Sleeping Porch prior to Solarium

This black and white photograph of the White House sleeping porch was taken in 1920 during the Woodrow Wilson administration. William Howard Taft had the porch built on the roof of the White House in 1910 so his family could escape the hot summer nights of Washington, D.C. Taft's porch is considered the impetus for the Solarium that would be built during the 1927 renovation and expansion of the Third Floor of the Executive Mansion.