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Amenities & Living Comforts
The first bath tubs in the White House were portable and made of tin; water was hauled in buckets. Running water was piped into the White House in 1833. Gaslighting, installed in the White House in 1848, replaced candles and oil lamps. A central heating system was installed in the White House in 1837 when many people still warmed themselves with a log
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White House Tour
Following a competition for the design of the President's House in the spring of 1792, Irish architect James Hoban was commissioned to build a home and office for the President of the United States. With guidance from President George Washington, Hoban employed craftsmen brought from as far away as Scotland and oversaw a free and enslaved labor force that constructed one
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Living Quarters on the Ground Floor
White House staff who lived at the President’s House during the nineteenth century, including enslaved and free African Americans, usually had rooms in the basement. Open at the ground level on the south, the basement (referred to as the Ground Floor today) had windows on the north side facing a dry moat that was entirely hidden from view. Visitors on
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The White House, Lafayette Square and African Americans
To imagine what it was like here when the White House was being constructed in the 1790s, erase everything else you see now on and around Lafayette Square. The park was a field—muddy or dusty, depending on the weather. Enslaved workers who were building the White House were housed in temporary shelters—each about 10 feet wide and 10 feet long—lined
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Three Ushers Foil an Assassin
Thomas F. Pendel was a White House doorman from the Abraham Lincoln administration to the turn of the 20th century. By the time Chester A. Arthur succeeded James A. Garfield in September 1881, Pendel had experienced the assassinations of both Lincoln and Garfield.Even before Arthur moved into the White House, a man who "seemed perfectly rational" came to the Executive
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White House Visitor Center
In July 2012, the National Park Service’s White House Visitor Center began undergoing a $12.6 million revitalization through a public-private partnership with the White House Historical Association. The Association's donation of $12.5 million for the project and operating endowment helped make this extraordinary public resource possible. David M. Rubenstein's gift of $5 million to the Association for the White House Visitor Center ensures ce
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The White House Neighborhood and the War Unseen 1846-1848
Read Digital Edition Foreword, William SealeThe President and Washington During the War with Mexico, William SealeComfort in My Retirement: Polk Place,Tom PricePortrait of Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés: A Gift to the First Lady, John HoltzappleIntroduction to The Washington Diary of Elizabeth L.C. Dixon During the Polk Administration, Caroline Welling Van DeusenJournal Written During a Residence in Wa
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President Eisenhower's White House
Read Digital EditionForeword, William SealeDwight David Eisenhower: The First Television President, Martha Joynt Kumar"She's Making Maturity Glamorous": Mamie Eisenhower's White House Style, Edith MayoPresident Eisenhower: Painter, Sister Wendy BeckettThe Eisenhower Family Home in Abilene, Kansas, Dennis Medina"Proud Housewife": Mamie Eisenhower Collects for the White House, Melissa Naulin"In the Goodness of Time": Creating the Dwight David Eisenhower Room
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In James Buchanan’s Time
Read Digital EditionForeword, William SealeJames Buchanan's White House Hostess: The Celebrated Harriet Lane, Pamela KilianGuest of the Nation: The Japanese Delegation to the Buchanan White House, Dallas FinnThe USRMCS Harriet Lane, Robert L. AndersonPresident Buchanan Greets a Guest of State: The Prince of Wales at the White House, Claire A. FaulknerThe White House Collection: From James Buchanan's Time, William G.
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The Roosevelt Restoration of 1902
Read Digital EditionForeword, William B. BushongThe White House in the Monumental City, Antoinette J. LeeGlenn Brown, the White House, and the Urban Renaissance of Washington, D.C., William B. BushongTheodore Roosevelt's White House, William SealeThe Executive Offices 100 Years Ago: A Photographic Essay, Lydia TederickThe "Eye of Guardianship:" President Theodore Roosevelt and the American Institute of Architects, Tony P. WrennThe White
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The Gold Spoon Speech of 1840
Read Digital EditionForeword, William SealeAbout the Gold Spoon Oration, William SealeImagery from the Election of 1840: Myth and Reality, Clifford KrainikThe White House Collection: Those Princely Objects in Charles Ogle's Speech, William G. AllmanA Letter from Home: Martha Custis Peter to Martha Custis Williams, Tudor Place February 13, 1841, Wendy KailSpeech of Mr. Ogle, of Pennsylvania, on The Regal Splendor of the President's