Qualla: Grand Staircase (White House)

Grand Staircase (White House): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Every state dinner at the White House begins with the same brief piece of theater. The Marine Band on the State Floor strikes up Ruffles and Flourishes, then Hail to the Chief, and the President and First Lady descend the Grand Staircase from the Second Floor in step with the music. This ritual, called the Presidential Entrance March, has been performed by every president since Harry Truman and on roughly the same staircase, though the actual marble of the steps has been replaced more than once. The current Grand Staircase, the fourth on its general site, was built in 1952 of Vermont Westland cream marble. It rises from the east end of the Entrance Hall in a single central run, turns at a landing, and arrives at the second floor where every president since 1800 has lived.

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

Grand Staircase (White House): Hoban and Latrobe

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. James Hoban, the Irish architect who designed the original 1800 White House, placed the main ceremonial staircase at the west end of the Cross Hall and put a less formal east staircase on the present site of the Grand Staircase. Hoban envisioned an Imperial stair form: one centra...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Grand Staircase (White House): McKim's Redesign

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain. Theodore Roosevelt hired Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead and White in 1902 to undertake the first major reconfiguration of the White House since its initial construction. McKim's plan removed the ceremonial staircase at the west end of the Cross Hall to allow the State Dining...

Image: The White House from Washington, DC | Public domain

Grand Staircase (White House): The Truman Reconstruction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Valdez, Public domain. By 1948 the White House was in real structural trouble. Forty-six years of alterations made by McKim, additional weight added during the Coolidge administration when an entire attic story was constructed, and inadequate steel framing throughout the original brick structure had ac...

Image: David Valdez | Public domain

Grand Staircase (White House): Delano, Winslow, and the Maquettes

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Karl Schumacher, Public domain. Winslow's first design for the Grand Staircase closed the Cross Hall opening McKim had created and reoriented the staircase entirely toward the Entrance Hall. Delano, the more senior architect, was alarmed by the loss of the Cross Hall view and traveled to Washington to argue wit...

Image: Karl Schumacher | Public domain

Grand Staircase (White House): Carpets and Caryatids

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. The treads are Vermont Westland cream marble. The walls inside the staircase opening carry the carved seals of the original thirteen states. Above the Cross Hall opening, a plaster arch holds a bas-relief American eagle surrounded by thirteen radiating arrows. The custom railing ...

Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain