Upstairs at the White House

by J. B. West

  On March 1, 1941, I’d walked up the steps of the White House, awed by the liveried doorman, by the immense white columns, by the majesty of the mansion.

  On March 1, 1969, my last day, I had lunch in the White House kitchen. Just Zella and me. They’d asked to give me a retirement party, but this was the way I wanted it. (Later, to my surprise, a crowd of about 300 of my friends took over the Carter Barron Amphitheatre in Washington to celebrate the fact that I was no longer in the White House.)

  After lunch, Rex, who’d been there all week, Zella and I went upstairs to see Mrs. Nixon. It was our own little changing-of-the-guard ceremony. I said goodbye to the First Lady, and we went home.

  I feel that I caught only a fleeting glimpse of Pat Nixon during her first six weeks in the White House. I saw only her First Lady face, the public poise, the correct mannerisms, the erect posture of a woman who, through no fault of her own, had been photographed almost constantly for twenty-three years.

  She always seemed to be too thin; she wore high-necked, long sleeved dresses, tasteful but subdued. Her facial expression, always pleasant, rarely changed, and at times was almost rigid.

  Yet she often showed warmth and spontaneity—it seemed perfectly natural for her to scoop up a crying child in her arms; to say “I just love you,” to an old Senate friend; to embrace a former First Lady in as close to a bearhug as somebody her size could give.

  Gestures such as these always seemed somewhat of a surprise coming from Mrs. Nixon—because she was always so composed.

  There was a serenity about Pat Nixon, that, I think, may have covered a lot of tough scar tissue. She’d had to work hard, very hard as a child on a farm in Nevada; she was orphaned and had to educate herself; she had to survive in the national spotlight; and live through two heartbreaking political campaigns.

  All the First Ladies I’ve known have been exceptionally strong in spirit. They came in that way, because they’d been able to share their husbands’ grueling political road to the White House. They’d all learned to be on display, and at the same time to find some way to guard their private moments. They’d learned organization, discipline, self-control, composure—all their tools before they got to the White House. They’d learned how to be of use to their husbands, and what their husbands needed from them.

  And each of them has performed a great public service to the people of America, filling a role that is nonappointive, nonelective, certainly nonpaid, the most demanding volunteer job in America.

  Far from being a “glamorous prison,” or as Harry Truman called it, “This jailhouse I’m in,” the White House is a pretty wonderful place to live, I think. Because of the constant protection from the outside world, families get to spend a lot more time together than they ever did before. Despite all the pressures and burdens, the White House is great for family life. They’re all insulated together. The distance between the west wing and the second floor is not a long commute.

  There are drawbacks to living in the White House, certainly. Even inside, it’s a goldfish bowl, unless you’re sequestered behind closed bedroom doors. The second floor is like a long one-story house—houseguests are right in your lap. (How would you like it if the Queen of England were sleeping right down the hall?) And there are always eyes. Not the Secret Service so much—they’re looking at everybody else. It’s the eyes of the public, the visitors, the help, always staring, perhaps involuntarily, trying to catch the President and First Lady being human. Their only escape is with each other.

  I think all the First Ladies would agree that life there, even for four short years—or “one shining moment”—was worth all the effort.

  I came back as a guest at a ceremony celebrating Mrs. Nixon’s acquisition of a fine portrait of James Madison, one that Mrs. Johnson had wanted for the White House.

  As I went through the receiving line, President Nixon said to me, “Mr. West, after all you’ve done for this house, you’re welcome here any time.”

  “Thank you, sir,” I replied.

  I do think rather highly of the place.

  Image Gallery

  A favorite picture of President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, photographed the summer before Pearl Harbor, which they sent to friends at Christmas, 1941. Mrs. Roosevelt’s hands were always busy. If she weren’t writing, she would be knitting, as in this picture.

  President Roosevelt never let his simple wooden wheelchair show in his public appearances until the last year of his life. Here, in his bedroom, it sits in a corner next to the window.

  In addition to ship prints and photographs of family triumphs, Mr. Roosevelt collected small donkey statues—the symbol of the Democratic Party.

  President Roosevelt’s bedroom, adjoining his oval study on the second floor, contained a modified hospital bed and a heavy wardrobe. Interspersed with the President’s naval prints are early scenes of the White House and photographs of the President’s family, including (left) a large photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt.

  Mrs. Roosevelt’s sitting room was “papered” with photographs of the Roosevelt family and friends, including her uncle, Theodore Roosevelt. Here she entertained family and personal visitors and listened to the radio (corner, on chest). Mrs. Roosevelt herself slept in a single bed in the smaller room attached.

  President Roosevelt’s oval study on the second floor of the White House. His desk, a gift to the United States from Queen Victoria, was used in this room by President Truman prior to 1948. President Kennedy had it in his office in the west wing.

  President Truman’s bedroom, with the antique four-poster later used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson as well. In corner beside bed is a replica of the Presidential seal, on top of radio. Andrew Jackson, one of Mr. Truman’s favorite Presidents, looks out from the wall.

  Mrs. Truman’s bedroom, formerly Mrs. Roosevelt’s bedroom. As in her sitting room, the colors were lavender and gray, and she had her wardrobe doors covered to match the curtains. At left is a corner of the narrow single bed in which she slept, as did Mrs. Roosevelt before her. Beside the fireplace, the utilitarian hair dryer.

  President Truman’s study, early 1948 (prior to the renovation of the White House). On the desk are photographs of his daughter, Margaret, and a young Bess Truman. On the wall to the left of the fireplace is a portrait of Mr. Truman’s mother. To the right of the fireplace is the White House piano placed in the room by Mr. Truman.

  Mrs. Truman’s sitting room, prior to the renovation. Mrs. Truman selected the colors, lavender, gray, and mauve, and the flowered chintz curtains during her husband’s first two weeks as President. The furniture, all White House property, had been used elsewhere in the White House under the Roosevelts.

  Inside the White House—upstairs, downstairs, and no stairs—during the renovation of the White House. In this photograph, made June 6, 1950, steel braces support the outside walls while excavation begins for a new basement. At left is the north wall, which faces Pennsylvania Avenue.

  Heavy Victorian mirrors such as this were prominent in all the family rooms and guest rooms in the prerestoration White House. (This room, across the hall from the President’s study, overlooking the North Portico, was used by Joseph Lash under the Roosevelts, then by Reathel Odum, Mrs. Truman’s secretary.)

  President and Mrs. Truman move back into the White House after 1948–52 renovation, March 27, 1952. To welcome the Trumans, left, behind the President, Usher Charles Claunch; behind Mrs. Truman, Chief Usher Howell G. Crim; at door, right, Alonzo Fields, maître d’, whose sturdy steps caused the chandeliers to tremble; and the author, J. B. West, then assistant to the Chief Usher.

  The Center Hall, second floor of the White House, prior to the renovation. Mr. Truman’s official portrait by Greta Kempton is on left (north wall). William M. Chase portrait of President James Buchanan on right (south wall). Doorway, center right wall, leads to the President’s Study; arched doorway, center of photograph, leads to East Sitting Hall. President Truman’s portrait was later (January, 1953)
placed on the state floor.

  West Sitting Hall, under the Trumans. Greta Kempton’s portrait of Margaret Truman is on the north wall. This White House furniture, all reproductions, was retired to the warehouse during the 1961–63 renovation.

  Chief Usher J. B. West stands to the right of Mary Jane McCaffree, social secretary to Mrs. Eisenhower, and Major Armand C. Elzey, senior social aide, in the Diplomatic Recreation Room, ground floor of the White House.

  The portrait above the mantel, one of the finest in the White House collection, is of Angelica Singleton Van Buren, daughter-in-law of and White House hostess to President Martin Van Buren (painted in 1842 by Henry Inman).

  The President’s bedroom, used by Mr. Eisenhower as a dressing room and for naps, was decorated during the 1948–52 renovation. Above the bed is a Colorado landscape painted by Mr. Eisenhower. Painting at left is of the President’s grandchildren, David and Barbara Ann Eisenhower.

  The Eisenhowers’ king-sized bed, with the pink-tufted headboard designed by Mrs. Eisenhower, was covered with a bedspread in the same pink-and-green fabric as the curtains, which the First Lady had brought across the hall from Margaret Truman’s sitting room. The walls and carpet were Williamsburg green, the bench, chair at left, and dust ruffle in the same pink as the headboard. The painting above the bed is a landscape by Mr. Eisenhower.

  The Trophy Room, also used by President Eisenhower as a study. The room, on the second floor, is oval, as is the President’s official office in the west wing. Mr. Eisenhower’s desk was a gift to the White House during the 1948–52 renovation. The portrait on the wall is of President Eisenhower’s father, David Jacob Eisenhower.

  President Eisenhower’s study was known as the Trophy Room because it contained a large case displaying all of his medals, military decorations, and citations from foreign governments. On the round table is the Order of the Elephant, presented to General Eisenhower by the government of India.

  The West Sitting Hall, under the Eisenhowers in the same red “George Washington” toile fabric of the Trumans’ renovation. Here, the President and Mrs. Eisenhower, with Mrs. Doud, Mrs. Eisenhower’s mother, had dinner on tray tables, nearly every night, while watching the news on the new television set (built into the north wall, at right). Portrait on south wall (left) is of the Eisenhowers’ son, John, while a cadet at West Point.

  “I want to make this the most beautiful Christmas ever,” said Mrs. Eisenhower of her last Christmas in the White House, 1960. As in past years, she decorated the front lobby with ropes of holly, Christmas-tree balls, wreaths, big red bows, lights, red poinsettias with white-sprayed branches.

  The Grand Staircase, seen from the main entrance hall of the White House, early in the Eisenhower administration. Portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, by Frank O. Salisbury, faces the lobby; on the staircase wall are earlier Presidents, from the collection of official White House portraits.

  President and Mrs. Eisenhower celebrating their wedding anniversary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1, 1955. The party for White House staff was also the occasion of a housewarming at the newly renovated farmhouse. Here J. B. West presents President and Mrs. Eisenhower with a gift from the White House staff—an engraved silver tray and table.

  In the Inaugural Parade reviewing stand in front of the White House, January 20, 1961. In the front row, left to right, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Mrs. John F. Kennedy, the newly inaugurated President, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, and the Kennedys’ friend William Walton. Second row, behind President Kennedy, is Mr. West, greeting former President and Mrs. Harry S. Truman. Seated beside the Trumans is Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. In the back row, behind Mr. Rayburn, new Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon (standing) and Mrs. Dillon.

  The Center Hall, as used by the Eisenhowers, was decorated in beige during the renovation, with accents of red in the sofa and chairs. The crystal chandeliers were acquired during the renovation. Portrait of George Washington is at left.

  The Center Hall on the second floor, after the Kennedy restoration, was filled with antique furniture and objets d’art. In the right corner, beside the door, is the black baby grand piano that had been in President Truman’s study. Chinese lacquer screens, a gift to the White House, add interest to the doorway. On the north wall, right, are paintings of American Indians by George Catlin that Mrs. Kennedy borrowed from the Smithsonian.

  The rose, white, and blue Monroe Room, where President Eisenhower played bridge, was changed to the Treaty Room during the Kennedy restoration. Here, as it was under the Eisenhowers, portraits of President and Mrs. James Monroe hang over the mantel. The fireplaces were never used by the Eisenhowers; Mrs. Eisenhower placed gold paper fans in each.

  The Treaty Room was the one room Mrs. Kennedy conceded to Victorian décor. The carpets and walls are dark green; draperies and wall pattern, dark red. Used as the Cabinet Room during the administration of Andrew Johnson, it contains copies of treaties signed in this room. On the wall to the right of the mirror is a portrait of President Andrew Johnson. The table, swivel chair, and clock were originally used in this room; the chairs at the table were used in the family dining room. The large crystal chandelier originally hung in the East Room.

  President Kennedy’s bedroom, with the antique four-poster that Truman had used. To ease his painful back Mr. Kennedy used the heating pad, on nigh table shelf, and the rocking chair. The President’s bedroom was off-white, with blue and white fabric for the canopy and bedspread. Painting on the wall is “Flag Day,” by Childe Hassam in 1917, a gift to the White House in 1963. This bedroom remained unchanged during the Johnson administration.

  Mrs. Kennedy’s bedroom was white, with accents of light blue in the silk curtains, bedspread, chair covering, and mats on the pictures. Above the chest, left of fireplace, is a pastel drawing of Caroline. On the floor, behind the silk-covered round table, is Caroline’s gingerbread house.

  The yellow oval room on the second floor, formerly a study for Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower (Trophy Room), opens onto the Truman balcony. It became a Louis XVVI drawing room during the Kennedy restoration and was the favorite room of Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. Nixon. Above the mantel is Rembrandt Peal’s portrait of George Washington. At the doorway leading to the President’s bedroom stand the colors—the United States flag and the President’s flag.

  Mrs. Kennedy’s dressing room, adjoining her bedroom via the mirrored door (right corner), was decorated in light-blue silk taffeta, with white rug and woodwork. On the table and right corner wall are family photographs. A trompe d’oeil painting decorates the closet doors.

  The West Sitting Hall, during the Kennedy administration, was transformed with antiques. At left, on the south wall, is a French Empire desk that belonged to Mrs. Kennedy’s father, John Vernou Bouvier. In the center of the hall is an antique mahogany and satinwood octagonal desk, a gift to the White House from New York entrepreneur Jules Stein. On the north wall, right, is an antique marble-top French commode, a gift to Mrs. Kennedy from President Charles de Gaulle of France.

  Mrs. Kennedy’s memo to Mr. West for selling the White House guidebook.

  Former President Harry S. Truman plays Paderewski’s Minuet in G on the Baldwin concert grand piano which was given to the White House during the Truman administration. The 1961 program in the East Room featured pianist Eugene List (standing behind Mr. Truman), who, as a soldier, had entertained the participants at the Potsdam Conference. President Kennedy, standing, is on his way to his front-row-center chair. Seated, left to right, former Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. Tom Clark, wife of the former Supreme Court Justice. Standing in the East Room doorway is J. B. West, Chief Usher of the White House.

  “Miss Ward,” Jacqueline Bouvier’s housemother at Miss Porter’s School (M.P.S.), as portrayed at the First Lady’s suggestion by J. B. West at a birthday party for Nancy Tuckerman, Mrs. Kennedy’s social secretary and former r
oommate at Miss Porter’s.

  Chief Usher J. B. West, with Mrs. Kennedy’s two social secretaries, Nancy Tuckerman (left, white dress) and Tish Baldrige (center, back to camera), at a farewell party for Tish in the China Room, on the ground floor of the White House. At right is Marine combo, who sang “Arrivederci Tish,” written by Mrs. Kennedy.

  The first snowfall of 1962 brought Mrs. Kennedy and the children to the south lawn, for a ride in an old-fashioned “one-horse open sleigh,” complete with sleigh bells. When the snow began to fall, Mrs. Kennedy sent for Caroline’s pony, Macaroni, and the sleigh, both of which were at Glen Ora, the Virginia country place the Kennedys had rented.