Brady Press Briefing Room
The room in 2008, looking west
From Swimming Pool to Press PoolAs the men and women of New York opened copies of the New York Daily News on March 14, 1933, they learned of a campaign to raise money for building the president a swimming pool at the White House. The effort was a way to honor President Franklin Roosevelt, a New York native who suffered from the crippling disease, poliomyelitis. The President often swam at therapy pools at his Hyde Park home in New York or at a center in Warm Springs, Georgia.The campaign was a success, and the workmen gathered around the pool on June 2, 1933 to listen to President Roosevelt, who spoke from his wheelchair and thanked them for their work. The pool was built inside the west gallery between the White House and the West Wing in place of the old laundry rooms, which were moved to the basement of the mansion. Arched ceilings and high rows of half-mooned windows surrounded the rectangular pool. French doors opened into the Rose Garden. The president's pool was a modern-day showcase of technology, featuring underwater lighting, sterilizers and the latest gadgets. For several years, he used it multiple times a day. Harry Truman swam in it frequently—with his glasses on.
In the early 1980s, the Reagan administration remodeled the room, giving it the theater seats and blue decor it has had since then. On the 2005 announcement of a new renovation, journalist Elisabeth Bumiller wrote: The last major renovation of the press room was in the Reagan administration, when the television-ready oval backdrop with the words, "The White House - Washington," was first hung behind the press secretary's head. Somehow, that gimmick never caught on with other world leaders.The Press Briefing Room was renamed the "James S Brady Press Briefing Room" in 2000 in honor of James Brady, the White House press secretary who was shot and permanently disabled following an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981. In 2000, the room was rewired with 18 miles of cable. When workers opened the trap door leading to the pool to redirect the new cabling, they found the pool to be structurally intact. The deep end is located underneath the press secretary's podium, and the shallow end is underneath the camera crews. HIllary Clinton, who had wanted an indoor swimming pool for the governor's mansion in Arkansas, proposed renovating the pool and moving the news media to a new media center to be built under the West Wing drive. The pool was found to be intact (capable of holding water), but the idea never got past the initial planning stage. RenovationIn December 2005, the White House announced that the Press Briefing Room and Press Corps Offices would be renovated in the coming year. On August 2, 2006, President Bush invited several previous Press Secretaries back for a final press briefing before the room was closed for operations that day.(adapted from The Washington Post)
Although the briefing room might appear spacious and even glamorous to those watching at home, it is not. In a space no larger than a decent-size living room, 48 small theater-style chairs are crammed together, feet from the podium where press secretaries Scott McClellan, Ari Fleischer, Joe Lockhart and many others before them have held their daily and sometimes televised briefings. The carpet is worn, and cameras, ladders and other equipment are piled along two walls and in the back of the room.In 2007, the room was reopened for dedication on July 11. Presidential LecternsWhen the president speaks in the Press Briefing Room (and even when he travels to other places), he uses special lecterns. A larger, bullet-resistant lectern is called "blue goose," and a sleeker lectern of similar design is called "blue falcon." |
More Images
The room in 2008, looking east
Video control at the back of the room in 2008 (Time - Brooks Kraft)
Photographers at the back of the room in 2008 (Time - Brooks Kraft)
President Bush addresses the press in the new room in 2007 (White House - Eric Draper)
Ribbon cutting on the renovated room in 2007 (White House - Eric Draper)
Ribbon cutting on the renovated room in 2007 (AP - Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Veteran correspondent Helen Thomas in in the new leather seats in 2007 (Time - Brooks Kraft)
Construction being finished in 2007 (Time - Brooks Kraft)
New stairwell behind the podium down to the pool in 2007 (Julie Mason)
Press signatures on the tiles of the pool in 2007 (Julie Mason)
The room in 2006 (Ejconkey)
George W Bush briefing the press in 2006 (White House)
George W Bush briefing the press in 2006, using the "blue goose" lectern (White House)
Press Briefing Room in 2005 (Nathan Burchfiel)
Press Briefing Room view into the Press Corps Offices, circa 2003 (Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter)
The Press Briefing Room front, circa 2003 (Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter)
Brady Press Briefing Room, circa 2003 (Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter)
Audio-video equipment at the back of the Press Briefing Room, circa 2003 (Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter)
Bush 2 Press Secretary Ari Fleischer entering the Press Briefing Room, circa 2001
Reagan briefing the press in the renovated room in 1986 (NARA)
Secretary of State Alexander Haig briefs the press on President Reagan's health following the attempt on his life in 1981 (Reagan Library)
Carter briefs the press on water proposals in 1980 (National Archives)
Carter briefs the press on Iran in 1979 (White House Historical Association)
A Carter-era briefing around 1977
Nixon briefing the press on Vietnam in 1973 (Corbis [mistakenly flopped])
Henry Kissinger briefing the press on Vietnam in 1972 (Corbis)
Nixon giving a conference in the early days of the Press Briefing Room in 1970 (National Archives & Records Administration)
Old Swimming Pool (pre-1969)
First man to walk in space, Edward White, gives his daughter her own flight, circa 1966 (National Geographic)
The swimming pool in 1963, with the mural commissioned by Joe Kennedy, Sr.;
note that this wall is mirrored; the opposite wall has the mural (Kennedy Library)
note that this wall is mirrored; the opposite wall has the mural (Kennedy Library)
The White House medic in the swimming pool in 1961 (Life)
The swimming pool in 1961 (Kennedy Library)
Roosevelt's swimming pool, circa 1948 (Truman Library)
Roosevelt's swimming pool, circa 1948 (Truman Library)
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