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The White House Library is a room in the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
, the official home of the
president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
. The room is approximately and is in the northeast corner of the ground floor. The library is used for teas and meetings hosted by the president and first lady. During the 1950s reconstruction of the White House, old building lumber from the house was salvaged and re-made into wall paneling for this room. Several basement rooms in the White House are paneled with salvaged building materials from the pre-reconstructed White House.


History

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
, the first president to live in the White House, used this room as a laundry room; at that time, it was said to have been filled with "Tubs, Buckets, and a variety of Lumber"; at the time, ''lumber'' meant "miscellaneous useless articles that are stored away". During
Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a De ...
's presidency (1850–1853), Congressional funding was requested to establish a White House library. The library was established during the Fillmore presidency, spearheaded by the first lady,
Abigail Fillmore Abigail Fillmore (; March 13, 1798 – March 30, 1853) was the first lady of the United States from 1850 to 1853 as the wife of President Millard Fillmore. She began work as a schoolteacher at the age of 16, where she took on Millard Fillmore, w ...
. This library was originally in the Yellow Oval Room and was maintained there until 1929, when the Hoover administration moved it to its current location. By the time of this relocation, almost no books remained in the mansion, so the American Booksellers Association donated books and continued to do so in subsequent administrations. The room saw slight modifications until the Truman reconstruction in 1952, when the room was paneled in salvaged timbers from the White House's former timber frame. These were left unpainted until the administration of John F. Kennedy, when decorator
Stéphane Boudin Stéphane Boudin (28 October 1888 – 18 October 1967) was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm. Biography His father was a passementerie manufacturer. Boudin is be ...
recreated the room as a painted Federal style parlor. To stand out, an unusual lighthouse clock was made by Simon Willard to commemorate the visit of the
Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...
to the United States in 1824–1825. A likeness of Lafayette appears in a medallion on its base. The library provides access to a men's lounge and restroom.


Further reading

* Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. ''Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration.'' Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. . * Abbott, James A. ''Jansen.'' Acanthus Press: 2006. . * Garrett, Wendell. ''Our Changing White House.'' Northeastern University Press: 1995. . * Leish, Kenneth. ''The White House.'' Newsweek Book Division: 1972. . * McKellar, Kenneth, Douglas W. Orr, Edward Martin, et al. ''Report of the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion.'' Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion, Government Printing Office: 1952. * Monkman, Betty C. ''The White House: The Historic Furnishing & First Families.'' Abbeville Press: 2000. . * Parisian, Catherine E., ed. ''The First White House Library: A History and Annotated Catalogue''. Pennsylvania State University Press for the Bibliographical Society of America and the National First Ladies' Library, 2010. . * Seale, William. ''The President's House.'' White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1986. . * Seale, William, ''The White House: The History of an American Idea.'' White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. . * 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. * ''Exhibition Catalogue, Sale 6834: The Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis April 23–26, 1996.'' Sotheby's, Inc.: 1996. * ''The White House: An Historic Guide.'' White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. .


External links


Records of the White House Library, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library


{{Coord, 38, 53, 51.6, N, 77, 2, 10.8, W, display=title
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
1853 establishments in Washington, D.C.