The East Wing was a portion of the White House complex in Washington, D.C. that was built in 1902, significantly expanded in 1942, and controversially demolished in 2025. In the month prior to the demolition, site preparation began for a larger, replacement wing to include the proposed White House State Ballroom.
Situated on the east side of the Executive Residence, the building served as office space for the first lady and her staff, including the White House social secretary, correspondence staff, and the White House Graphics and Calligraphy Office, all of which have been relocated until the new East Wing is completed.
The East Wing was connected to the Executive Residence through the East Colonnade, a corridor with windows facing the South Lawn that housed the White House Family Theater and connected to the ground floor of the Executive Residence.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw an expansion and remodeling of the East Wing, which included the construction of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the building.
Contents
History
Background
President Thomas Jefferson added colonnaded terraces to the east and west sides of the White House, but no actual wings. Under President Andrew Jackson in 1834, running water was piped in from a spring and pumped up into the east terrace in metal pipes. These ran through the walls and protruded into the rooms, controlled by spigots. Initially, the water was for washing items, but soon the first bathing rooms were created, in the ground-level east colonnade. President Martin Van Buren had shower baths installed here.
The East Terrace was removed in 1866. For many years, a greenhouse occupied the east grounds of the White House.
Construction
The first small East Wing (and the West Wing) was designed by Charles Follen McKim and built in 1902 during the Theodore Roosevelt renovations, as an entrance for formal and public visitors. This served mainly as an entrance for guests during large social gatherings, when it was necessary to accommodate many cars and carriages. Its primary feature was the long cloak room with spots for coats and hats of the ladies and gentlemen.
An expansion and remodeling of the East Wing was instituted in 1942, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. The two-story East Wing was designed by White House architect Lorenzo Winslow and added to the White House primarily to cover the construction of an underground bunker, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC). Around the same time, Theodore Roosevelt's coatroom was integrated into the new building and became the White House Family Theater.
Operation
The East Wing served as office space for the first lady and her staff, including the White House Social Secretary, correspondence staff, and the White House Graphics and Calligraphy Office, all of which have been relocated until the new East Wing is completed.
First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in 1977, was the first to keep her own office in the East Wing. The social office prepares all of the invitations and written correspondence for every event held at the White House.
Social and touring visitors to the White House usually entered through the East Wing's Visitors Office, continuing through the wood-paneled lobby, where portraits of presidents and first ladies hung. They continued through the Garden Room and along the East Colonnade, which had a view of the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, past the theater to the Visitors' Foyer, and then on to the residence with entry made at the ground floor.
According to Anita McBride, former Chief of Staff to the First Lady under Laura Bush, "Betty Ford had the best quote for how special the East Wing is: 'If the West Wing is the mind of the nation, then the East Wing is the heart.'"
Demolition
In July 2025, the White House released renderings of the planned White House State Ballroom. Initially, the venue was expected to be able to host up to 650 people for events, but that capacity was later revised to 999 people. Clark Construction was awarded the $200 million contract, with work planned to begin in September 2025.
On July 31, President Donald Trump had said the new ballroom "won't interfere with the current building", wouldn't be "touching it", and would pay "total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of." A year later, at a press conference, he said the White House had been "a shit house" in disrepair but, due to his improvements, was "tippy top now."
The White House curator and her staff removed, catalogued, and stored the East Wing's art and furnishings and worked with the White House Historical Association to document the demolition and to use 3D scanning technology to capture the East Wing in detail prior to the demolition.
The demolition of the East Wing began on October 20, without review by the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction. On October 21, with unannounced demolition already underway, the National Trust for Historic Preservation objected that a 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) ballroom would "overwhelm" the 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m2) White House and "permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings."
On October 22, a White House official told NBC that the "entirety" of the East Wing would eventually be "modernized and rebuilt". The official claimed that the construction plan had never been firm: "The scope and the size of the ballroom project have always been subject to vary as the process develops."
Later on October 22, Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event, "We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, you know, the East Wing was not much. It was not much left from the original" and "In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure."