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A coffee in the Blue Room the morning of the installation day. It is usually the last appointment of the outgoing president in the White House. But this is just one of many traditions that are established on this very unusual day of moving into the US presidential residence.
Graphics showing the residence of the president.
Coffee time in the Blue Room is normally at 09.30, when the former president has the opportunity to give the successor some advice on life in perhaps the most famous house in the world.
This year, however, Donald Trump has announced that he will depart Washington early Wednesday morning and skip the traditional delivery to Joe Biden.
Otherwise, the cafe is “quiet before the storm”: no relocation can begin before the former president is gone.
The actual move, with the old president’s moving cars on the west side of Södra portiken and the new one on the east side, can take five hours. Not a minute more. And all the hustle in and out of the building must be done by regular residents. Outside craftsmen cannot set foot on the premises.
When they move, presidential families choose for themselves how much of their own things to bring. George Bush the Younger (President 2001-2009) is said to have brought with him only two personal packages; a coffin and a painting for the Oval Room.
The basic furniture already exists, and members of the presidential family who want to change something have a real treasure to draw from: the top-secret warehouse of the White House, hidden somewhere in Maryland or Virginia. Contains furniture and other furnishings that have been on the property for many decades.
The Washington Times has described the warehouse as a journey through American history.
– There’s a lot from the Theodore Roosevelt era, Betty Monkman, a former interior designer as a White House curator, tells the newspaper.
– We have furniture from the Blue Room from James Buchanan (president 1857-1861).
Such stories make historians today frown. Even the later transformations of the White House evoke emotions. One of the most positive is the renovation of the president’s wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, in the early 1960s, who is credited with much credit for how grand the building is now.
“Everything Jackie did was very serious,” her friend Janet Felton Cooper told Departures.
Until then, visitors viewed the White House as the place where the president lived, decorated with things he used every day. Kennedy got a new perspective and historical substance on the inside.
Other, less positive Defendant, the anecdote stems from the Gerald Ford acquisition in 1974. At the time, staff had a tough job tearing down walls to access all of the listening equipment that Rep. Richard Nixon had installed.
But no matter how chaotic the before and after, everything should be full of peace and joy at 3.30 p.m. on the day each new president takes office. All the furniture is in place, the cleaning on the move of the more than 100 rooms is impeccable. And the chief usher is ready in Södra portiken, ready to utter his classic line:
– Welcome to your new home, Mr. President.
White House
The White House was built as a presidential residence in the new capital of the United States, Washington, in the 1790s. It was not clear during the reign of the first President George Washington between 1789 and 1797. Then, in the fall of 1800, the first tenant became President John Adams.
Where the name of the building comes from is not entirely clear. At first names like Presidential Palace and the like were used. Legend has it that the house took on a lighter hue in connection with renovations after war damage in the 1810s. But inspiration may also have come from President wife Martha Washington’s home, White House Plantation, Virginia. It went up to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency in 1901-1909 before the White House name became official.
The architecture of the White House may have been inspired by, among others, Leinster House, seat of the Irish Parliament in Dublin, and Rastignac Castle in southwestern France.
Various extensions have been made over the years, the west wing with the now famous Oval Room was built in the early 20th century.
