Family Dining Room

The Family Dining Room is a dining room located on the State Floor of the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States. The room is used for smaller, more private meals than those served in the State Dining Room. Used in the 1800s as a space for the First Family to have their meals, the Family Dining Room was used less for family meals and more for working lunches and small dinners in the 20th and 21st centuries. (Family dinners are now more often served on the Second Floor in the President's Dining Room.)

Architect James Hoban's 1792 design for the White House featured a Grand Stair in the western part of the mansion on the State Floor. Not completed when the White House was occupied in 1800, the Grand Stairs were probably finished by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1803 or shortly thereafter. To the north of this wing was a Public Dining Room and (between the dining room and the entrance hall) a Porter's Lodge and a narrow, winding Private Stair. To the south of the Grand Stair was a smaller room, to be used as a Cabinet Room or President's Library. To the east of this room was a President's Antechamber (later known as the Red Room). An oval-shaped Drawing Room (now the Blue Room) and a Common Dining Room (now the Green Room) served as additional dining and living space.

During the presidential administration of Thomas Jefferson, the Common Dining Room rather than the Public Dining Room was used primarily for family meals. At Jefferson's request, Latrobe drafted plans for altering the State Floor. In 1807, he proposed turning the Porter's Lodge into a sitting room, and partitioning the Public Dining Room. The eastern part of the room would contain a toilet and dressing room, while the western two-thirds of the room would become a bedroom. Latrobe envisioned this as private space for the president to use during the day, or as quarters for a high-ranking presidential aide. Latrobe's changes, however, were never implemented.

Following the Burning of Washington and the near-destruction of the White House in 1814, the State Floor was rebuilt. This 1817 recreation saw the old Cabinet Room/Presidential Library turned into the State Dining Room, and the President's Antechamber into a Yellow Parlor. The Public Dining Room now became the Private Dining Room. The room was partitioned to make it smaller, and the western third of the room turned into a pantry. President James Monroe gave State Dinners in the Private Dining Room from 1817 to 1825, and subsequent presidents used it as a formal dining room for the First Family or as a space for official but small official events. An 1829, 18-light chandelier (fueled by whale oil and of unknown make) was moved from the East Room into the State Dining Room in 1834 to provide light. In time, the term "Family Dining Room" began to replace the name "Private Dining Room."

In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant rebuilt the Grand Stair. Now, only a single staircase led up the north wall to the landing, while a second stair on the south wall led from the landing to the Second Floor. Because so much new room was created on the landing by this renovation, this area on the State Floor became known as the West Sitting Hall.

In 1880, during the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes, First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes purchased a large mahogany table and a sideboard from Henry L. Fry of Cincinnati, Ohio. The table was transformed into a console table two years later. During the first administration of President Chester A. Arthur, the D.C. firm of W. B. Moses & Son manufactured a large table for the dining room, which could be extended with leaves, and a mahogany sideboard. An oak sideboard was supplied by John C. Knipp & Brothers of Baltimore. Eighteen leather-upholstered dining room chairs were ordered in 1882 from Hertz Brothers of New York, and another 12 more in 1883. A few years later, 22 copies of these chairs were manufactured by Daniel G. Hatch & Company of Washington, D.C. But by 1901, these 40 chairs were moved to the State Dining Room.

The White House was extensively renovated in 1902, during which the Stair Hall and its staircase were demolished and the State Dining Room expanded northward. Renovations by architect Charles Follen McKim during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt architecturally transformed the Family Dining Room. Using White House architect James Hoban's groin vaulted ground floor hall ceilings as a model, McKim installed a similar groin vault ceiling. The surface was articulated with a low relief plaster meander (Greek key) and five-pointed star decoration, and an eagle within a laurel wreath on the east wall above the mantel. McKim commissioned the Boston furniture manufacturer A. H. Davenport and Company to build a somewhat overscaled Federal-style sideboard, china cabinet, and dining table. Reproduction Chippendale-style sidechairs replaced the series of Victorian chairs used in the nineteenth century. The style combined both Jacobean and Chippendale styles. McKim also ordered a new mahogany console table based on Anthony Quervelle's 1829 console table (made for the East Room, but since about 1860 having stood in the Family Dining Room), and a new mirror.

To light the room, McKim hired Edward F. Caldwell & Co. of New York to design a new chandelier and wall sconces for the room. The chandelier design was copied from 18th-century English and French chandeliers, and cut glass was used for the chandelier and wall sconces.