East Wing

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This article is about the East Wing of the White House. The more famous structure is the West Wing.

The East Wing is a part of the White House Complex. It is a two-story structure on the east side of the White House Executive Residence, the home of the President of the United States. The East Wing houses offices for the First Lady, White House Social Secretary, White House Graphics and Calligraphy Office, and correspondence staff, and other members of the White House staff. The East Wing also includes the White House theater, the visitor's entrance, and the East Colonnade, a corridor connecting the body of the East Wing to the residence. Social visitors to the White House usually enter in the East Wing.

Visitors touring the White House enter through the wood-paneled lobby, where portraits of presidents and first ladies hang. They go through the Garden Room and along the East Colonnade, which has a view of the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, past the theater to the Visitors Foyer. They enter the residence at the ground floor.

[edit] History

President Jefferson added colonnaded terraces to the east and west sides of the White House. The East Terrace was removed in 1866. It was rebuilt in 1902 during the Theodore Roosevelt Administration.

The East Wing as it stands today was built in 1942, during World War II in order to disguise the construction of a bomb shelter for the first family and White House staff. This was later converted into the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.