New front page

Got tired of the dull black and white photo of the swimming pool on the front page and replaced it with a cheery yellow pic of Betty Ford in the Solarium.

Also added the Kennedy Yellow Oval Room, LBJ taking a meeting in bed, JFK lying in state in the East Room, and a page for FDR's third floor Diet Kitchen.

Visitor James suggested that I add more historical anecdotes, which sounds like a good idea. I'll add some bits I've gleaned from JB West's book and elsewhere.

Third floor gala reopening

Arrived home to find the 1952 Report of the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion waiting for me, as ordered thru Amazon's used book function. This terrific book (thanks to John for the tip!) contains color photos from 1952 of the state floor rooms and the Lincoln Bedroom (which I'll photograph and add) and an appendix with all four floors of the Residence laid out!

I spent the night redrawing the third floor plan based on that layout. It allowed me to identify the location of a few more pictures from the Truman library (such as the Cedar Room), as well as some great shots of W in the Workout Room (provided by Pete). I still need to do a bit more work cleaning up the 1992 HABS photos and creating a couple new pages, including one for the Diet Kitchen.

Second floor fill

After reading the terrific chapters on the Truman-era White House in JB West's book, Upstairs at the White House, I did a little bit of cleanup on the second floor and went back into the Truman archives to fill in a few little holes here and there.


Also added a pic of JFK and one of Tom Ridge in the Mess Hall.

West Wing additions

Made some more additions to the West Wing, namely adding a page for the ground floor Mess Hall and hotspots for a couple of corridors and the lobby, as well as redoing the second floor layout based on Pete's improved version, complete with labels for the more important offices.

Made a few other futzy text additions here and there, including the Family Theater, Map Room, Vermeil Room. But it's time to go to bed; I just nodded off and typed about 3,000 letter "k"s.

East Wing and West Wing tweaks

Redid the West Wing ground floor with a revised layout from Pete that better illustrates the relationship between the Situation Room and the Swimming Pool cabana above it (and connected to it by a staircase). I also added a page for the Sit Room.

Also, I filled in some of the mystery space in the East Wing with the help of the (sketchy) layout in the appendix of Designing Camelot. While I was doing that, I came across new pictures of the Family Theater showing that it was redecorated in 2004, which I wasn't aware of.

Second floor revisited

I've uploaded a new version of the family residence second floor based on a close look at a Truman-era floor plan sent by visitor John. This made me believe that the Kitchen's spiral staircase does not go up into the second floor, altho the elevator definitely does. Instead a small bathroom first installed by TR and later rebuilt by Truman to be more practical is probably still there, just made smaller.

I also made some minor additions elsewhere, including the Oval Office, Red Room, Blue Room, Press Corps Offices, Basement, Bowling Alley, and Residence pages.

West Wing ground floor and more

Visitor Pete sent a floor plan for the ground floor of the West Wing. I don’t have words to describe how great this is. I have to make one up: fanblastular (noun form: fanblastulence). I used it to create a floor plan to match the others I've done and posted that. In the coming days, I'll create pages for the Lobby, Photo Office, Navy Mess, and Situation Room. I also linked to Pete's incredible 3D Oval Office model. Once again, my thanks to Pete!

I also added a few photos in various places, including the Cabinet Room and Yellow Oval Room and improved several others (from higher quality sources or by reprocessing for color and brightness). And I also separated the questions & answers into a new page and updated the site map.

I've gotten a number of e-mails from regular visitors that I haven't had time to respond to yet, but I will. By chance, both John and Pete sent me scans of the same West Wing Lobby pic. Thanks guys!