polyester, the corresponding fabric is...

. Conger and Jones cited illustrations shown in an early 19th-century pattern book belonging to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now called Historic New England
Historic New England
Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities , is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England and is the oldest and largest regional preservation...

). Coral and gilt
Gilding
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...

 ornamental cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

s were constructed and installed above the windows. They are topped by hand-carved, gilded
Gilding
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...

 American eagles with outspread wings, a favorite decorative motif of the Federal period. The cornices are similar to those in the library of the Miles Brewton House
Miles Brewton House
The Miles Brewton House is located at 27 King St., Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is one of the finest examples of a double house in Charleston. Its extensive collection of dependencies makes it one of the most complete Georgian townhouse complexes in America. The house was built ca. 1769...

 in Charleston, South Carolina, and the South Drawing Room of the Sir John Soane House in London. The American textile workshop of Franco Scalamandré
Franco Scalamandré
Franco Scalamandré was a co-founder of Scalamandré Inc., a US manufacturer of traditional textiles, decorative textile trims, wall covering, and carpeting....

 produced a copy of the Kennedy era moss green watered silk to be rehung on the walls. On the west wall above a Duncan Phyfe sofa, hang a pair of gilded girandole bull's eye wall sconces. Today the room contains several major pieces by the Scottish-born New York cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe
Duncan Phyfe
Duncan Phyfe was one of nineteenth-century America’s leading furniture makers.Born Duncan Fife near Loch Fannich, Scotland, he emigrated to Albany, New York, at age 16 and served as a cabinetmaker’s apprentice...

. They include a pair of work tables, side chairs with scroll arms, two card tables, and a pair of window benches. These replaced the more delicate Federal-era furniture approved by Mr. DuPont and Mrs. Kennedy in 1962.

The Green Room was refurbished during the summer of 2007 by First Lady Laura Bush with advisement from the Committee for the Preservation of the White House
Committee for the Preservation of the White House
The Committee for the Preservation of the White House is an advisory committee charged with the preservation of the White House, the official home and principal workplace of the President of the United States...

, Bush family interior designer Ken Blasingame, and White House curator William Allman. The refurbishment retained most of the Nixon-era Conger and Vason Jones design. Walls were again hung in a watered silk, a treatment originating during the Kennedy restoration, but this time in a more vertical and largely scaled moiré
Moire (fabric)
In textiles, a moire is a fabric with a wavy appearance produced mainly from silk, but also wool, cotton and rayon. The watered appearance is usually created by the finishing technique called calendering...

 pattern of a darker shade. The coral color in the upholstered chairs and in the striped drapery fabric was intensified to a more vibrant shade, bordering on vermilion
Vermilion
Vermilion is an opaque orangish red pigment, similar to scarlet. As a naturally occurring mineral pigment, it is known as cinnabar, and was in use around the world before the Common Era began. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly...

. The drapery recreates Edward Vason Jones' 1971 design but with the more intense vermilion in the silk and the painted cornice. The drapery design was simplified by removing four large tassels but retained the large bobble-fringe of the Nixon-era design. The green Turkish Kilim carpet installed in the Nixon administration was replaced by a new rug woven in the style of a French Savonnerie
Savonnerie
The Savonnerie manufactory was the most prestigious European manufactory of knotted-pile carpets, enjoying its greatest period ca. 1650–1685; the cachet of its name is casually applied to many knotted-pile carpets made at other centers...

. It is somewhat similar in design to an antique Savonnerie acquired for the Red Room by Stéphane Boudin. As a part of the refurbishment the painting The Builders by Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...

 was acquired for the Green Room by the White House Acquisition Trust
White House Acquisition Trust
The White House Acquisition Trust is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt fund established to finance the purchase of fine art and decorative arts for the White House, the official home and principal workplace of the President of the United States. The fund is funded by private donation, through...

. The Builders and Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City by Henry Ossawa Tanner
Henry Ossawa Tanner
Henry Ossawa Tanner was an African American artist best known for his style of painting. He was the first African American painter to gain international acclaim.-Education:...

 are the only two paintings by African-American artists in the White House permanent collection.

Among the room's decorative objects, to stand out a symbolic and unique ormolu
Ormolu
Ormolu is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-karat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze. The mercury is driven off in a kiln...

 French Empire mantel clock
French Empire mantel clock
A French Empire-style mantel clock, is a type of elaborately decorated mantel clock made in France over the Napoleonic Empire between 1804–1814/15, although the clocks manufactured throughout the Bourbon Restoration are also included within this art movement because they share subject, decorative...

 by Jean-Baptiste Dubuc of the early 19th century, depicting George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 in his full-dress uniform of Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.
Based on the 1792 painting; “General George Washington before the Battle of Trenton” by John Trumbull
John Trumbull
John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings...

. The spyglass held in the right hand of the original painting was replaced in the bronze figure by a scroll of laws, as a fitting attribute for Washington in the role of "Father of his Country." His left hand leans against the sword-hilt of his battle broadsword. The American eagle with a shield on his chest and spread wings sitting on a gun ball is a heraldic symbol, in fact it is a representation of the Great Seal of the United States
Great Seal of the United States
The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States federal government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself , and more generally for the design impressed upon it...

. From the eagle's perspective, it holds a bundle of 13 arrows in its left talon, (referring to the 13 original states), and an olive branch in its right talon, together symbolizing that the United States of America has "a strong desire for peace, but will always be ready for war." The enamel dial is mounted within a bezel in an adjacent plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...

 above a drapery swag inscribed in English: "Washington, First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen". This well known quotation comes from Major-General Henry Lee’s Funeral Oration on the Death of General Washington. The side of the plinth bears a trophy of arms formed from a bow and arrows, a club and the feathered headdress that are the attributes of the personification of America. The base of the clock is mounted with a relief depicting Washington as Cincinnatus
Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was an aristocrat and political figure of the Roman Republic, serving as consul in 460 BC and Roman dictator in 458 BC and 439 BC....

, the legendary citizen soldier of the Roman Republic.

Refurbishments of the White House's historic rooms happen on a regular basis. Input from the current first family, along with reference to historical documents and sometimes new research help guide the decisions of the committee and curator.

History

The room was intended by architect James Hoban
James Hoban
James Hoban was an Irish architect, best known for designing The White House in Washington, D.C.-Life:James Hoban was born and raised in a thatched cottage on the Earl of Desart's estate in Cuffesgrange, near Callan in Co. Kilkenny...

 to be the "Common Dining Room." Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 did use it as a dining room and covered the floor with a green-colored canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...

 for protection. It was in the Green Room that William Wallace Lincoln, the third son of President Abraham Lincoln, was embalmed following his death, most likely from typhoid fever.
Over the years, presidents and first ladies have used the room for happier times as well. Grace Goodhue Coolidge displayed what some considered risqué
Risqué
Risqué is the third studio album by American R&B band Chic, released on Atlantic Records in 1979, the same year that Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers wrote and produced Sister Sledge's massively successful We Are Family....

 Art Deco sculpture here and used the room for small parties with friends. Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

 entertained Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...

 here, and President Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

thought it the most attractive and restful room on the state floor.

Further reading

  • Abbott, James A. A Frenchman in Camelot: The Decoration of the Kennedy White House by Stéphane Boudin. Boscobel Restoration Inc.: 1995. ISBN 0-9646659-0-5.
  • Abbott, James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.
  • Clinton, Hillary Rodham. An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History. Simon & Schuster: 2000. ISBN 0-684-85799-5.
  • Monkman, Betty C. The White House: The Historic Furnishing & First Families. Abbeville Press: 2000. ISBN 0-7892-0624-2.
  • Seale, William. The President's House. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1986. ISBN 0-912308-28-1.
  • Seale, William, The White House: The History of an American Idea. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN 0-912308-85-0.
  • West, J.B. with Mary Lynn Kotz. Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan: 1973. SBN 698-10546-X.
  • The White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. ISBN 0-912308-79-6.

External links

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