Work The page's work life revolved around the
United States Capitol in the federal
capital city of
Washington, D.C. Officially a division (and operating under the authority and supervision) of the
Office of the Clerk of the
United States House of Representatives, the Page Program since 1827 / 1839, existed primarily to provide supplement support to various House of Representatives offices. Two full-time, adult employees of the Office of the Clerk served as "chief pages" (commonly referred to as work bosses), although some holders of this position self-titled themselves as "page supervisors" to avoid misidentification. These employees were not partisan, although there was one Republican Supervisor and one Democratic Supervisor to direct the day-to-day operations of the page groups and provide front-line adult supervision. Additionally, the Office of the Clerk employed a page coordinator to coordinate all aspects of page life, school, work, and dormitory and handle administrative responsibilities. Page responsibilities included taking statements from members of Congress after speeches (for the legislative journal, the
Congressional Record), printing and delivering vote reports to various offices, tending members' personal needs while on the floor of the House chamber, managing phones in the adjacent cloakrooms for the party caucases, and ringing the Capitol bells for upcoming votes. For work purposes, pages were divided into two groups,
Republican and
Democratic, based upon the party affiliation of their sponsoring Member. On both sides of the aisle, the vast majority of pages were based on the Floor of the House and serve as runners. These runners were dispatched to various House offices, typically taking advantage of the underground
United States Capitol subway system to transport various documents by overseer or desk pages. The overseer pages were responsible for ensuring that all inbound call requests were met as quickly as possible and that the workload was distributed as evenly as possible among the runners. A fair number of dispatches involve the runners going to Congressional offices to bring proposed legislation to the cloakrooms. At the cloakrooms, a cloakroom page, or a cloakroom manager would sign for receipt of the legislation. It was then brought to the
bill hopper, or simply, the hopper (a repository box on the rostrum on the Floor) for official submission to the Clerk of the House. Pages also delivered correspondence to and from the respective Cloakrooms as well as offices in the surrounding Capitol complex. Pages also distributed American flags that were to be flown over the Capitol, for distribution / presentation to constituents, visitors and guests. Speaker's pages served solely to the
Office of the Speaker of the House, conducting tasks that ranged from fetching beverages and snacks for the Speaker and his or her official guests to helping to compose internal memoranda. The assignment of Speaker's pages was suspended in September 2007. Documentarian pages, or "docs," were selected from the group of pages in the majority party and were perhaps the two most visible pages. Seated to the stage-left of the rostrum, these pages had several important responsibilities. When the House gaveled into session, the documentarians were responsible for raising the U.S. flag on the roof of the House of Representatives south wing of the Capitol, officially notifying the public that the House was in session. At the close of the day, when the House adjourned, they returned to the roof and lowered the flag. Additionally, they were responsible for activating the bell system which rang throughout the House of Representatives south side of the
United States Capitol Complex (including the Capitol itself, the tunnel passageways and adjacent several House Office Buildings) notifying Representatives that the House was in session or that there was an upcoming vote. Also, they provided assistance to the various other staff, clerks and congressional parliamentarians seated at the front rostrum, as well as the
Speaker Pro Tempore. Although highly independent, these pages fell under the de facto supervision of the Timekeeper (Clerk to the Parliamentarian). Docs worked in pairs, until the House adjourned. They were present during the period of Special Orders, a time when a member may speak for one hour on any subject (in view of the overhead recently installed television recording video cameras), which were conducted after the day's legislative business ended. Each party's cloakroom had assigned cloakroom pages, or "cloakies," who provide direct assistance to Members of the House / Congress when on the floor and assisted the cloakroom staff. Cloakroom pages answered the cloakrooms' phones and transfer the calls to the booths in the cloakroom. When a congressional staffer wanted to talk with a member, cloakroom pages went on the floor and notified that member. These pages also conveyed messages between individual representatives. Additionally, cloakroom pages helped maintain official cloakroom records of daily proceedings, including bills before the House for debate and votes. Miscellaneous tasks included cleaning the phone booths provided in the cloakroom; assisting the cloakroom managers in answering phone calls; during votes, waking up representatives who were napping / asleep; and making sure that every member present remembered to vote. These pages fell under the de facto supervision of the managers of the respective party caucus cloakrooms.
Uniform House pages wore uniforms consisting of a navy blue
blazer jacket, white dress shirt, necktie, lapel pin, name-tag, gray slacks for boys and gray skirts or slacks for girls, and black shoes. Until the early
1960s, boy pages were required to wear suits (with dress shirt and necktie), with
knickers as shortened pants, with long socks, considered very old-fashioned long after the clothing style had become obsolete since the
1930s.
School of the
Library of Congress, built 1890-1897, situated to the east across First Street from East Front of the
United States Capitol,
Washington, D.C. Pages serving during the school year attended the House of Representatives Page School, located on the attic / top floor of the original 1890-1897
Thomas Jefferson Building of the
Library of Congress. The school was
accredited by the regional academic agency
Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Pages attended
high school here from 6:45 to 10:00 a.m. The only exception was for pages who worked past 10 p.m. the evening prior.
Housing Prior to 1983, House pages resided at various locations around the federal
capital city of the
District of Columbia. Beginning in 1983 to 2001, pages resided at the now-demolished old / first
O'Neill House Office Building of 1947, at 301 C Street S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003 (also formerly known as House Annex One). In preparation for that building's demolition, pages resided in a former dormitory / convent for
Roman Catholic Church nuns working at nearby
Providence Hospital. From 2001 until the end of the program in 2011, House of Representatives pages resided at the Page Residence Hall (PRH) at 501 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003. ==Notable pages of the U.S. House of Representatives==