Named Rooms of the House
/tiles/non-collection/n/named_rooms_boggs_room_ocomm_clerk.xmlImage courtesy of the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of RepresentativesThe Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room was the first room in the House named after a woman.The rarely bestowed honor of naming a room for a Representative or House employee began in 1962. That year, the House paid tribute to the longest-serving Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, by naming the
East Front’s ornate new reception room for him. When the Rayburn House Office Building opened in 1965, the Committee on Armed Services saluted its recently retired leader,
Carl Vinson, with the first named hearing room in the House.
Since those first designations in the 1960s, the House has bestowed similar honors over the decades. In 1977,Ernest Petinaud, longtime head waiter in theHouse Restaurant and recipient of theMcCormack Award, became the first staffer and first African American acknowledged with a room name. RepresentativeLindy Boggs was the first woman with a room named for her, in 1990, and RepresentativeElijah Cummings the first African-American Representative likewise honored in 2019.
Capitol Building
| Room Number | Name | Named For | Year of Resolution or Dedication |
|---|
| H-117 | ThePetinaud Room | Ernest S. Petinaud, Head waiter, House Restaurant (1925-1973) | 1977 |
| H-120 | Charles E. Bennett Room | Representative from Florida | 1993 |
| H-130 | G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Room | Representative from Mississippi | 2000 |
| H-139 | Henry J. Hyde Room | Representative from Illinois
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (1995-2000), Committee on International Relations (2001-2006) | 2007 |
| H-140 | George Mahon Room | Representative from Texas
Chairman, Committee on Appropriations (1963-1978) | 1979 |
| H-150 | TheJoseph H. Rainey Room | Representative from South Carolina (1870-1879) | 2020 |
| H-207 | Rayburn Reception Room | Representative from Texas
Speaker of the House (1941-1961) | 1962 |
| H-222 | Gabrielle Giffords-
Leo J. Ryan Cloakroom | Representative from Arizona
Representative from California | 2017 |
| H-226 | Lincoln Room | Representative from Illinois
President (1861-1865) | 2018 |
| H-230–H-232 | Robert H. Michel Rooms | Representative from Illinois
Minority Leader (1981-1994) | 1995 |
| H-235 | Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room | Representative from Louisiana | 1990 |
| H-236 | Richard K. Armey Room | Representative from Texas
Majority Leader (1995-2002) | 2003 |
| H-324 | Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., Room | Representative from Massachusetts
Speaker of the House (1977-1986) | 1986 |
Capitol Visitor Center
| Room Number | Name | Named For | Year of Resolution or Dedication |
|---|
| HVC-215 | Gabriel Zimmerman Meeting Room | Slain staffer of Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona | 20111 |
Cannon House Office Building
| Room Number | Name | Named For | Year of Resolution or Dedication |
|---|
| 368 | Edith Nourse Rogers Conference Room | Representative from Massachusetts
Chair, Committee on Veterans Affairs (1947-1949, 1953-1955) | 2023 |
| 390 | SpeakerNancy Pelosi Caucus Room | Representative from California
Speaker of the House (2007–2011; 2019–2023) | 2022 |
Longworth House Office Building
| Room Number | Name | Named For | Year of Resolution or Dedication |
|---|
| 1139 | William McKinley Room | Representative from Ohio
Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (1889-1891)
President (1897-1901) | 2011 |
| 1324 | Morris K. Udall Room | Representative from Arizona
Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (1977-1992) | 1991 |
| 1334 | Walter B. Jones Room | Representative from North Carolina
Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries (1981-1992) | 1995 |
Rayburn House Office Building
| Room Number | Name | Named For | Year of Resolution or Dedication |
|---|
| 2020 | Sam Johnson Room | Representative from Texas
Chairman, Subcommittee on Social Security, Committee on Ways and Means (2011-2016) | 2016 |
| 2118 | Carl Vinson Room | Representative from South Carolina
Chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (1931-1946), Committee on Armed Services (1949-1952, 1955-1964) | 1965 |
| 2123 | John D. Dingell Room | Representative from Michigan
Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce (1981-1994, 2007-2008) | 2013 |
| 2128 | Wright Patman Room | Representative from Texas
Chairman, Committee on Banking (1963-1972) | 1976 |
| 2172 | Thomas E. Morgan Room | Representative from Pennsylvania
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs (1959-1974), Committee on International Relations (1975-1976) | 1977 |
| 2154 | Elijah E. Cummings Room | Representative from Maryland
Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (2019) | 2020 |
| 2175 | Carl D. Perkins Room | Representative from Kentucky
Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor (1967-1984) | 1984 |
| 2358-C | David R. Obey Room | Representative from Wisconsin
Chairman, Committee on Appropriations (1993-1994, 2007-2010) | 2022 |
| 2359 | John W. McCormack Room | Representative from Massachusetts
Speaker of the House (1961-1970) | 1971 |
Sources: House Committee on Armed Services,Dedication Ceremony, Carl Vinson Room, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., H. Doc. 152 (1965);Congressional Record, House, 95th Cong. 1st sess. (4 August 1977): 27090; H. Res. 582, 99th Cong. (1986); H. Res. 525, 101st Cong. (1990); H. Res 65, 104th Cong. (1995); H. Res. 491, 105th Cong. (2000); H. Res 19, 108th Cong. (2003); H. Res. 1087, 109th Cong. (2006); H. Res. 364, 112th Cong. (2011); H. Res. 615, 115th Cong. (2017); H. Res. 226, 115th Cong. (2018); H. Res. 1495, 117th Cong. (2022); Baltimore Sun, 27 February 2020;Chicago Tribune, 7 July 1962;Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 19 January 1995;Pittsburgh Press, 22 May 1977;St. Petersburg Times, 6 July 1993;Times-Picayune (New Orleans), 30 December 1979;Washington Post, 23 May 1991;Washington Post, 14 June 2013.
Footnotes
1Room dedication took place in 2013.
