Prince of Wales Room It may have been to this room that Mary Todd Lincoln referred when she wrote her cousin that, “We now occupy the state guest room”, because of renovations to their own bedrooms in October 1861. The Prince of Wales Room in the Northwest corner of the White House acquired its name […]

Guest Bedrooms Across from the Family Library were two guest rooms which had been divided in the previous decade by a small hallway leading to a window over the north portico – perfect for the President’s impromptu serenades.   In one of these guest bedrooms, Mrs. Lincoln spent the days after her husband’s assassination, having […]

John Hay’s and John Nicolay’s Bedroom The President’s secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay, shared a bedroom, where they occasionally received midnight visits by the President, who was a light sleeper. One night, when the President came by to report the latest military defeat, he admitted: “I believe I feel trouble in the air before […]

John Hay’s Office The office of John Hay, assistant secretary, was across the hall from that of the principal secretary, John Nicolay in the northeast corner of the White House. Thus, it was spared most of the traffic of those who sought to see the President in the office that adjoined Nicolay’s. As a result, […]

John Nicolay’s Office In John G. Nicolay’s office, Robert Todd Lincoln announced he had just told his father how to discipline Tad. “I have just had a great row with the President of the United States.” Next door to the Mr. Lincoln’s office, Nicolay’s office was the crossroads of White House activity. “The intense pressure […]

Stairs The main staircase to the second floor was used by persons seeking to visit the President. Presidential aide William O. Stoddard the days in March 1861 when, “for hours and hours, the anterooms and halls upstairs were so full that they would hold no more, and when the broad staircase itself was also packed […]

Changes in the White House Colonel of Zouaves, Elmer Ellsworth was killed while taking down a Confederate flag in Alexandria, Virginia. Ellsworth was a Chicagoan who was a close friend of President Lincoln’s family and accompanied him on his pre-inaugural trip to Washington. He moved into the White House and played regularly with the Lincoln… […]

Upstairs at the White House The second floor of the White House included the family quarters of the White House – as well as the offices and bedroom of Mr. Lincoln’s two principal aides. The office Mr. Lincoln called “the shop” was also the government’s crisis center. A crisis like the Civil War generates problems […]

Downstairs at The White House Most visitors to the White House never got beyond the first floor. Visitors to the Lincolns’ receptions on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons were primarily restricted to the central hall, the Blue Room, and the East Room. It was the first floor as well that was the site of official […]

Non Public Areas Shortly after the Civil War broke out, one of the pumps in the basement of the White House that supplied water to the upper levels broke down. No one knew how to fix it so the President got in his carriage and hunted down a Union officer who was supposed to be […]