2014 White House intrusion

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. The term "White House" is often used as a metonym for the president and his advisers. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the neoclassical style. Hoban modelled the building on Leinster House in Dublin, a building which today houses the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature. Construction took place between 1792 and 1800, using Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semi-circular South portico in 1824 and the North portico in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. In the main mansion (Executive Residence), the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. The East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the residence's load-bearing walls and wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame was constructed inside the walls. On the exterior, the Truman Balcony was added. Once the structural work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt. The modern-day White House complex includes the Executive Residence, the West Wing, the East Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (the former State Department, which now houses offices for the president's staff and the vice president) and Blair House, a guest residence. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories: the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, as well as a two-story basement. The property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President's Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of "America's Favorite Architecture".

The 2020 Oval Office address, officially titled On the Coronavirus Pandemic, was the second televised, prime-time Oval Office address during the presidency of Donald Trump, delivered on March 11, 2020 at 9:01PM EDT. It was released during the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 stock market crash.

The Report to the American People on Civil Rights was a speech on civil rights, delivered on radio and television by United States President John F. Kennedy from the Oval Office on June 11, 1963 in which he proposed legislation that would later become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Expressing civil rights as a moral issue, Kennedy moved past his previous appeals to legality and asserted that the pursuit of racial equality was a just cause. The address signified a shift in his administration's policy towards strong support of the civil rights movement and played a significant role in shaping his legacy as a proponent of civil rights. Kennedy was initially cautious in his support of civil rights and desegregation in the United States. Concerned that dramatic actions would alienate legislators in the segregated southern United States, he limited his activities on the issue and confined his justifying rhetoric to legal arguments. As his term continued, African Americans became increasingly impatient with their lack of social progress and racial tensions escalated. The rising militancy of the civil rights movement troubled white Americans and the deteriorating situation reflected negatively on the United States abroad. Kennedy came to conclude that he had to offer stronger support for civil rights, including the enactment of new legislation that would ensure desegregation in the commercial sector. On June 11, 1963, federal officials integrated the University of Alabama. Kennedy decided that it was an opportune moment to speak about civil rights, and instructed Ted Sorensen to draft a speech that he could deliver on television that evening. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and his deputy, Burke Marshall, assisted Sorensen, who finished shortly before President Kennedy was due to begin speaking at 8:00 PM.

The Executive Residence is the central building of the White House complex located between the East Wing and West Wing. It is the most recognizable part of the complex, being the actual "house" part of the White House. This central building, first constructed from 1792 to 1800, is home to the president of the United States and the first family. The Executive Residence primarily occupies four floors: the Ground Floor, the State Floor, the Second Floor, and the Third Floor. A two-story sub-basement with mezzanine, created during the 1948–1952 Truman reconstruction, is used for HVAC and mechanical systems, storage, and service areas.

The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence, which is a building of the White House complex, the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence; it is used for dances, receptions, press conferences, ceremonies, concerts, and banquets. The East Room was one of the last rooms to be finished and decorated, and it has undergone substantial redecoration over the past two centuries. Since 1964, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House has, by executive order, advised the president of the United States and first lady on the decor, preservation, and conservation of the East Room and other public rooms at the White House.

The President's Dining Room is a dining room located in the northwest corner of the second floor of the White House. It is located directly above the Family Dining Room on the State Floor and looks out upon the North Lawn. The Dining Room is adjacent to the Family Kitchen, a small kitchen designed for use by the First Family, and served by a dumbwaiter connected to the main kitchen on the ground floor. The space was originally occupied by a bedroom suite known as the Prince of Wales Room. From 1929 to 1948, this suite was known as the Lincoln Bedroom. The bedroom suite was structurally changed in 1961 to create a dining room and kitchen in the First Family's residence.

The White House in Washington, D.C., is the official residence of the president of the United States. Being the official residence of the U.S. head of state, it flies the U.S. flag from a flagpole on its rooftop. The U.S. flag is flown there 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

The President's Bedroom is a second floor bedroom in the White House. The bedroom makes up the White House master suite along with the adjacent sitting room and the smaller dressing room, all located in the southwest corner. Prior to the Ford Administration it was common for the President and First Lady to have separate bedrooms. Until then, this room was used mostly as the First Lady's bedroom; however, it was the sleeping quarters for President Lincoln.The dressing room in the southwest corner of the suite has historically served as the First Lady's dressing room, study, or bedroom and has a walk-in closet and bathroom. The suite is also served by a walk-through closet leading to the bedroom, which also has a large bathroom. The room currently used as a living room, immediately west of the Yellow Oval Room, was historically used as the president's private bedroom until the 1970s.

The Center Hall is a broad central hallway on the second floor of the White House, home of the president of the United States. It runs east to west connecting the East Sitting Hall with the West Sitting Hall. It allows access to the elevator vestibule, East and West Bedrooms, the Grand Staircase, Yellow Oval Room, the first family's private living room, and the president's bedroom. In the early 20th century, William Howard Taft decorated the hall with exotic plants and art he had brought with him from his tenure as Governor-General of the Philippines. Later, Woodrow Wilson watched motion pictures here as the present White House theater was still a cloakroom. Furnishings include an American manufactured painted wood Neoclassical suite including a settee, six armchairs and four side chairs that once belonged to President James Monroe. The suite was reupholstered in a wool and silk velvet faux tiger print during the administration of George W. Bush and moved to the Center Hall from the Yellow Oval Room. Also in the room is a Louis XVI mahogany cylinder desk acquired for the Red Room during the administration of President John F. Kennedy. A pair of bronze French Empire caryatid torchères from Château de Malmaison were originally acquired for the Blue Room by Kennedy decorator Stéphane Boudin.

The Grand Staircase is the chief stairway connecting the State Floor and the Second Floor of the White House, the official home of the president of the United States. The stairway is primarily used for a ceremony called the Presidential Entrance March. The present Grand Staircase, the fourth staircase occupying the same general space, was completed in 1952 as a part of the Truman White House reconstruction. The Grand Staircase is entered on the State Floor from the Entrance Hall.

The East Sitting Hall is located on the second floor of the White House, home of the president of the United States. First used as a reception room for guests of the president (the Lincoln Bedroom and the Queens' Bedroom were originally offices of the chief executive), it is now a family parlor with access to the east rooms on the second floor. The room is entered from the second floor corridor on the west side of the room. A large fanlight window on the east side of the room faces the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, the East Colonnade, the East Wing, and the U.S. Treasury. Two disguised doors allow access to a closet and a staircase up to the third floor. Charles Dickens wrote this about the room during the administration of John Tyler: [W]e went upstairs into another chamber, where were certain visitors, waiting for audiences. At sight of my conductor, a black in plain clothes and yellow slippers who was gliding noiselessly about and whispering messages in the ears of the more impatient, made a sign of recognition, and glided off to announce him. We had previously looked into another chamber fitted all round with a great bare wooden desk or counter [probably the Anteroom, today's Treaty Room], whereon lay piles of newspapers, to which sundry gentlemen were referring. But there were no such means of beguiling the time in this apartment, which was as unpromising and tiresome as any waiting-room.... Because the East Sitting Hall is situated above the East Room (which has a 22-foot ceiling), access to the East Sitting Hall was originally by way a small set of stairs from the Stair Landing. During the Truman reconstruction, the room was reduced by the addition of a lavatory and side stair to the third floor; the steps were replaced with a ramp through an arched corridor. Sister Parish, the first interior designer brought in to decorate during the Kennedy restoration, created the original concepts of the redesigned East Sitting Hall, which became a repository of furniture and memorabilia associated with the life of President James Monroe.

The Family Dining Room is a dining room located on the State Floor of the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States. The room is used for smaller, more private meals than those served in the State Dining Room. Used in the 1800s as a space for the First Family to have their meals, the Family Dining Room was used less for family meals and more for working lunches and small dinners in the 20th and 21st centuries. (Family dinners are now more often served on the Second Floor in the President's Dining Room.)