The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence of the White House complex, the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence; it is used for dances, receptions, press conferences, ceremonies, concerts, and banquets. The East Room was one of the last rooms to be finished and decorated, and it has undergone substantial redecoration over the past two centuries. Since 1964, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House has, by executive order, advised the president of the United States and first lady on the decor, preservation, and conservation of the East Room and other public rooms at the White House.
Construction and early decoration The White House was designed by architect James Hoban. Leinster House in Ireland was the main inspiration for the White House, and includes a large east room which may have inspired Hoban's East Room. But the newly added Large Dining Room at Mount Vernon may also have been a source for the design of the East Room. As his drawings of the second and third floor do not exist, it is unclear what use Hoban intended for the room. It is possible that Hoban intended it for use as a private gallery for the family. It was the largest room in the White House, however, about in size with a ceiling. The middle window in the north wall was designed to provide access to a terrace (never built).
The East Room was first assigned a purpose in 1807. Architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe had been brought to the capital by Thomas Jefferson, who made him commissioner of public buildings. Latrobe surveyed the White House in 1803, and architectural drawings of the building (produced in 1807) are the earliest extant plans now known. On his sketches, Latrobe comments "Public Audience chamber entirely unfinished, the ceiling has given way." Latrobe also proposed sealing the windows on the east side of the room based on an architectural theory about natural light. But this change was not made.
Early furnishings The East Room was among the last rooms on the State Floor to be completed and used. The White House was unfinished when President John Adams occupied it between 1800 and 1801. His wife, Abigail Adams, hung laundry in the bare East Room to dry. Although much of the White House was finished and decorated during the Adams administration, the East Room was not. The room's lone artwork was a copy of the Lansdowne portrait depicting George Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1797. It was purchased by the White House in 1800, and hung in the East Room. (Rescued from the 1814 fire, it still hangs there, with a companion portrait of Martha Washington painted by Eliphalet Frazer Andrews in 1878.) There was extensive feeling in Congress that Adams had adopted too many of the trappings of monarchy, and Congress declined to appropriate funds to finish the room for fear it would look too much like a throne room. During the Jefferson administration, 38 gold-and-black painted chairs were purchased and placed in the room, but little else is known of the room's furnishings prior to 1814. Jefferson also had the East Room partitioned (using canvas and sailcloth for walls) and the southern end used for a bedroom and office for Meriwether Lewis and Lewis Harvie (both Private Secretary to the President).
Jefferson's successor, James Madison, sought to make the partitions permanent and asked Latrobe to design bedrooms and office space across the southern part of the room. But these changes were not made, either. Madison did use a portion of the East Room, however, for Cabinet meetings.
Post-fire restoration and furnishings The East Room, along with the rest of the White House, was burned in 1814 during the Burning of Washington in the War of 1812. The interior was gutted, although most of the exterior sandstone walls remained standing. The north facade of the White House was the most damaged. But because the East Room had so little furniture in it, the section of the north facade fronting the East Room was the least damaged. Latrobe helped to reconstruct the White House. In 1814 and 1815, the rebuilt East Room received new door frames and inlaid mahogany doors that remain in the room today. New plaster work in the form of a gilded cornice-line frieze of anthemion (a flowerlike, traditional Greek decorative pattern) was installed, and the walls plastered (and left unpainted) as well.
Federal style furniture, made by Georgetown craftsman William King Jr., was added to the East Room by President James Monroe in 1818. (First Lady Elizabeth Monroe's involvement was limited to choosing drapery fabric for the room). King produced 24 armchairs and four sofas, all made of mahogany. The total cost was $1,408. The furniture was not upholstered, and sat along the walls largely unused. In 1829, the first year of the Jackson administration, the King furniture was finally upholstered in blue damask silk. Monroe also purchased (for $80) a marble bust of George Washington by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi, which remained in the East Room probably until the Kennedy redecoration in 1962 (when it was moved to the Blue Room). Monroe also purchased in 1817 for the fireplace mantels four gilt bronze candelabra, designed and manufactured by the French bronze maker Pierre-Philippe Thomire.
By 1825, the room contained 24 unfinished mahogany armchairs, four large unfinished mahogany sofas, eight tables made of pine, a door screen, a paper partition, a three-shelf bookshelf, a mahogany map stand, a washstand (with basin and ewer), and a clothes press. But for the most part, from 1818 to 1829 the East Room was unused. Occasionally it was cleared and used for dances, but usually its doors were locked and it served as storage space. A widely reported story claims that for two months in the summer of 1825, the East Room housed at least one live alligator that belonged to the visiting Marquis de Lafayette, but a lack of contemporary evidence suggests that the story might be apocryphal. In 1826 Congress appropriated $6,000 to finally finish the room, although the funds were not made available until 1827. President John Quincy Adams used the money to repair the White House rather than finish the room.
1829 completion under Jackson The East Room was finally completed and decorated in 1829 by Andrew Jackson. New plaster work in the form of a cornice-line frieze of anthemion (a flowerlike, traditional Greek decorative pattern) was installed, three Neoclassical plasterwork medallions affixed to the ceiling, and the demi-lune over the east wall's Venetian window removed and turned into a wall. Decorative wooden beams were added to the ceiling, and two of the east-facing windows were blocked off and fireplaces with black Italian marble mantelpieces installed in their place. The Jackson administration turned to French-born American importer Louis Véron of Philadelphia for assistance in furnishing the executive mansion. Véron was one of the first merchants to display items from a wide range of suppliers in a showroom, rather than manufacture the items himself. Nearly all the 1829 furnishings for the East Room were supplied by Véron. Véron also added gilt rays and stars over the west door (the one the president usually used when entering the room).
The bare walls were covered with yellow wallpaper with cloth edging, light-blue moreen drapes were added to the windows, and plaster cornices adorned with eagles were installed over the windows. Véron covered the floor with a red-bordered blue, fawn, and yellow carpet woven in Brussels. The 1818 Monroe furniture was upholstered, three large mahogany tables topped with marble, and four white marble-topped pier tables placed in the room. For lighting, Véron provided several astral and mantel lamps. Gilded bronze wall brackets for hanging lamps and candles were attached to the walls, and mirrors in gilt frames placed over the fireplace mantels.
Jackson also purchased three cut-glass chandeliers to light the room. Each chandelier, which featured 18 whale oil lamps, hung from the ceiling medallions and were complemented with whale oil wall sconces and table lamps. There were also 20 spittoons. His expenditures totaled $9,358.27, provided by a friendly Congress eager to make the White House a more elegant symbol of the nation.
The East Room's original 18-lamp chandeliers were removed by Jackson in 1834 and placed in the State and Family Dining Rooms. Véron supplied the East Room with a more luxurious set.
Mid to late 19th century refurbishments
Furniture upholstered in light blue, light blue curtains, and imported French silver wallpaper with a gold border were added to the East Room by the Martin Van Buren administration in 1839. At some point prior to the inauguration of President William Henry Harrison in March 1841, the East Room acquired eight floor-to-ceiling mirrors with broad, heavily carved frames. President James K. Polk had the White House plumbed for gas heating and lighting in 1848. Cornelius & Company of Philadelphia retrofitted the 1834 chandeliers for gas, and Polk himself watched their first lighting. By the end of the Polk administration in January 1849, the East Room was adorned with three chandeliers, three "pier glasses" (mirrors), red damask window drapes, white muslin window curtains, four new sofas, 24 new chairs, three large tables (placed in the center of the room), four pier tables with marble tops, a large carpet, four new hearthrugs, four fire fenders, four large candelabra, eight small candelabra, eight mantle ornaments, and a bust of George Washington.
New draperies, lace curtains, and a carpet were added by Jane Pierce, wife of President Franklin Pierce, in 1853. The Pierces also had the over-mantel mirrors and pier mirrors reframed by L. R. Menger of New York.
1861 Lincoln refurbishment Despite this redecoration, the East Room was nonetheless somewhat shabby by 1861. On April 18, 1861, about 60 militiamen from Kansas took up temporary residence in the East Room pending construction of barracks for them in the city. They did serious damage to the carpet, and sometimes shot bullets into the walls. Mary Todd Lincoln refurbished the room with damask drapes, lace curtains, wallpaper, and a new $2,500 carpet later that year. The wallpaper was heavy patterned velvet cloth paper from Paris in crimson, garnet, and gold, and supplied by William H. Carryl & Brother of New York. The floor covering was a carpet woven in Glasgow, Scotland. The largest loom in the world was needed to weave the carpet, which covered the entire floor. The drapes were crimson with heavy gold fringe and numerous gold tassels, while the lace curtains behind them were imported from Switzerland.
The East Room under the Lincolns remained sparsely furnished, however, as befit a reception hall. The three chandeliers, which dated from the Jackson administration, were cleaned and reinstalled. They were so brilliant that the press assumed they were new. Mrs. Lincoln left the three large mahogany tables with black and gold marble inlays, which had long occupied the room, below each chandelier.
Two funerals for Lincoln Family members were held in the East Room in the 1860s. The first was that of 11-year-old Willie Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln's son, who died of typhoid fever on February 21, 1862. Just over three years later, Lincoln's body lay in state in the East Room as well, and his funeral was held there on April 19.