|
Although intended by architect James Hoban to be the "Common Dining
Room," the Green Room has served many purposes since the White House was
first occupied in 1800. The inventory of February 1801 indicates that it
was first used as a "Lodging Room." Thomas Jefferson, the second
occupant of the White House, used it as a dining room with a "canvas
floor cloth, painted green," foreshadowing the present color scheme.
James
Madison made it a sitting room since his Cabinet met in the East Room next door, and the
Monroes used it as the "Card Room" with two tables for the whist
players among their guests.
Styles in the room changed as frequently as the tastes of the Presidents
until the time of
Theodore Roosevelt, when it was furnished with reproductions of
early 19th-century American furniture. Not until the Coolidge
administration, however, was authentic Federal-period furniture placed in
the room.
The Green Room was completely refurbished in 1971. Its walls were
re-covered with the delicate green watered-silk fabric originally chosen
by Mrs. Kennedy in
1962. Draperies of striped beige, green, and coral satin--a major part
of the 1971 renovation--were carefully designed from a pattern
shown in an early 19th-century periodical. The coral and gilt
ornamental cornices are surmounted by a pair of hand-carved, gilded
American eagles with outspread wings. The eagle, patriotic symbol of the
United States, was one of the favorite decorative motifs of the Federal
period and appears in many forms in the room.
In "a noble, or genteel house," wrote Thomas Sheraton, the English
furniture designer, a drawing room "should possess all the elegance
embellishments can give." Most of the furnishings
now in the Green Room date from the years 1800-15, the period of
Sheraton's greatest influence on American decor.
The walls of the Green Room are covered with elegant paintings of various
people and scenes.
Blue Room |
China Room |
Entrance and Cross Halls |
Diplomatic Reception Room
East Room |
Green Room |
Library |
Map Room |
Red Room
State Dining Room |
Vermeil Room
Return to the White House Tour
|
