South View of the White House and Conservatories

This photograph print presents a south view of the White House and the adjacent Conservatories as they appeared around 1858. The greenhouse complex was connected with the West Terrace so that the first lady could easily gather flowers for social functions. In the late 1860s, President Ulysses S. Grant re-purposed the passageway between the Executive Mansion and the Conservatories into a Billiard Room. The Conservatories were demolished in 1902 and replaced with the West Wing.