The White House is one of the most famous residencies in the world, with it being the official residence of the President of the United States. As such, it has a very intriguing history, with there being some amazing facts about the White House!
As the official residence of the President, the White House has seen a lot, from war, to revolution, to party splits, to great presidents, to bad presidents.
15. Ghostly Resident
Horror movies teach us that every haunted house is old, really old. And at almost 250 years old, the White House certainly classifies at old. In most of these horror movies, the haunted house also has a ghost.
Naturally, with the White House serving as the residence of every president since John Adams, and with eight presidents having died in office, it should surprise no one that people claim there is a ghost in the White House.
Since as early as 1903, almost every President, First Lady and Chief of Staff has claimed at some point that the White House is haunted. But who haunts the White House exactly? The sixteenth president.
That’s right, Abraham Lincoln.
According to many of them, Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, still roams the corridors at night. According to a few, he is trying to return to the Lincoln bedroom…
14. Amenities
As the official residence of a head of state, the White House isn’t going to be your average family home. But even then, the White House has some of the best amenities of any residence of any head of state!
The White House has a total of six floors, with a whopping 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms. Naturally, with this many rooms, the White House has one of the largest kitchens on Earth, able to serve 140 people at once!
Due to the sheer size of the White House, there are a total of eight different staircases, with them all going up from the lowest floor to the highest! In light of the modern world we live in, there are also three separate elevators.
On top of this, the White House also has several other amenities, including a cinema, bowling alley and a swimming pool, among other things. These were all added by previous presidents.
13. The Other White House?
Following the American Revolution, the newly-independent Americans had no real idea about a capital. Some of the Americans wanted the capital to be in New York, whilst others wanted it to be in Philadelphia.
In order to keep the peace between the two factions, President Washington ordered the creation of a new capital, in between both New York and Philadelphia. This capital would become Washington, DC.
As the capital, Washington had the original White House designed. During its construction, a large mansion in Philadelphia was made available to the president, which acted as the first official residence of the president.
The reason this was used was twofold. One, the president needed a place to act as his residence, free from the British. And secondly, the Philadelphian faction hoped that his may sway the president to make Philadelphia the capital.
12. Fantasy White House
Due to how iconic the White House is, several people have made replicas of the iconic structure. And when I say “replicas” I don’t mean little plastic ones, I mean an actual house, that’s purpose-built to look like the White House.
For some, these are used as film sets, whilst for others, these are used as their actual house! As of the time of writing, there are nine White House replicas of various sizes (full, half, quarter etc.) with all but one being in the US.
A few years ago, a 1/5 size replica of the White House in McLean, Virginia (built by a refugee from the Vietnam War) went up for sale. The refugee had built it, in honor of his new country, and had given it to his kids upon his death.
His kids placed the replica up for sale for a relatively low $5 million. Since then, many of the other replicas have also gone up for sale, being sold for various amounts at various times.
11. Suffragettes
Today, it is common to see picketers (protesters) outside the White House at various points during the year. Here, they will protest against a particular policy enacted by Congress or a particular thing that the President has done.
However, 150 years ago, the concept of of picketing outside the White House was pretty much unheard of.
During the suffragette movement in the late 1910’s and early 1920’s, many leading suffragettes would lead a group of women to protest outside the White House. This was in the hopes of changing President Wilson’s mind.
Eventually, this, combined with changing public opinions, prompted President Wilson to sign the 19th Amendment into law.
Due to the success of the 19th Amendment, almost every subsequent polarizing political issue, be it the war in Vietnam, abortion or whatever, have seen picketing be a common tactic. And chances are, it won’t go away any time soon.
10. It Nearly Collapsed
1948 was a rather dangerous year for President Harry S. Truman. The threat of communism and socialism at an all-time high, with Congress having recently enacted the Marshall Plan in Europe.
On top of that, there was also something a bit closer to home: The White House was close to collapse.
During FDR’s presidency, repairs on the White House had been ignored in favor of adding staff to the payroll. By the time FDR’s successor, Harry S. Truman had entered office, the White House was in a state of disrepair.
In 1948, building surveyors came in and assessed the structural integrity of the White House. What they found was that the White House might collapse. As such, they moved the president out of the White House, and into the Blair House.
Whilst Truman lived in the Blair House, contractors worked to restore the White House to its former glory.
9. The Secretary’s Office?
Today, the Oval Office is well known for being the official office of the President, within the White House at least. Almost all pictures of the president working or meeting foreign dignitaries are done here.
During the presidency of William Howard Taft, the White House went under extensive renovation and expansion. One of the places that was added was the office that would eventually become the Oval Office.
However, President Taft didn’t want to work there initially. Instead, the office was originally square and was initially meant to be the office for the president’s personal secretary.
During the initial construction, President Taft ordered the office to be altered into a 34-by-27-foot oval shape. Upon its completion, Taft used it as his official office, as has every president since.
8. Presidential Portraits
If you’ve ever seen a picture of the interior of the White House, you’ve probably noticed that there is a portrait of one of our former presidents. This is not just a coincidence, it’s by design.
Every president to have sat in office, regardless of whether they were good or bad, has their official presidential portrait hanging somewhere in the White House.
However, they aren’t just placed haphazardly around the place- their placed in chronological order. For the most part anyway. The most recent president has their portrait in the entrance hall of the State Floor.
The portraits of the other presidents then extend chronologically up the stairway to the residence.
With that being said, there are notable exceptions: George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt are in the East Room, Abraham Lincoln is in the State Dining Room, and William Howard Taft is in the Blue Room.
Funnily enough, the portraits of Millard Fillmore and Chester A. Arthur are so big that they can only be hung in the East Wing.
7. Who’s Bright Idea?
Today, the concept of internal and external lighting is not only common, but also widespread. At the end of the 19th century, however, this concept was almost unheard of!
Despite this, President Benjamin Harrison insisted on having electric lights installed in the White House. To him, it would prove that the US was becoming a global scientific and economic powerhouse.
As such, the Edison General Electric Company installed the first electric lights inside the White House in 1891. Over the next few years, the houses of State Governors would have their own electric lights installed.
Funnily enough, the President and First Lady were actually so scared of touching the light switches for fear of electrocution that they never touched them. Instead, they would sleep with the lights on!
6. Official Name
Today, the White House has only one name: The White House. Almost everyone, regardless of whether they’re a Democrat or a Republican, refer to the building as the White House.
However, this wasn’t always the case. Prior to 1901, the White House’s official and unofficial name had changed multiple times. The only name that had stuck throughout this time has been 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Throughout history, the building we now call the White House has been referred to as the “President’s Palace” as well as the “President’s House” and the “Executive Mansion”.
In 1901, President Teddy Roosevelt made an offhand comment, referring to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as the “White House”. Since then, the name has stuck, with that becoming its official name.
5. Phone Number 1
Throughout the early-to-mid 1870’s, several people claimed to have invented the world’s first telephone. However, the only first telephone as we know it today, was the one made by Alexander Graham Bell, in 1876.
Unlike today, old telephones dialed the number zero and called the telephone operator, where they would say the local area and the three digit number of the phone they wished to ring.
In 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes decided that it would be foolish for a world leader not to have a phone in case of emergency. As such, President Hayes would reach out to Bell and have a phone installed in the White House.
Bell gave the White House phone the number of 1, with no local designator to speak of. The telephone may have been a good idea initially, but it was rarely used mostly due to the fact that only a few people in Washington had telephones of their own.
4. What Original White House?
In 1812, the British and Americans fought yet another war. For the British, they used their Canadian colonies to try and bring the 13 colonies back under its control, whilst for the Americans, it was a matter of staying independent.
The War of 1812 as it is known, was very much back-and-forth. In 1813, US forces pushed into the Canadian colonies and set fire to the Canadian Parliament during the Battle of York.
After repelling the American forces out of the Canadian colonies, British forces continued pushing into American territory. Here, in retribution, the British set fire to the White House, burning it to the ground.
The First Lady, Dolley Madison, saved the famed Washington Portrait (painted by Gilbert Stuart). Only a small section of the outer stone wall remained, although was mildly to severely fire damaged.
3. The Second Fire
Naturally, the US Congress paid to have the White House restored to its former glory. Within only a few years, you wouldn’t know that the White House had been burned down, unless you were told.
Over 100 years later, parts of the White House would burn down yet again.
On Christmas Eve 1929, President Herbert Hoover was holding the president’s annual Christmas Party. Here, a blocked fireplace flue caused smoke and heat to build up, causing a fire near the West Wing.
Here, President Hoover, as well as Ulysses S. Grant III (the grandson of the president) spearheaded the effort to put the fire out. In doing so, President Hoover entered the Oval Office, which was on fire, but was pulled out by Secret Service agents.
Thankfully, no one was killed or seriously injured. The fire was contained by firefighters to parts of the West Wing and the Oval Office. Contractors had fixed it by the next annual Christmas party.
2. Value
Unless something drastic happens, it is unlikely that the US Government will ever put the White House up for sale. Due partly to this, it is nigh on impossible to place an official valuation on the White House.
Regardless, over time, many people, real estate experts and real estate agencies have attempted to do this, to varying degrees of success.
Perhaps the most famous valuation of the White House was done in early 2017 by e-real estate agency Zillow. In 2017, they estimated that if the White House was ever put up for sale, the price tag would be a little less than $400 million.
This $400 million price tag included both the physical building itself, and the grounds it sits on. This makes it the sixth most expensive piece of real estate in the world, and the most expensive in North America.
1. Secret Entrance
No, it’s not a conspiracy theory. The White House does indeed have a secret entrance that, assuming you had the clearance and knowledge to get into, you could use to get into the White House.
And this is actually something that all major buildings in Washington (and much of the rest of the US) have!
During WWII, American military officers feared that Japan may attempt to kill America’s Commander-in-Chief, by bombing the White House. As such, an underground bomb shelter was built, for this very reason.
Military officers worried that if the White House was reduced to rubble, the President, alongside his entire cabinet, might be trapped underground for who knows how long.
As such, they build a series of tunnels from the bomb shelter into the middle of Washington itself. Since the war, many of them have been bricked up, although it’s reported that a few remain active to this day.
Which are your favorite facts about the White House? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Radek Kucharski via Flickr.