State Dining Room (White House)

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Image:White-house-floor1-state-dining-room.jpg

The State Dining Room is the larger of two dining rooms on the first floor of the White House, the home of the president of the United States. It is used for receptions, luncheons, and larger formal dinners called State Dinners for visiting heads of state. The room seats 140 guests. The room measures approximately 48 feet by 36 feet. It has six doors leading to a butler's pantry, the Family Dining Room, Cross Hall, and Red Room, and the West Terrace.

[edit] History and furnishings

Earliest White House floor plans by architect James Hoban label the southwest corner room on the first floor as a dining room, but it was used as an office, library and cabinet room before finally being used s a dining room. The original State Dining Room, located in the southern area of the present room, was almost fifty percent smaller than the present room. Removal of a grand stairway on the west end of the house in the 1902 renovation by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White allowed for the enlargement of the room, and reorientation with the length of the room running north-south. The style of the room was modeled after that of neoclassical English houses of the late eighteenth. Below a ceiling and a cornice of white plaster, a dark natural oakwall paneling with Corinthian pilasters and a delicately carved frieze was installed. Three console tables with eagle supports were placed against the walls, and a silver-plate chandelier and complementing wall sconces were added. The two rococo-revival candelabra date from the Hayes administration.

Queen Anne style chairs surround the mahogany dining table, which is usually decorated with a display of part of Monroe's gilt service (purchased from France in 1817) and ornamental bronze-doré pieces. A plateau centerpiece, with seven mirrored sections, measures over 14 feet long when fully extended. Standing bacchantes holding wreaths for tiny bowls or candles border the plateau. Three fruit baskets, supported by female figures, are often used to hold flowers.

[edit] History

This room has served at various times as a drawing room, office, and cabinet meeting room, as well as a room for hosting formal dinners. It was during the Andrew Jackson administration that the room came to be formally called the "State Dining Room."

The room was originally much smaller; a staircase once occupied what is now the north end. During the 1902 renovation of Theodore Roosevelt, the staircase was removed and the room significantly enlarged. At the same time, two Italian marble mantels installed by James Monroe were moved to the Red Room and Green Room. A single, larger fireplace was constructed on the west wall of the State Dining Room.