page_title: Green Room (White House)
section_title: Nixon refurbishment
hierarchical_section_title: Green Room (White House) / 1902 Roosevelt renovation / Nixon refurbishment
caption_attribution_description: English: First Lady Pat Nixon unveils her changes to the White House Green Room, 1971. WHPO C8019-08a
context_page_description: The Green Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor of the White House, the home of the President of the United States. It is used for small receptions and teas. During a state dinner, guests are served cocktails in the three state parlors before the president, first lady, and a visiting head of state descend the Grand Staircase for dinner. The room is traditionally decorated in shades of green.
  The room is approximately 28 by 22.5 feet. It has six doors, which open into the Cross Hall, East Room, South Portico, and Blue Room.
context_section_description: Many changes occurred during the Nixon administration under the direction of First Lady Pat Nixon. Clement Conger, the new White House curator appointed during the Nixon administration, had completed substantial Chippendale and Neoclassical interiors at the United States Department of State. In the Green Room, as well as in the Blue and Red rooms, Conger addressed correcting the generic traditional plaster moldings put in place during the Truman reconstruction, installing historically accurate crown moldings and ceiling medallions. Conger commissioned Edward Vason Jones and David Byers to design new drapes of striped cream, green, and coral silk satin.  Conger and Jones cited illustrations shown in an early 19th-century pattern book belonging to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now called Historic New England). Coral and gilt ornamental cornices were constructed and installed above the windows. They were topped by hand-carved, gilded American eagles with outspread wings, a favorite decorative motif of the Federal period. The cornices are similar to those in the library of the Miles Brewton House in Charleston, South Carolina, and the South Drawing Room of the Sir John Soane House in London in the United Kingdom. Scalamandré produced a copy of the Kennedy-era moss green silk to be rehung on the walls.
  Conger also added several major pieces by Scottish-born New York cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe. They include a pair of work tables, side chairs with scroll arms, two card tables, and a pair of window benches. These replaced the more delicate Federal-era furniture approved by du Pont and Mrs. Kennedy. On the west wall above a Duncan Phyfe sofa, Conger hung a pair of gilded girandole "bullseye" wall sconces.
caption: First Lady Pat Nixon unveils her changes to the White House Green Room, 1971
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