Evening star., 1934-03-04

II 11OuoC 6NCo AO CS4OCnCC VI ally $ICdL
- change or departures as q result of the
first year Of occupancy by Franklin D.
Roosevelt and his interesting family.
The historic old home Of the Presidents,
Is just as white and just as picturesque as ever.
but within its stately walls there IS an entirely
new atmosphere. This fact Is very striking,
especially to those who are familiar with the
atmosphere of former administrations.
The atmosphere Is no longer that Of the home
Of a Nations ruler, but that Of the home of q
happy, healthy family Of typical Americans.
There Is an absence Of formality, except on
state occasions, and even these are given
really human touch. No longer does the guest
or visitor feel compulsion to walk on tip-toe
and speak in a whisper. There Is fun and
laughter. No longer does the guest feel that
he may laugh only when the President or First
Lady says something intended to be funny.
Therefore, there is no longer that discomfort
ing feeling Of being in the presence Of the
throne. There is no drearineSs that usu-
ally goes with seats of the mighty and where
form and dignity bring about q deadly quiet
During the past year the presidential house
has been turned into home|a Roosevelt
home Not only is this fact because OF the
attractive and informal personalities who abide
within its walls, but because the Roosevelts feel
no more important or exalted now than they
did before they moved into the White House.
Moreover, they have arranged their living
quarters on the second floor SO as to suggest
more the home of an average American family,
rather than the home Of a ruler. They have
brought much of their own furniture and hang
ingS so as to make the big, old mansion seem
more homelike. Truck loads Of personal be-
longings were brought, principally from the
Roosevelt town house in New York City. In
cluded in all this were several hundred framed
prints Of great rarity, showing scenes along
the Hudson River and other sections OF new
York State as we'll as ships of various sizes
and types.
THESE prints Of the President adorn the
! walls of his bed room, his private study, the
great halls of the mansion, the sitting room.
his Office and other rooms in the house and the
executive Office as well. There Is nothing
Franklin Roosevelt prizes more highly than
these scenes, unless it be his stamp collection
and his library of books dealing with ships and
the sea. In addition there are ship models OF
various sizes and representing interesting sea
craft of different periods
One of these. which the President holds very
dear, is a model of an ancient galleon made
of solid silver, which reposes atop the buffet
in the family dining room This Is, lndeed,
beautiful specimen of the craftsman's art, and
Mr.. Roosevelt likes nothing better than to dis
cuss the workmanship and to point out the
various points of this war craft OF centuries
ago
Another really personal touch is given to the
home by the presence of an abundance of furni-
ture manufactured by hand at the furniture
factory at Val Kill, N. Y, Of which Mrs. Roose-
velt is half owner These pieces, which are
reproductions, are confined to no particular
period, but the so-called Dutch Colonial Is
thought to predominate.
The room on the second floor, the windows
of which look out on the south lawn, and
which was made famous by President Lincoln
because he used it as his Office, and In which
he signed the emancipation proclamation,
known as the Lincoln study during the ad-
ministration of President Hoover, is no longer
Q study. Rather, it has been returned to its
original use-a bed room.
President Roosevelt uses as his personal
study the large oval room, also on the south
side, which was used in more recent years as
an informal sitting room by Mrs. Calvin
Coolidge and Mrs. Herbert Hoover. Already
President Roosevelt has made this room the
outstanding room OF the mansion. He mas
long since made 1t historic.
It was in this room that the President had
his cabinet sworn in late In the afternoon Of
March 4, year ago. It was In this room
that he later the same night signed the
order closing temporarily the banks Of the
country, and there he held his epoch-making
conferences during the first few days of his
administration. Since then he has spent most
of his time at work in this room when away
from his desk in the executive office.
Whereas President Hoover turned the lime
light on the Lincoln study, President Roose-
welt has sgnaled out this oval room to be
the best advertised Of the White House rooms
during his occupancy and to go down in White
House history.
This change of atmosphere in and about
the White House since the coming of the
RooSevelts was noticeable almost the instant
President Roosevelt returned from the inaug-
ural ceremonies at the Capitol. When he
crossed the threshold for the first time as
&I,&
small army of attaches and servants, many of
whom to their SURPRISE he called by name