President's Room

The room was completed in 1859 as part of the Capitol's vast extension, which added new Senate and House wings and the new cast-iron dome.

[3] The room was first used by President James Buchanan on March 4, 1861, at a time of great peril for the nation, after several southern states had left the Union and a month before the Civil War began.

While signing end-of-session legislation on March 4, 1921, he was informed by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge (R-Mass.

His health broken by an exhausting campaign to secure popular support for the treaty, Wilson refused to look at his adversary, responding with a terse "I have no further communication."

Johnson had appeared before a Joint Session of Congress on March 15, 1965, to urge passage of the bill guaranteeing equal voting rights for African American citizens.

He returned to the Capitol to sign the act, a gesture that, as he explained in his memoirs, was intended to "dramatize the importance we attached to this bill – and to give full measure to the Congress."

In the days following his November 1980 election victory, President-elect Ronald Reagan looked toward the Capitol and told reporters, "Get the President's Room ready!"

Living up to his promise, Reagan made the President's Room his first stop after leaving the Capitol's inaugural platform on January 20, 1981.