Main Content

Mr. Truman's Renovation: White House Grand Staircase

Mr. Truman's Renovation: White House Grand Staircase

Date of Work: August 4, 1952
Medium: Photo
Credit: National Archives and Records Administration

View of the Grand Staircase leading from the entrance Hall to the second floor living quarters of the White House, August 4, 1952. During the renovation the stairway was redesigned so that it would open onto the Entrance Hall for greater ceremonial effect.

You Might Also Like

Foreword; White House History Number 29

Special spaces at the White House are usually those created by the presidents for their own use while resident there....
The White House as Home and Symbol

Although today's mailboxes are filled with magazines, catalogs, and bills, they lack an abundance of personal letters. The technologies of...
Gallery Mr. Truman's Renovation: Workmen

As skilled craftsmen molded the raw materials into finished floors, walls, and ceilings, Abbie Rowe captured on film the contributions...
Gallery The Return of the Chief

On the evening of March 27, 1952, in a small ceremony at the entrance door, President Truman received a gold key to...
Gallery A Modern House for the President

By the summer of 1951 most interior partitions were complete. Service areas were modern and functional, bearing no visible similarity to...
Gallery Mr. Truman's Renovation: Demolition

To provide solid support for the interior walls, crews poured 126 new reinforced concrete support columns to a depth of 25 feet....
Gallery Mr. Truman's Renovation: Transformation

Abbie Rowe's photographs captured the drama of the interior space as floors were removed to reveal levels above and below....
Gallery Mr. Truman's Renovation

Abbie Rowe's photographs of the Truman renovation of the White House form a unique and invaluable visual record of one...
Gallery The White House is Falling Down

"The damned place is haunted, sure as shootin. . . . You and Margie had better come back and protect me before some...
Photo The State Dining Room, 1902

This photograph of the State Dining Room was taken in 1903 during the Theodore Roosevelt administration. In 1902 President Roosevelt spearheaded a l...
Photo Visitors Tour the White House, 1890s

The East Room draws tourists in the 1890s, during the second Cleveland administration, to admire the "New Grecian" decorations that...
Architecture: 1790s-1840s

1790sThe Presidents House was a major feature of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the city of Washington. He envisioned a...