Named Rooms of the House

The rarely bestowed honor of naming rooms for Representatives and staff 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 bestowed similar honors. In 1977, Ernest Petinaud, longtime head waiter in the House Restaurant and recipient of the McCormack Award, became the first staffer and first African American acknowledged with a room name. Representative Lindy Boggs was the first woman with a room named for her, in 1990, and Representative Elijah Cummings the first African-American Representative likewise honored in 2019.

Capitol Building

Capitol Visitor Center

Cannon House Office Building

Longworth House Office Building

Rayburn House Office Building

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); 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.