China Room

The China Collection

Once the quarters of a fireman hired by Martin Van Buren to stoke the massive furnace in today's Diplomatic Reception Room, McKim made it a cloakroom in 1902. The "Presidential Collection Room" was designated by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson in 1917 to display the growing collection of White House china. Up to that time, presidential china was regularly sold at auction to help fund the purchase of new china.

Even so, almost every past president is represented in the China Room either by state or family china or glassware. The collection is arranged chronologically, beginning to the right of the fireplace.

This room is about 27 1/2 feet by 20 1/2 feet. It was was redecorated in 1970, retaining the traditional red color scheme determined by the portrait of Mrs. Calvin Coolidge—painted by Howard Chandler Christy in 1924. Its red theme continues in the red velvet-lined cabinets, silk taffeta draperies and the early 20th-century Indo-Ispahan rug. The cut-glass chandelier, made about 1800, is in the English Regency style.

Flanking the portrait of Mrs. Coolidge are Chippendale sidechairs used by President George Washington in the earlier presidential residences in New York and Philadelphia. The painting above the mantel, "View on the Mississippi Fifty-Seven Miles Below St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis", was completed by Ferdinand Richardt in 1858—the year Minnesota achieved statehood.

Of this room, Mrs. Hoover wrote:

But the China Room in the Hoover era had besides its museum use a human role. In winter the President's morning ball cabinet met there for its after-game fruit and coffee and administrative gossip, before family breakfast table claimed the players.

Men's Lavatory

The China Room provides access to a men's lavatory. When it was first added, it was a women's lavatory, and the ladies' room off the Vermeil Room was a men's room.