The State Dining Room, which now seats as many as 140 guests, was originally much
smaller and served at various times as a drawing room, office, and
Cabinet Room. Not until the Andrew
Jackson administration was it called the "State Dining Room," although it had been used for formal dinners by previous Presidents.
As the nation grew, so did the invitation list to official functions at
the White House. During the renovation of
1902 by architects McKim, Mead
& White, the room size was enlarged after the main stairway from the west
end of the Cross Hall was removed. The two Italian marble mantels
installed by Monroe were
moved to the
Red and Green Rooms; a
single larger fireplace was constructed on the west wall. The
architecture of the room was modeled after that of neoclassical English
houses of the late 18th century. Below a new ceiling and a cornice of
white plaster, natural oak wall paneling with Corinthian pilasters and a
delicately carved frieze was installed. Three console tables with
eagle supports, made by the A. H. Davenport Co. of Boston, were placed
against the walls, and a silver-plate chandelier and complementing wall
sconces were added.
When not set for a state dinner, as seen above,
the mahogany dining table, surrounded by Queen Anne-style
chairs, displays part of Monroe's gilt service purchased from France in
1817. The ornamental bronze-doré pieces are used today as table
decorations. The plateau centerpiece, with seven
mirrored sections, measures 14 feet 6 inches in length when fully
extended. Standing bacchantes holding wreaths for tiny bowls or candles
border the plateau. Three fruit baskets, supported by female figures,
may be used to hold flowers. The two rococo-revival candelabra date from
the Hayes
administration.
Carved into the mantel below George P. A. Healy's portrait of President
Lincoln is an inscription
from a letter written by John
Adams on his second night in the White House:
I pray Heaven to Bestow the Best of Blessings on THIS HOUSE and on
All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but honest and Wise Men
ever rule under this roof.
