The White House in Washington DC has 132, 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, and 28 fireplaces.
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
The White House has 132 rooms.Everyone knows about the Oval Office, but not everyone knows about rooms like the Solarium, which was formerly a kindergarten.Business Insider rounded up a number of lesser-known rooms in the presidential residence, including a Chocolate Shop and the Flower Shop.Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The White House is America’s most famous residence — and one of the biggest, too.The massive complex at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue contains six levels, 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, and 28 fireplaces.Some of the White House’s most famous rooms include the Oval Office, the Situation Room, the Cabinet Room, and the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.But tucked away in the far reaches of the building are some of the more obscure, less heralded rooms of the White House: the Chocolate Shop, the Game Room, and the Solarium, to name a few. Read on to learn about 15 of the least-known rooms in the White House.
Music Room
Clinton in the Music Room in 1996.
Clinton Presidential Library
Hillary Clinton turned this sitting room on the third floor of the White House residence into a music room where Bill Clinton could play the saxophone.Source: The White House Museum
Workout Room
YouTube/Roll Call
Next to the Music Room on the third floor is the Workout Room, where presidents and their families can exercise at any time of the day.Before the 1990s, the room was a guest room and a sitting room.Source: The White House Museum
Chocolate Shop
C-SPAN
The Chocolate Shop is one of several kitchens in the White House. Located on the ground floor, the Chocolate Shop is where chefs make desserts and centerpieces for White House functions.It’s also where chefs prepare eggs for the annual Easter Egg Roll and assemble the gingerbread replica of the White House that graces the building each holiday season.Source: The White House Museum
Bowling Alley
Bettmann/Getty Images
Near the Chocolate Shop on the ground floor of the Residence is the Harry S. Truman Bowling Alley, an off-the-beaten-path favorite for visitors to the White House.The first White House Bowling Alley was built for Harry Truman in 1947, and Richard Nixon moved it to its current location below the entrance to the North Portico in 1969.Source: The White House Museum
Family Theater
Pete Souza/White House
The Family Theater is a 42-seat movie theater located in the East Wing of the White House, on the first floor. Movie studios make their films available for screenings at the theater upon presidential request, according to Variety, which noted that filmmakers relish the chance for their works to be seen by the president. In 2017, “Finding Dory” made headlines for being the first film screened in Donald Trump’s White House.Movies had been screened at the White House since Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, but it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who was responsible for turning a former cloakroom into the dedicated theater it is today. Source: The White House Museum
Map Room
Twenty-six candles were lit in the Map Room of the White House by the Obamas in honor of the Newtown shooting victims on Saturday, December 14, 2013, the one year anniversary of the massacre.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP Images
The Map Room, located on the ground floor, is used for small social gatherings and television interviews.The name comes from the room’s original use. During World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt used the room to consult maps to track the war’s progress — a task later presidents migrated to the Situation Room. Maps were organized by hemisphere, region, and theater of operation, according to the FDR Library.One notable map hanging on the walls pays homage to the Roosevelt era: a map of Europe showing Germany’s latest positions in the spring of 1945, shortly after Roosevelt’s death.Source: The White House Museum
Vermeil Room
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Adjacent to the China Room is the Vermeil Room, which houses a collection of gilded silver tableware. It was converted from a general social room in 1956 when the silver pieces were bequeathed to the White House by American heiress Margaret Thompson Biddle.The room is decorated with portraits of several first ladies.Source: The White House Museum
Family Dining Room
First Lady Laura Bush showing off new china in the Family Dining Room in 2009.
Ron Edmonds/AP Images
On the first floor of the Residence, there is a 28-feet by 25-feet room where the first family hosts small formal dinners.Not all families use the room for such reasons, and it frequently becomes an “overflow” room for staff members during dinners and events held in the more grandiose State Dining Room across the hall.Source: The White House Museum
Flower Shop
Pat Nixon arranging a bouquet in the White House Flower Shop in 1970
Richard Nixon Library
Just a few doors down from the Chocolate Shop and the Bowling Alley, the Flower Shop is where the White House florist purchases flowers in bulk and prepares them for official occasions like state functions and inaugurations, as well as for decoration around the building.Source: The White House Museum
Calligraphy Office
C-SPAN
Located on the second floor of the White House’s East Wing, the Graphics and Calligraphy Office is where the small team of White House calligraphers prepares invitations, place cards, and greetings for formal events.Source: The White House Museum
Solarium
Getty Images/David Hume Kennedy
The Solarium on the Residence’s top floor is where presidents and their families go to relax.The room has alternately been used for Mamie Eisenhower’s bridge parties, a kindergarten for Caroline Kennedy, a hangout for Lyndon Johnson’s teenage daughters, a study room for Rosalynn Carter, and a space for the Clintons to play board games.Richard Nixon was in the solarium with his family when he informed them he was stepping down as president, according to the White House Museum. And it’s also the room where Nancy Reagan was informed her husband had been shot.Source: The White House Museum
Game Room
Library of Congress
Not far from the Solarium is the Game Room, where presidents can wind down with a game of pool.A number of presidents have owned pool tables in the White House, at times housing them in the modern-day Map Room and Vermeil Room. It’s unclear when the Game Room — formerly a bedroom — became the designated pool space, but it dates back to at least the George H. W. Bush era, according to the White House Museum.Source: The White House Museum
Private Study
George H.W. Bush in the study in 1989.
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Moving over to the West Wing, the Private Study or Oval Office Study is a small working space immediately across from the Oval Office. It also contains a private bathroom and kitchenette.Source: The White House Museum
Navy Mess
White House
On the ground floor of the West Wing next to the Situation Room, you’ll find the Navy Mess or White House Mess, a small dining facility run by the US Navy.The dining room seats about 50 people and is not available to the public — but if you’re lucky, you could score an invitation from a senior White House official or Cabinet secretary.Source: The White House Museum
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