Entrance Hall

The Entrance Hall (also called the Grand Foyer) is the primary and formal entrance to the White House, the official residence of the President of the United States. The room is rectilinear in shape and measures approximately 31 by 44 feet. Located on the State Floor, the room is entered from outdoors through the North Portico, which faces the North Lawn and Pennsylvania Avenue. The south side of the room opens to the Cross Hall through a screen of paired Roman Doric columns. The east wall opens to the Grand Staircase.

Architect James Hoban's original floor plans show a similar room, but with single columns separating the Entrance Hall and Cross Hall, and with the Grand Stair entering into the Cross Hall. Mid-19th century photographs show the room as rebuilt by Hoban following the 1814 White House fire. In these photographs two Ionic columns support a series of shallow arches, and a frieze of bas-relief anthemion encircling the room. The shafts of Hoban's columns are recorded as being a blue marble.

With the north entrance to the White House used frequently in this period, it was not uncommon for cold air to push into the Entrance Hall and then pass through the spaciously separated columns into the Cross Hall beyond. To remedy the draft problem, President Martin Van Buren had floor-to-ceiling glass partitions installed between the Hoban columns.

In 1853 Thomas U. Walter installed a cast iron and clear glass screen between the Entrance Hall and Cross Hall to reduce drafts, and a complexly patterned Minton encaustic tile floor. In 1869 Constantino Brumidi, the fresco painter who had recently painted The Apotheosis of Washington in the ceiling of the new rotunda and Senate wing of the Capitol, applied highly ornamental painted decoration to the walls and ceilings including profile portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. On the ceiling Brumidi painted allegorical figures of Union and Liberty. They have survived and are displayed in the ground floor of the White House in the Palm Room.

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