Family Kitchen

Casual Cooking

Variously used as a sitting room for the guests who stayed in the Prince of Wales Room (now the Private Dining Room), as well as a small bedroom, this room was converted into a chef's kitchen for the first family by Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961 when the Private Dining Room was established.

The room was a bedroom for Eliza Johnson, Frances Cleveland, Ethel Roosevelt (daughter of Theodore, who had a bathroom built in the corner for her), Lorena Hickok (friend of Eleanor Roosevelt), Minnie Doud, and Margaret Truman. It was a nursery-bedroom to the Benjamin Harrison grandchildren.

In the Truman reconstruction, the room was rebuilt as a bedroom for Margaret with a new bathroom and the fireplace was moved from the west wall to the southwest corner. During the 1961 renovation that turned it into a simple kitchen, the Kennedys had the kitchen elevator rerouted to open into this room's little hallway.

Although the kitchen was used by first families occasionally (President Ford even showed the press his English muffin-making skills), it remained a chef's kitchen until the Clintons renovated it into more of a traditional family kitchen, where the first family could have informal breakfasts. Bill Clinton often watched football and basketball games on a television in the kitchen with White House butlers.