page_title: East Room
section_title: 1952 Truman restoration
hierarchical_section_title: East Room / 1952 Truman restoration
caption_attribution_description: General notes: The East Room of the White House, with portraits of George and Martha Washington on the walls. From an album of photographs by Abbie Rowe of the White House after the 1949 renovation.
context_page_description: The East Room is an event and reception room in the White House, the home of the President of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Mansion; it is used for dances, receptions, press conferences, ceremonies, concerts, and banquets. The East Room was one of the last rooms to be finished and decorated, and it has undergone substantial redecoration over the past two centuries. Since 1964, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House has, by executive order, advised the President of the United States and First Lady of the United States on the decor, preservation, and conservation of the East Room and other public rooms at the White House.
context_section_description: By the late 1940s, the East Room—along with the rest of the White House—was in such poor shape that its structural integrity was at risk. President Harry S. Truman was attending a concert in the East Room on February 11, 1947, when he was informed that the ceiling of the room was being pulled down by the weight of the chandeliers. The following day, the chandeliers were taken down. On October 26, 1948, plaster fell from the ceiling of the East Room, exposing a 12-foot-long (3.7 m) crack in the ceiling. Engineers discovered that the ceiling had also dropped by 0.5 feet (0.15 m). The East Room was cleared of all furniture, and floor-to-ceiling X-shaped wooden braces erected in the room to stabilize it. The room was then sealed off. Engineers with the Public Building Administration and White House staff feared the entire building could collapse. President and Mrs. Truman left the White House on September 27, 1948, for a 45-day nationwide political barnstorming tour. When they returned to the White House on November 5, they were immediately informed that the White House had to be evacuated. The White House was closed to the public on November 7, and after a two-week vacation in Key West, Florida, the Trumans moved into Blair House on November 21, 1948.
  During the Truman White House reconstruction that began in 1949, the East Room was found to be in very poor condition. Previous renovations had seriously damaged the interior walls. In one 24-foot-long (7.3 m) section of wall, no fewer than five doors had been cut through the masonry, severely weakening it. Paneling, windows, and furnishings were dismantled, numbered, and stored. Although great care was taken in removing the plasterwork, there was no way to avoid cracking it during removal. Molds were made from the originals, and new plasterwork installed. Even so, architect Lorenzo Winslow simplified many of the designs before they were cast, allegedly to make them look less Renaissance Revival and more "American". Less care was taken in removing the woodwork, some of which was damaged when pried loose. Other pieces were too brittle to be reused, and what could be reused had to be restored (often by removing many layers of paint). But by late 1951, with the White House renovation months behind, costs soaring, and President Truman demanding that the work be sped up, workers found it easier to machine new pieces than restore old wood. All of the paneling for the East Room was condemned as unfit for reuse, whether it was actually unusable or not, and replaced with new wood. (Although some of the East Room woodwork would be chopped up for souvenirs, most of it was used as landfill at Fort Myer in Arlington County, Virginia.) The new panelling was also simpler and had considerably less presence, and was covered in a somewhat lighter color than the 1902 paint. A simpler crown molding and ceiling medallions were also installed. The Herter pilasters and Piccirilli marble panels were either lost or too damaged to be reused during removal, and their fate remains unclear. To cut costs, the replacement entablature was made of a composite glue and sawdust mixture pressed into forms rather than carved from wood. While the feeling was similar, the robust architectural effect was diminished. Red marble mantels were installed, and the remaining Venetian window in the room was narrowed to help create the "American" feel. (The 1902 mantels were given away.) The East Room's chandeliers were rewired and cleaned. The size of the large chandeliers was reduced by several inches, assuming their correct size (68 inches [170 cm] wide and 129 inches [330 cm] high). They were also outfitted with softer internal illumination, and the chains holding the chandeliers shortened. The East Room also had a new parquet floor in a style taken from a design at the Palace of Fontainebleau, and silk curtains over the windows.
  The Truman administration did not seek, nor did it receive, many donations of furniture for the White House during the 1952 renovation. But two items were received which made it into the East Ro
caption: The East Room after its 1949–1952 restoration was completed
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