Located on the State Floor, the Entrance Hall 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.
The room has been redesigned several times. Originally planned by James Hoban in 1792, it was remodelled in 1817 by Hoban following a fire.
In 1853, Thomas U. Walter installed an iron and glass screen to reduce draughts, and in 1869 highly ornamental painted decorations were applied to the walls and ceilings by Constantino Brumidi, including including profile portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
In 1882, the clear glass in Walter's screen was replaced by fashionable coloured art glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the patterns including American eagles, and a shield with stripes, stars, and the initials "U.S."
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt engaged architect Charles Follen McKim in the redesign of the White House. In the Entrance Hall, McKim removed the Tiffany screen, Hoban's Ionic columns, and the ornamental painting, creating a far simpler neoclassical interior. While the response to McKim's interiors were positive, the Entrance Hall has been criticised for being more appropriate to a public building than a home.
By 1948 the White House had become physically unstable, and the house was temporarily abandoned while a major reconstruction took place. Architect Lorenzo Simmons Winslow explored several options for the reorientation of the Grand Stair before convincing President Truman of the present configuration where it opens to the centre of the east wall of the Entrance Hall.
This little cache is located on Rivington Road, Whitehouse Industrial Estate, Runcorn. Bring your pencil and presidential tweezers!