Why do so many White House rooms have an ovate " oval " shape?Taylor Griffin :
The Oval shape of rooms in the White House was pick out to accommodate a courtly salutation ceremony known as a " levee . " The ceremonial occasion has its roots in the royal courts of England and particularly France .
The White House Historical Associationexplainshow it worked in America :
George Washington enjoin the bowed walls that characterize the three oval - shape rooms on the South side of the White House residence : the Diplomatic Reception Room , the Blue Oval room on the State Floor and the Yellow Oval Room on the third flooring , expressly for the levee .
But the ceremony was only briefly used . The practice was not loved by John Adams , the White House ’s first resident physician . While Adams accepted the logical thinking behind the levee , an efficient elbow room to yield wider approach to the chairman in a manner coherent with his place , he did n’t mask his personal antipathy for it . In aletterto his married woman Abigail , Adams said simply :
The levee was promptly abolish by Thomas Jefferson , who saw the ritualized nobility of the ceremony as uncomfortably skinny to the trappings of monarchy from which the youthful nation had just fought a revolution to divorce itself . The ellipse shape nevertheless was reprised in the design of the iconic President ’s office when the West Wing was build in 1909 . The pattern of the Oval Office serves no formal purpose except as a court to the oval room of the White House residence , reinforcing the sense of reverence for the major power wielded within it .
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