White House Historical Association

Isaac M. Avery

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"Isaac M. Avery," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/790.
Position
Carpenter
Years in President's House
1930 – 1965
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidencies
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Biography
Isaac M. Avery was born in Morganton, North Carolina in 1905.1 Early in his career, he worked as a mechanic and construction worker; later, he moved to Washington D.C., where he got a job at the White House via his landlord, who knew the chief carpenter there.2 He started in December of 1930 and went on to work at the White House for thirty-five years as a carpenter.3 From his shop beneath the mansion’s North Portico, Avery crafted pen stands for major bill signings, framed President Dwight Eisenhower’s paintings, and built stages for entertainment in the East Room.4 Newspapers called him a “tall, affable artist with a hammer and saw.”5 He worked on the Truman Renovation of the White House (1948-1952), which he called “years of the filthiest but most interesting work,” and the Kennedy restoration (1961-1963), later helping to outfit the house in mourning after Kennedy’s assassination.6 Avery retired from the White House in 1965, telling a reporter: “It has been a good life, an interesting life and sometimes guttingling. There’s nothing I would change about it, but I’m happy to be getting out of the rat race.”7 He died on July 31, 1967 and was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in North Carolina.8
  1. “Isaac Marion Avery,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91358251/isaac-marion-avery.
  2. Vera Glaser, “Carpenter in Cellar Recollects Bygone Days,” The Lima News, January 16, 1966, pg. 39; “Isaac Avery, Employed at White House,” Washington Post, August 11, 1967, pg. B6.
  3. Christmas 1930, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1930, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; Isaac Avery, recorded interview by Pamela Turnure and Nancy Tuckerman, May 12, 1964, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program.
  4. Vera Glaser, “Carpenter in Cellar Recollects Bygone Days,” The Lima News, January 16, 1966, pg. 39; “Isaac Avery, Employed at White House,” Washington Post, August 11, 1967, pg. B6; Isaac Avery, recorded interview by Pamela Turnure and Nancy Tuckerman, May 12, 1964, (18), John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program.
  5. “Retiring Carpenter,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, March 19, 1959, pg. 26.
  6. Vera Glaser, “Carpenter in Cellar Recollects Bygone Days,” The Lima News, January 16, 1966, pg. 39; Isaac Avery, recorded interview by Pamela Turnure and Nancy Tuckerman, May 12, 1964, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program; “This is the White House,” Evening Star, April 7, 1949, pg. 3; “Engaged in Repairing,” Daily Sentinel-Tribune (Ohio), April 23, 1949, pg. 2.
  7. Vera Glaser, “Carpenter in Cellar Recollects Bygone Days,” The Lima News, January 16, 1966, pg. 39.
  8. “Isaac Marion Avery,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/91358251/isaac-marion-avery; “Isaac Avery, Employed at White House,” Washington Post, August 11, 1967, pg. B6.
Birthplace
Morganton, North Carolina, USA
Forest Hill Cemetery