Housewarming Party at the U.S. Naval Observatory

This photograph was taken by Ricardo Thomas on September 7, 1975, during the housewarming party for the vice president's residence at the United States Naval Observatory. Here, Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller and Second Lady Happy Rockefeller invite President Gerald R. Ford, First Lady Betty Ford, and their daughter Susan Ford to tour the dining room of the vice president's residence. Located at Number One Observatory Circle in Northwest Washington, D.C., the house was originally built for the superintendent of the United State Naval Observatory in 1893, but became the residence of the chief of naval operations in 1923. In 1974, the house was selected by Congress to be refurbished for use as the residence of the Vice President of the United States. Although Vice President and Mrs. Rockefeller hosted housewarming parties after renovations of the house were complete in 1975, the Rockefellers did not live in the house and only used it for entertaining. The first vice president to live in the Naval Observatory was Walter F. Mondale, who moved into the house with his family in 1977.