The Speaker’s Room, 1819–1857

The first office space used by the Speaker was located adjacent to the south side of the 1807 House Chamber. During the War of 1812, British forces destroyed both the Speaker’s Office and the chamber when they set fire to the Capitol and much of the city in August, 1814.

Architect of the Capitol Benjamin Henry Latrobe redesigned the building, including the House Chamber, now National Statuary Hall. The adjoining Ways and Means Committee room, spared by the 1814 fire, served as the Speaker’s Office from 1819-1857. It is now the Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room, a retiring room for women Members.

A significant moment in this room’s history occurred in February 1848. During the debate on the House floor, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, one the House’s most articulate and revered Members and a former U.S. President, suffered a stroke and collapsed. Carried into the Speaker’s Office, “Old Man Eloquent” died there two days later. A year later, the House acquired a commemorative bust of Adams, sculpted by John Crookshanks King; it is displayed on a marble bracket in H-235.