Has every president worked in the Oval Office?

No! The Oval Office has been the primary presidential workspace since 1909, when President William Howard Taft worked in the first iteration of the Oval Office. Prior to the expansion of the West Wing, presidents worked elsewhere in the White House. For example, Thomas Jefferson worked in an office in the southwest corner of the State Floor (today the State Dining Room), and each president from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley used the east side of the Second Floor of the White House for themselves and their administration staff. The West Wing was constructed during the Theodore Roosevelt administration, but Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, immediately ordered an expansion of the wing. Taft’s Oval Office was used by his successors until Franklin D. Roosevelt, who oversaw yet another renovation and expansion of the West Wing in 1934. As part of that renovation, Roosevelt moved the Oval Office to its current location in the southeast corner of the West Wing, overlooking the Rose Garden. Since then, every president has used this Oval Office.

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