Harden furniture is in the White House

 

Article by Charley Hannagan | channagan@syracuse.comThe Post-Standard
 on February 20, 2012 at 10:04 AM, updated February 20, 2012 at 10:11 AM

 

The White House President Barack Obama meets with staff in the Roosevelt Room of the White House , where a 16-foot black cherry conference table is the centerpiece. The table was made to order by Harden Furniture in McConnellsville. Pictured at the table are (from left): National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling; Bruce Reed, chief of staff to the vice president; Phil Schiliro, assistant to the president and special adviser; and Nancy-Ann DeParle, deputy chief of staff for policy.

The residents were specific — they needed a table long enough to seat more than a dozen budget negotiators, elegant enough for heads of state to put their elbows on, and narrow enough to fit through the small doorways of a 220-year-old building.Oh, and can you make it in pieces so we can easily move it?
Harden Furniture came up with just such a piece for the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.
The 16-foot-long black cherry conference table designed for the Roosevelt Room is the latest piece the McConnellsville furniture maker has crafted for the White House, said owner Greg Harden.
“It was a great project,” he said.
Harden Furniture beat out other bidders to create the table, which has specially designed feet to meet the narrowness of the room and comes in pieces that can be easily moved out of the room when it’s needed for reception space, Harden said.
The table was installed in the Roosevelt Room in February 2011.
The Roosevelt Room was built in 1902 as President Theodore Roosevelt’s office during his expansion of the White House. The windowless space became a part of two waiting rooms when the Oval Office was built.
President Franklin Roosevelt relocated the Oval Office when he was president, and he used the space to display an aquarium and fishing mementos. FDR called it the Fish Room.
President Richard Nixon renamed the room the Roosevelt Room to honor both presidents. It is now used as a conference room and features a multimedia center for presentations, according to the White House website.
If you go to the White House or Capitol, you’re likely to recognize a lot of Harden. The first lady’s office furniture and many executive desks in the Executive Office Building are Harden pieces. Harden also made 1,000 chairs for the Capitol Visitor Center, which opened in 2008, and the chairs in the caucus rooms in the House and Senate, Harden said.

If you'd like some Harden in your house, click here to download a 10% savings coupon redeemable on your next HARDEN order at Rousseau's. Or go to Harden's website and click on the National Sale link on their home page.