In the spring of 1961, John Kennedy’s White House had a situation, but no Situation Room. Kennedy had just endured the attempted Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, a fast-moving fiasco that left the president frustrated at the confused flow of intelligence into the Oval Office.

And so, after the president put his own naval aide in charge of construction, a group of contractors and some Seabees worked at night to convert the mansion’s basement bowling alley into what is still the country’s most famous ultra-secure workspace: the White House Situation Room.

This week, the room is in the news as the surprising scene of the firing of former presidential adviser and reality show foil Omarosa Manigault Newman.