1902 White House renovation In 1901, Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt became
President of the United States following
the assassination of incumbent president
William McKinley. Upon moving into the White House, the Roosevelts found the
Victorian interiors crowded and dingy and generally too small for their large family. In 1902, a major renovation of the White House began to remove this
Victoriana and bring the building to modern standards. Roosevelt's wife,
Edith Roosevelt, worked with
Charles Follen McKim of
McKim, Mead, and White to achieve this renovation, which included the construction of a new Executive Office Building, now known as the
West Wing. As part of this renovation, all furniture in the White House was replaced with new pieces, including this desk. This refurnishing was done with the stated aim to "design and furnish the interior in harmony with its neoclassical exterior architecture, in order that it would not be subject to changing fashion." The pamphlet extolled the new furniture and interiors with, "It is to be hoped that Congress will not always consider the furniture of the President's House as the scapegoat of all sumptuary and aristocratic sins, and that we shall soon be able to introduce strangers not only to a comfortable and well-appointed, but to a properly served and nicely kept, Presidential Mansion." and wrapped up on September 29. The building was occupied in the middle of October. In 1903, the desk, as well as all other furniture in the Executive Office Building, was designed by McKim and built by furniture-maker
A. H. Davenport and Company in
Boston, Massachusetts. Roosevelt's successor, President
William Howard Taft, expanded the Executive Office Building further and added its first Oval Office. The desk was the first one to be used in the Oval Office and remained in the room for twenty years, being used by Presidents
Woodrow Wilson,
Warren G. Harding,
Calvin Coolidge, and
Herbert Hoover. The West Wing suffered a major fire on December 24, 1929, during
Herbert Hoover's presidency. This
four-alarm fire was the most destructive to strike the White House since the
Burning of Washington 115 years earlier. The fire was noticed at approximately 8 p.m. by White House messenger Charlie Williamson, and immediate action was taken to save items in the building.
Chief Usher Ike Hoover, the president's son
Allan Hoover, the president's personal secretaries Lawrence Richey and
George Akerson, and some
Secret Service agents crawled into the building through a window just to the left of the Theodore Roosevelt desk. They then began removing steel cabinets full of files, the chair at the president's desk, and the presidential flag. The desk survived this fire, was later fully repaired, and a duplicate of the desk was constructed. In December 1929, both desks were placed in storage. In 1945, the Theodore Roosevelt desk was brought back to the newly rebuilt Oval Office by Truman, who placed a sign reading "
The Buck Stops Here" on it. The desk was also used by
Dwight Eisenhower, who recorded conversations in the Oval Office with a microphone hidden in a fake desktop telephone, and briefly by
John F. Kennedy, before it was switched out in 1961 for the
Resolute desk.
Jacqueline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's wife, thought the more ornately carved
Resolute desk should be the most visible presidential desk.
Use by Nixon and by vice presidents When the
Resolute desk was placed in the Oval Office, the Theodore Roosevelt desk was moved to the Vice President's Ceremonial Office, where Vice President
Lyndon Johnson began using it. The desk has remained in this building since. It has been used by all vice presidents but one since Johnson in this room. Following the 1963
assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson did not vacate the Vice President's Ceremonial Office. He continued using room 274 as his working office out of respect for Kennedy, leaving his Vice President,
Hubert Humphrey, to work out of room 180 in the same building. The microphones were wired to an adjoining room where an audio mixer and sound recorder were housed. The telephone in this room was also tapped as part of a separate recording system. As part of this installation, a hole was drilled in the desktop to feed phone cables through and a recording apparatus was concealed in the left hand drawer of the desk. A lock was installed on this drawer to keep the device hidden. Some of the
Watergate tapes were made by these recording devices. The entire taping system was removed two days later, on July 18, 1973. In 2007, a two-alarm fire broke out in the Eisenhower Executive Office centered on an electrical closet, or telephone room, near the Vice President's Ceremonial Office. There were no serious injuries. It is unclear if the desk suffered any damage, but the office suffered smoke and water damage, with the floors described as being "under water." ==Timeline==