From Swimming Pool to Press Pool As 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. Part of the mural, now in the Kennedy Library (Kellyhinde6) In 1961, as a gift from his father, a huge mural was painted (by Bernard Lamotte) on three walls of the swimming pool room for President Kennedy. It featured a Caribbean scene with many sailboats on calm waters. The opposite long wall was fitted with mirrors. John Kennedy sometimes held swimming races with Cabinet members. He liked the pool so much that he made a habit of stopping by at noon, stripping down for a swim, and padding back to his bedroom for lunch and a nap in nothing but a robe. He did the same at the end of the day, dressing again for dinner. As a result, Chief Usher JB West observed, "John F Kennedy wore three separate suits of clothes every day of his White House life." During the Johnson administration, the walls were hung with dozens of bathing suits of all sizes so that guests could swim.

Socks fills in circa 1996; Barney fills in circa 2004 (White House) Nearly 40 years after the construction of Roosevelt's pool, a new wave of technology pressed upon the president to create a work space for the media. President Richard Nixon arranged for the construction of a press briefing room above the old pool to accommodate the growing demand for television news. Since 1970, the White House press corps has assembled in this small theater to listen to the White House press secretary's briefings and reports. The doors opening to the Rose Garden on the south and the West Wing drive on the north allow the members of the media quick access to outdoor events. 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. President Vladimir Putin of Russia does not conduct news conferences with a backdrop that says "The Kremlin - Moscow," and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain has never appeared with a "10 Downing Street" logo behind his head. 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. Renovation In 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) Press Secretary Mike McCurry climbing into the White House briefing room from the swimming pool, circa 1996

(Washington Post - JM Thresher) 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. The room is, quite literally, a fire hazard, with wires fraying and cameras, cords and equipment piled throughout. It has all the comforts of a 1970s schoolroom: cramped, ergonomically challenged desks and seats for reporters, and no high-speed Internet access.... As part of the makeover, the government plans to rip up the wooden floor that covers the famous swimming pool built for President Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1930s. In its place will be a steel-and-concrete floor designed to accommodate wiring and equipment below -- without the fear of setting the place on fire.... This means the television, print and radio reporters and crews will be booted from the White House for at least seven months as the James S Brady Press Briefing Room is modernized. In 2007, the room was reopened for dedication on July 11. Presidential Lecterns When 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."