20+ Facts About The White House You Will Want To Tell Everyone About

For starters, it wasn’t regularly called the White House until Teddy Roosevelt officially named it that in 1901.

Which means that before 1901, it was known by several different names, including the President’s Palace, the President’s House, and the Executive Mansion.

 Michelle Obama was right — D.C. commissioners had slaves, in addition to white laborers and European immigrants, construct the president’s house.

George Washington never actually lived there.

 

It’s the only private residence of a head of state that the public can visit for free.

The White House got electricity during Benjamin Harrison’s presidency in 1891, but his family was so scared of touching the switches that they left the lights on all night.

 

 After Franklin D. Roosevelt moved in in 1933, it became one of the first wheelchair-friendly government buildings in Washington, DC.

But the Oval Office wasn’t put in until 1913, per William Howard Taft’s instructions.

The basement of the White House is like a mini mall, with a flower shop, a dentist’s office, and more.

At various times, the house and grounds have been totally open to the public.

It wasn’t totally finished when John and Abigail Adams moved in on Nov. 1, 1800, so Abigail hung her laundry to dry in the East Room.

Franklin D. Roosevelt installed a heated indoor swimming pool to help with his polio therapy, but Richard Nixon turned it into the current press briefing room in 1970. Gerald Ford brought swimming back to the White House in 1975.

White House staff only has 12 hours to move in a new president’s belongings on inauguration day.

And Winston Churchill claimed he saw Abraham Lincoln’s ghost while staying there.

That’s not the only White House lookalike — there’s also a private home that’s an exact replica in McLean, Virginia.

The White House was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban, who won a competition in 1792. He based his model on a villa in Dublin called the Leinster House.

A plumber once had a nervous breakdown because Lyndon Johnson’s demands for high water pressure in his shower were so extreme.

It was indeed built by slaves.

There’s a coffee maker that was a gift from Tom Hanks.

A lot of animals other than Bo and Sunny have lived there. At different times, the White House has housed snakes, alligators, bear cubs, lion cubs, bobcats, and more.

The West Wing didn’t exist until 1902, when Teddy Roosevelt had it built to replace an extensive network of decorative greenhouses.

The first family actually has to pay for their food.

The first movie screened inside the White House was Birth of a Nation, by Woodrow Wilson in 1915.

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