Diplomatic Reception Room

Coordinates: 38°53′51″N 77°02′12″W / 38.897583°N 77.036567°W / 38.897583; -77.036567
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Diplomatic Reception Room (White House)
)
Zuber et Cie
wallpaper Scenes of North America.
White House ground floor showing location of the Diplomatic Reception Room.

The Diplomatic Reception Room is one of three oval rooms in the

China Room
, and a vestibule that leads to the South Lawn.

History

For its first hundred years, the ground floor of the White House was used as a service and work area. Domestic staff used it for storage, kitchens, and maintenance. White House domestic staff gathered in this room to do mending and polish silver. In 1837, the

McKim, Mead, and White
.

The 1902 renovation during the Theodore Roosevelt administration dramatically reconfigured the ground floor. Multiple layers of rotting floorboards were removed, and new flooring was installed. Several new rooms were framed and finished with a finished plaster coat. A gentlemen's and ladies' lounge and guest bathrooms were created. Charles Follen McKim admired James Hoban's groin vault ceilings in the center hall. The hall was refurbished, and the center hall connected the new East and West wings. Though the ground floor oval room was much improved and now a part of the finished living space in the house, it remained primarily a passageway, not a destination.

President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room

In 1935,

Franklin Roosevelt had a chimney opened so he could conduct his "fireside chats." White House architect Lorenzo Winslow designed a new chimney breast
and mantel that, though intended to appear traditional, subtly evokes Art Moderne in its ribbed curved sides.

Rebuilt by

Jean Zuber et Cie in Rixheim (Alsace), France c. 1834. The Zuber wallpaper, titled Scenes of North America, was printed from multiple woodblocks and features scenes of Boston Harbor, the Natural Bridge in Virginia, West Point, New York, Niagara Falls, and New York Harbor
. The sweeping panorama on the elliptical walls provide a sense of space, negating the lack of windows. Additional Federal-era furniture was acquired, and upholsteries and the carpet furthered a soft gold and blue decor.

as a sign of their status as free men.

A labeled mahogany bookcase-desk by John Shaw was made in Annapolis in 1797 and formerly stood in the Kennedy Green Room. A suite of lancet-arched side chairs and a pair of sofas with splayed legs are attributed to the workshop of New York cabinetmakers Abraham Slover and Jacob Taylor. The furniture is upholstered in a yellow silk damask. A rug in shades of blue and gold, incorporating the seals or coats of arms of the fifty United States in an elliptical border, specially made for the room in 1983. An English Regency chandelier of cut glass and bronze three-armed crystal sconces with glass chimneys illuminate the room.

In popular culture

In March 2014, President Barack Obama was interviewed in the room on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. Towards the end of the video, the room becomes the subject of conversation, with Obama questioning Galifianakis' authority to film on that site over the past few years.[2]

References

Bibliography

  • Abbott, James A.; Rice, Elaine M. (1998). Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. .

For further reading

External links

38°53′51″N 77°02′12″W / 38.897583°N 77.036567°W / 38.897583; -77.036567