East Sitting Hall

Location of the East Sitting Hall on the second floor of the White House.

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.

References

Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.

External links

White House Complex

White House

Executive
Residence

Basement	Basement Chief Floral Designer

Ground floor	China Room Office of the Curator Diplomatic Reception Room Library Map Room Vermeil Room

State floor	Blue Room Cross Hall East Room Entrance Hall Family Dining Room Grand Staircase Green Room Red Room South Portico State Dining Room Chief Usher

Second floor	Center Hall Dressing Room East Bedroom East Sitting Hall Family Kitchen Lincoln Bedroom Lincoln Sitting Room President's Bedroom President's Dining Room Private Sitting Room Queens' Bedroom Queens' Sitting Room Treaty Room Truman Balcony West Bedroom West Sitting Hall Yellow Oval Room

Third floor	Center Hall Diet Kitchen Linen Room Music Room Sun Room Work-out Room

West Wing

East Wing

Grounds

Annex

Surrounding streets

15th Street
17th Street
Constitution Avenue
E Street
East Executive Avenue
H Street NW
Hamilton Place
Jackson Place
Madison Place
Pennsylvania Avenue
State Place
West Executive Avenue

Coordinates: 38°53′52″N 77°02′11″W / 38.89771°N 77.03639°W / 38.89771; -77.03639

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East Sitting Hall

See also

References

External links