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Living Quarters on the Ground Floor
White House staff who lived at the President’s House during the nineteenth century, including enslaved and free African Americans, usually had rooms in the basement. Open at the ground level on the south, the basement (referred to as the Ground Floor today) had windows on the north side facing a dry moat that was entirely hidden from view. Visitors on
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The Butler's Role at a State Dinner with Royal Visitors
Prior to the 1939 visit of the queen and king of England, Eleanor Roosevelt received a State Department memorandum, listing various rules of protocol. Mrs. Roosevelt became concerned about the order in which the Roosevelts, and the queen and king, should be served at the state dinner honoring the royal couple.1"I told Franklin," Mrs. Roosevelt recalled, "that British protocol required
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The President and His Steward Meet with a Calamity
John Quincy Adams hired Antoine Michel Giusta as his valet after they met in Belgium in 1814. Giusta was a deserter from Napoleon's army. During the time John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams were living in London, Giusta married Mrs. Adams's maid. Antoine and his wife had managed the Adams' households from the time the Adamses returned to the United
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The White House Usher on the Role of Television
"Largely through television," notes historian William Seale, the White House "is the best known house in the world, the instantly familiar symbol of the Presidency, flashed daily on millions and millions of TV screens everywhere."1J. B. West was Assistant Chief Usher at the White House from 1941 to 1957, and Chief Usher from 1957 to 1969. During the Eisenhower administration, West had an
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Three Ushers Foil an Assassin
Thomas F. Pendel was a White House doorman from the Abraham Lincoln administration to the turn of the 20th century. By the time Chester A. Arthur succeeded James A. Garfield in September 1881, Pendel had experienced the assassinations of both Lincoln and Garfield.Even before Arthur moved into the White House, a man who "seemed perfectly rational" came to the Executive
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A Mirror on America
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Scholarship
Preface - The White House in Gingerbread
My memories transport me back to a time, just a few years ago and a few days before Christmas, when I was the White House executive pastry chef and the annual White House holiday parties have come to an end. We are busily cleaning the Pastry Shop. This is the time of year we go through everything—every refrigerator, walk-in co
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Scholarship
Gingerbread for Home Kitchens
This recipe is suited for the home kitchen and will produce enough gingerbread to make a house using the template provide in the back pocket of The White House in Gingerbread: Memories & Recipes book. Makes 2 sheets (12 x 18") Use a 5-quart mixing bowl Ingredients3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 5 ounces molasses (liquid measure) 5 ounces honey (
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Scholarship
The Presidential Sweet Tooth
As the holidays approach, thoughts inevitably turn to sugar plums, gingerbread, and all of the other delectable treats that season brings with it. Sweets signal the changing of seasons and the arrival of holidays, from cookies at Christmas to popsicles in the heat of summer. The same is true at the White House, where presidents and their families have enjoyed
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Scholarship
“A Place of Peace”
“He is an organizer, a methodizer, a man of decision, a judge of values, and above all he knows the worth of time,” wrote author Elbert Hubbard of George Bruce Cortelyou (1862-1940), whose mastery of many practical administrative matters and his ability to keep up with an enormous stream of paperwork made him the forerunner of today’s White House chiefs
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Scholarship
The Christmas Eve West Wing Fire of 1929
On Christmas Eve 1929 the White House experienced its most powerful fire since the British torched the Executive Mansion 115 years earlier. At approximately 8:00 p.m., White House messenger Charlie Williamson smelled smoke coming from the West Wing executive offices so he alerted White House police officer Richard Trice and Secret Service agent Russell Wood. Trice and Wood ran up a winding