Washington Winter Show 2012

44 fund it. In this room President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933– 45) learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. During the John F. Kennedy administration (1961–63) the third-floor oval room became the “Yellow Oval Room,” a comfortable but formal drawing room. A mixture of French and American antiques along with modern club chairs and sofas defined Jacqueline Kennedy’s taste for domestic décor, unlike the stately public rooms on the floor below. Today, still a part of the family quarters, the Yellow Oval Room is used for interviews and pre-dinner cocktails and as a gathering place before the ceremonial descent down the grand staircase to the state floor below for dinners and receptions. The broadened function has continued, as well as the general outline of Mrs. Kennedy’s décor. THE GROUND FLOOR OVAL ROOM: THE DIPLOMATIC RECEPTION ROOM The oval room directly below the Blue Room was originally a servants’ hall with paved brick floor and plain white-washed plaster walls. Call bells mounted on the walls summoned the domestic staff, who gathered here when not otherwise occupied. When in 1837, a large heating system was installed, the servants’ hall became the furnace room, and the servants and bells moved elsewhere. This page is sponsored by James Clothiers