Family Dining Room

Intimate Formal Dining The first family often hosts small formal dinners in this room, a space about 28 feet by 25 feet. Established by the Madisons, the first floor's smaller dining room was strictly for family meals, and was generally thought of as the "breakfast room" until 1961, when Jackie Kennedy created a dining room upstairs. Some families chose not to use the Family Dining Room even before that. The Jackson clan ate on small tables in their rooms as if in a hotel, and the Eisenhowers dined on TV trays in the West Sitting Hall, simultaneously watching two "porthole" television sets. The room often gets use as a staging area for state dinners and an "overflow" room for members of the president's staff who get bumped from the State Dining Room by last-minute guests. During the Johnson administration, the president's chief assistant on domestic issues (Joe Califano) accidentally spilled a glass of wine on the chief of protocol (James Symington) shortly before they needed to escort foreign dignitaries to the rest of the evening's events. Chief Usher JB West literally gave Symington the shirt off his back! In the northeast corner is a door that is blocked by a cabinet. On the other side, the space formed the deep doorway (the wall is a brick wall more than 2 feet thick) provides a niche for an extra desk in the Ushers' Room.

More Images

The Family Dining Room in 2006; (Karzai of Afghanistan, Dick Cheney,
GW Bush, Condi Rice, Musharraf of Pakistan) (White House - Eric Draper)

The Family Dining Room in 2001; (with Aznar of Spain) (US Consulate)

The Family Dining Room, circa 1999, looking northeast (White House Historical Association)

The Family Dining Room, 1992, looking southeast (HABS)

The Family Dining Room, circa 1991 (White House Historical Association)

A 1978 dinner with congressional leaders, looking south (NARA - Carter Library)

A 1977 dinner with the Japanese Prime Minister (NARA - Carter Library)

The Family Dining Room in 1972 (Mason University)

LBJ meeting with a women's group that includes Eartha Kitt in 1968 (Johnson Library)

The Family Dining Room around 1964 (National Geographic)

The Family Dining Room in 1963, looking southeast (White House Historical Association)

The Family Dining Room around 1962, looking southwest (White House Historical Association)

The Family Dining Room in 1952, with new chandelier, after the Truman reconstruction (Truman Library - Abbie Rowe)

The room during the reconstruction, showing the old flat ceiling above the 1902 vaulted ceiling. (Truman Library - Abbie Rowe)

The Family Dining Room in 1948, before the Truman reconstruction (Library of Congress - Theodor Horydczak)

The Family Dining Room in 1947, before the Truman reconstruction (Truman Library - Abbie Rowe)

The Family Dining Room in 1947, before the Truman reconstruction (Truman Library - Abbie Rowe)

The Family Dining Room around 1930, looking southeast (NARA)

The Family Dining Room, circa 1911, looking southeast (Library of Congress)

The Family Dining Room in 1907, looking southwest (Singleton - Story of the White House)

The Family Dining Room around 1906, looking northeast

The Family Dining Room, circa 1900, before the roof was vaulted in the first Roosevelt era, looking southwest

The McKinley Family Dining Room, circa 1898 [stereo] (New York Public Library)

The Family Dining Room, circa 1892 [stereo] (New York Public Library)

The Family Dining Room around 1890, looking southeast (Singleton - Story of the White House)

The Family Dining Room in 1889, looking southeast

The Family Dining Room, circa 1888 [stereo] (New York Public Library)