Workspace for the Emergent White House Press Corps

Members of the press have had dedicated workspace at the White House since completion of the West Wing’s first iteration in 1902, but the type and frequency of access to the sitting president varied during the first half of the twentieth century.1 For most of the nineteenth century, newspaper reporters concentrated most of their government coverage on Congress and its activities. Presidents occasionally granted interviews or their secretaries might speak more often with favorites, but there was no specific group assigned to cover the White House. During President Grover Cleveland’s second administration (1893–97), William “Fatty” Price emerged as the first reporter known to regularly visit the White House for news stories—initially standing outside the gate waiting to query exiting visitors about their business there. President William McKinley later allowed reporters to work inside at a Second Floor corridor table, and his secretary began a long tradition of more-or-less regular press briefings that is still a primary source of news to this day.2

President Theodore Roosevelt created the first designated office for correspondents at the White House. This unprecedented step in press relations provides some support for the debated claim that he was “the first President ... to develop a clear idea of press management.”3 Aside from the Press Room itself, Roosevelt’s major innovation in the press-president relationship was that he would often meet with correspondents directly in addition to daily briefings by his secretary. These meetings were not in the same realm as the later press conferences, for he “courted” particular reporters and “played to their egos” during meetings with small groups in an effort to shape favorable stories; if the result was not acceptable, Roosevelt denied future access.4 It is not a coincidence that the Roosevelt presidency can be considered a vanguard administration in its dealings with the press. In the early twentieth century, newspaper circulation increased significantly across the country, and many of the nation’s major cities opened Washington bureaus with staffs that were particularly skilled in news reporting. A 1904 publication entitled Washington Correspondents Past and Present noted: “The larges [sic] dailies, such as those of New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Boston send their very best political writers. Many of these special correspondents have the privilege of signing their names to their dispatches and letters. These newspapers maintain offices in the northwest portion of the city, close to the departments, White House, and the leading hotels.”5

Around this time, the Washington correspondents headquartered in these dispersed offices were allotted a dedicated room in the new Executive Office Building, which has since been replaced by the enlarged West Wing. Charles McKim of the famed architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White designed the proto–West Wing as part of a comprehensive renovation and expansion campaign at the White House undertaken by Theodore Roosevelt.6 The modest workspace for the press was located just off the lobby of the new building. Although small, it provided the White House correspondents with an indoor space equipped with three telephones and strategically positioned near the president and his staff. It was located at the building’s main entrance, which, in theory, allowed for easy interception of visitors arriving for and departing from executive appointments.7 Unfortunately for the correspondents, guests of the president could also quietly proceed from another White House entrance, along the private West Terrace Colonnade, into his office, avoiding the gauntlet at the public entrance.8 Despite this built-in circumvention, Roosevelt’s assignment of a room for members of the press in proximity to himself and his staff established an unprecedented level of access and conveyed his acknowledgment of the emerging press-president relationship.

The White House correspondents remained in this workspace through the beginning of the Hoover administration, when they moved across the lobby into larger quarters with new furniture.9 The press photographers—“previously slouched on chairs in the public vestibule”—were also given a room of their own at the northwest corner of the West Terrace.10 In 1934, when the West Wing was gutted and expanded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Press Room was completely rebuilt in roughly its original location, although larger.11 The new room was later described as being “equipped with desks, typewriters, direct telephone connections to the offices of the telegraphic press associations, and such recreational facilities as card and chess tables.”12 Although enlarged, the Press Room remained only a place where White House correspondents worked and waited; communication with the president and his staff for the most part occurred beyond the room.