TheTruman Balcony is the second-floorbalcony of theExecutive Residence of theWhite House, which overlooks theSouth Lawn. It was completed in March 1948, during thepresidency ofHarry S. Truman.

Truman's plans to build abalcony off theYellow Oval Room were controversial.

Truman argued that the addition of a balcony would provide shade for the first floorportico, avoiding the need forawnings, and would balance the White House's south face by breaking up the long verticals created by the columns.^[1] Truman had previously had a request for an extension to theWest Wing rejected by Congress.^[2] Though Truman had toldHowell G. Crim, theWhite House Chief Usher, andJ. B. West, Crim's assistant, of his ideas for a balcony, the announcement by his press secretary,Charlie Ross that the balcony would be built was the first public statement. The plans were executed by architectWilliam Adams Delano, who had carried out alterations to the house during the presidency ofCalvin Coolidge.^[2] Critics of the proposal, including members of theCommission of Fine Arts, argued that the Classic Greek style of the building would be undermined in order to create a leisure space for theFirst Family. The commission's chairman, civil engineer and landscape architectGilmore David Clarke, wrote to Truman to voice his opposition to the balcony. Truman responded, restating his belief that the residence would be enhanced by the project especially as it presented an opportunity to replace unattractive awnings (which already broke the vertical column line) and which he said collected dirt and constituted an eyesore.^[3] Instead, wooden slate shades could be rolled up under the new balcony, essentially disappearing when not in use.^[1]

Contemporary political cartoonists satirized the President's balcony project, suggesting that it might even cost him the1948 presidential election.^[4][5]

Plans for the balcony were approved by architect Delano.^[1] No request was made toCongress for the $16,050.74 (equivalent to $210,060.17 in 2024) cost of constructing the balcony, as Truman had saved a sufficient sum from his household account.^[6] Once the balcony was completed, several of those who had opposed the project wrote to the President acknowledging that the balcony had in fact improved the south face of the Residence.^[7]

In a September 2012 interview inVanity Fair, PresidentBarack Obama listed the balcony as his and his wifeMichelle Obama's favorite spot in the White House.^[8]

• Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948, By Robert J. Donovan, University of Missouri Press, 1996.
• The President's House: A History, Vol. II, by William Seale, The White House Historical Association, Washington, D.C., 1986.
• The White House and Its Thirty-Four Families, by Amy La Follette Jensen, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1965.

• Harry S. Truman
• White House
• Buildings and structures completed in 1948

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