| |
|
The Oval Office is the official office of the President of the United States, in the West Wing of the White House. George Washington specified a room's oval shape so during meetings, he could look into everyone's eyes. Originally, Washington wanted all the rooms in the White House oval but soon realized such a design was impractical.
On an early October morning in 1909, President William Howard Taft became the first President to walk into the Oval Office. Greeting the 27th President of the United States were silk velvet curtains and a checkerboard floor made of mahajua wood from the Philippines. Caribou hide tacked with brass studs covered the chairs in the room. President Taft chose the olive green color scheme.
The Oval Office was different from the office of his predecessor, President Theodore Roosevelt, who built the West Wing in 1902. Roosevelt's office was rectangular. Taft relocated the office and changed its shape to oval, like the Blue Room in the White House.
Preferences for oval rooms date to the time of President George Washington. At the president's home in Philadelphia, Washington had two rooms modified with a bowed-end in each that were used for hosting formal receptions called levees. As his guests formed a circle around him, Washington would stand in the center to greet them. With no one standing at the head or foot of the room, everyone was an equal distance from the president. The circle became a symbol of democracy, and Washington likely envisioned the oval Blue Room as the ideal place to host a levee.
President Taft intended the Oval Office to be the center of his administration, and by creating the Oval Office in the center of the West Wing, he was more involved with the day-to-day operation of his presidency than were his recent predecessors. In 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president, he had a new Oval Office constructed; he disliked the original central location because it lacked windows, as a result being entirely reliant on skylights. The new office's location also allowed presidents greater privacy, being able to slip back and forth between the main White House and the West Wing without being in full view of the West Wing staff, a problem with the two earlier offices.
Through the years, the Oval Office has become a symbol of the Presidency. Over the years, Americans developed an attachment to the Oval Office through memorable images, such as a young John F. Kennedy, Jr peering through the front panel of his father's desk or President Nixon talking on the phone with astronauts after a successful voyage. Television broadcasts, such as President Reagan's speech following the Challenger explosion, would leave lasting impressions in the minds of Americans of both the office and its occupant.