Roosevelt Room

George W Bush meeting in the Roosevelt Room in 2008, looking southeast
(directly across from the door at center is the Oval Office) (Architectural Digest)

The "Fish Room"   Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt as a Rough Rider The windowless Roosevelt Room serves as a daily meeting room room for White House staff and room for multimedia presentations.Situated across from the Oval Office, it often serves as a staging area for delegations preparing to meet the president. The room occupies the original site of the president's office when the West Wing was built in 1902. Seven years later, the room became a part of two waiting rooms when the West Wing was expanded and the Oval Office was built. When Franklin Roosevelt relocated the Oval Office from the center of the building to the southeast corner in 1934, this room received a skylight. Franklin Roosevelt called this room the Fish Room, where he displayed an aquarium and fishing mementos. John Kennedy continued the room's nautical theme by mounting a sailfish that he caught in Acapulco, Mexico. President Richard Nixon named the room in 1969 to honor Theodore Roosevelt for building the West Wing and Franklin Roosevelt for expanding it. President Carter, who used the President's Dining Room as a study, liked to host working breakfasts and lunches here. Among the decor in the room is Theodore Roosevelt's 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, the first Nobel Prize won by an American. Traditionally, portraits of both Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt are displayed in the room, with the Rough Rider portrait of TR over the mantel. Today the room is used as a conference room and features a multimedia center for presentations. It is approximately 25 feet wide and 35 feet long. The table seats 16, but seating to the sides accommodates additional staff members for meeting staff meetings, presentations, and other gatherings.

More Images

Roosevelt Room in 2007, showing the false skylight (White House - Eric Draper)

3D model of the Roosevelt Room looking east (Peter Sharkey)

3D model of the Roosevelt Room looking west (Peter Sharkey)

George W Bush meeting in the Roosevelt Room in 2006, looking southeast (White House)

Roosevelt Room in 2005, looking west (White House)

George W Bush teleconferencing with astronauts in 2005 (NASA [White House - Paul Morse)

George W Bush using the "blue goose" lectern to give a radio address in 2005 (White House - Kimberlee Hewitt)

Roosevelt Room, circa 2004, looking south

The Roosevelt Room, circa 1995, looking southeast

Vice-President Al Gore meeting with C Everett Coop and others in the Roosevelt Room, circa 1994, looking east (Clinton Library)

President Clinton in the Roosevelt Room in 1993, looking east

The room in 1983, looking northeast (Reagan Library)

The Roosevelt Room around 1979, looking northeast (White House Historical Association)

Jimmy Carter having breakfast with the joint chiefs of staff in 1977, looking west (NARA - Carter Library)

Jimmy Carter meeting on coal energy in 1977, looking east (NARA - Carter Library)

Jimmy Carter having lunch with Senators Jackson and Nunn in 1977, looking northeast (NARA - Carter Library)

Gerald Ford meeting with his staff in1975, looking northeast (NARA - Ford Library)

Gerald Ford meeting with his staff, circa 1974, looking northeast (Ford Library)

Richard Nixon meeting with his staff in the recently-dedicated Roosevelt Room, circa 1972, looking southwest (Mason University)

LBJ accepts a turkey in the "Fish Room" in 1967 (Johnson Library)

White House Aide Jack Valenti and State Dept. Chief of Protocol Hand in 1965 (Life)

Briefing by presidential physician Janet Travelle, around 1963 (Life | Joe Scherschel)

Briefing by the presidential physician, around 1963 (Life | Joe Scherschel)

JFK briefs the press on Cuba in 1962 (Corbis)

John Kennedy's sailfish in the Fish Room in 1962 (White House Historical Association)

John Kennedy in the Fish Room in 1961 (NARA - Robert Knudsen)

Dwight Eisenhower in the Fish Conference Room in 1960 with the Corona space capsule (Eisenhower Library)

Dwight Eisenhower signing the St. Lawrence Seaway Act in 1954 (Eisenhower Library)

White House press adivisor Edwin W Pauley holds a press conference in 1945 (Life)

White House press adivisor Edwin W Pauley holds a press conference in 1945;
(note the same mantelpiece as the original Roosevelt 1904 office at bottom) (Life)

White House employees are fingerprinted in 1939;
(the framed poster at right depicts various big game fish) (Library of Congress - Harris & Ewing)

Executive clerk WS Crawford in 1925 (Library of Congress)

The Congressional Waiting Room around 1909 (Library of Congress - Harris & Ewing)

The Congressional Waiting Room around 1909 (Library of Congress - Barnett McFee Clinedinst)