Top 10 Fascinating Facts About the WHITE HOUSE
One of the most famous, if not the most famous, Presidential homes in the world is the White
House, which is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
Over 6,000 people visit it every day, and it is one of the top tourist attractions in
America's capital.
Of course, besides being a famous monument, it is also a home that is steeped in history.
These are 10 of the most fascinating facts about the White House and the people who lived
in it.
10.
They Had A Design Contest To Build It
In 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which established Washington, D.C. as the
capital of the United States.
Congress also ordered that the capitol buildings, including the President's House needed to
be built within 10 years.
In order to find architectural plans for the house where the President would live, Congress
held a contest.
At the urging of George Washington, Irish-born architect James Hoban submitted his plans,
which Encyclopedia Britannica said was influenced by Leinster House in Dublin.
Hoban won the contest and his reward was $500 and a lot in D.C.
He was also hired on to oversee the construction of the President's House, which started
in 1793.
The second President, John Adams, moved into the house in 1800, before it was actually
finished.
The total cost of building the President's House (its name before the White House) was
$232,372, which is the equivalent of about $100 million today.
9.
It Was Built By Slaves, Freed Slaves, And Immigrants
In July 2016, former First Lady Michelle Obama made some waves during her speech at the Democratic
National Convention when she said "…I wake up every morning in a house that was
built by slaves."
After the comment, several prominent people said it wasn't true, or justified the use
of slavery by saying they were "well-fed" slaves.
However, Obama's statement was totally correct.
According to the book The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in
the White House, about 400 of the 600 people who built the Capitol, including the White
House, were slaves.
The other 200 were about 50 freed slaves and the remainder were poor immigrants.
The White House Historical Association confirms that slaves did help build the White House,
but they weren't government owned.
Instead, they just rented them out from slave owners.
Because that totally makes it OK, right?
8.
The British Burned It Down
In June 1812, the United States, which was only 36-years-old at the time, declared war
on Great Britain.
There were several underlying reasons for the war, but one of them was to take over
Canada, which was a British colony, and make it part of America.
Throughout the war, each side had major victories and suffered terrible losses.
One of the biggest military defeats for the Americans happened on August 24, 1813, when
British forces invaded Washington, D.C.
In retaliation for sacking York, which is now Toronto, the President's House was relieved
of a few souvenirs before it was set ablaze.
The ensuing fire nearly destroyed the building.
After torching the President's House, several other prominent buildings in Washington were
burned to the ground.
Rebuilding started soon afterwards and the White House was restored to its original architectural
plans.
In fact, James Hoban, who oversaw the original construction, was rehired to oversee the reconstruction
to make it as close to the original as possible.
The reconstruction was completed by 1817, just in time for President James Monroe to
move in.
After the Burning of Washington, the Americans fought back against the British and won several
important victories.
This led to the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814.
Part of the treaty was that any captured territory by either side would be returned.
What's interesting is how this part of history is taught in schools in the United States
and Canada, who have had uninterrupted peace with each other since the War of 1812.
In the United States, students are taught that the War of 1812 was a war that earned
the respect of the British and strengthened the nation as a whole, allowing them to expand
westward.
Canadian students, on the other hand, learn that the War of 1812 was the one time that
the aggressive Americans tried to invade Canada and for their troubles, they got their capital
and the White House burned down.
7.
Why Is The White House White?
One myth about the White House is that it's white to cover up the fire damage that was
caused when it burned down in 1814.
However, that isn't true because it was white before it was set on fire.
In 1798, a lime-based whitewash was painted on to protect the porous stone from cracking.
Usually, the whitewash would have weathered and faded away.
However, instead they kept reapplying the whitewash until 1818, when it was painted
with lead-based white paint.
The house was originally called the President's House, but since it was distinctively white,
its nickname was the white house for almost a century.
It wouldn't officially become the White House until 1901 under President Theodore
Roosevelt.
6.
Pets There Have Included Alligators, Badgers, Bears, and a Dog Named Satan
Besides being home to the First Family, the White House has also had its fair share of
pets.
Out of 45 Presidents, there are only three Presidents who have no record of owning a
pet: Chester A. Arthur, Franklin Pierce, and Donald Trump.
In most cases, the pets were dogs or cats.
Abigail Adams had a dog named Satan, for instance.
However, it's also been home to some more exotic pets.
Calvin Coolidge had a menagerie and the main attraction was a 600 pound pygmy hippopotamus
named Billy.
Two different Presidents had alligators roam the White House grounds – Herbert Hoover
and John Quincy Adams.
Supposedly Adams kept a gator in the bathroom in the East Room and used it to scare guests.
Martin Van Buren was given two tiger cubs by the Sultan of Oman.
However, supposedly Congress made him donate the cubs to a zoo.
Finally, Theodore Roosevelt had a badger named Josiah and was given a bear, which his children
named Jonathan Edwards, by a group of voters in West Virginia.
However, he didn't have the proper accommodations for the bear, which Roosevelt called "queer-tempered,"
and he ended up donating the bear to the Bronx Zoo.
5.
Lyndon B. Johnson's Shower
Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, was a relentlessly hard worker
who was known for getting things done.
He was also a man with a strong sexual appetite who seemed to be obsessed with his own genitals.
He was known to whip it out whenever and where ever he wanted to.
So it really shouldn't be a surprise that he had some odd requests when it came to his
shower.
According to Kate Andersen Brower's book The Residence: Inside the Private World of
the White House, Johnson wanted to have several nozzles that switched from hot to cold.
He also wanted the pressure to be intense, like a fire hose.
Finally, he wanted a nozzle pointed directly at his genitals and to shoot up his rear end.
When the plumber said it couldn't be done, Johnson himself called the plumber and chewed
him out.
To inspire him, Johnson said, "If I can move 10,000 troops in a day, you certainly
can fix the shower."
So the plumber tinkered with the shower and it ended up with four nozzles.
One time, an usher apparently tried the shower and it pinned him to the wall.
When Nixon moved into the White House in 1969, he ordered the plumber to get rid of Johnson's
shower.
4.
Market Value
Before Donald Trump was elected President, we could say with certainty that the White
House would never go on sale; but now, who knows what will happen?
He is a real estate mogul, after all.
If he were to put it on the market, what would be a fair asking price?
Well, the real estate website Zillow came up with an estimate for the house, which is
a single family home with 142 rooms on six floors and about 55,000 square feet, and sits
on an 18 acre lot.
If you were to include all the historical artifacts with it and the hot tub that was
installed under Bill Clinton (because of course Slick Willie installed a hot tub), then it
would cost $398 million.
Or if President Trump wanted to rent it out, it would cost $2,079,473.
3.
The White House's Deadly Water Supply
The ninth President of the United States, William Henry Harrison, holds two Presidential
records and the common belief is that these two records are connected.
The first is that Harrison gave the longest inaugural speech, which he did outside on
a cold and miserable March day without a coat.
The second record is that he was President for the shortest amount of time.
He died on April 4, 1841, 32 days into his presidency, from what was believed to be pneumonia,
which he caught while giving his long inauguration speech.
However, according to Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak of the University of Maryland School of Medicine,
who did a modern-day medical investigation, Harrison most likely died of Typhoid Fever
and not of pneumonia.
The source of the typhoid fever was the White House's water supply.
Mackowiak also thinks that the water in the White House killed President James K. Polk,
who died in 1849, three months after leaving the White House, and president Zachary Taylor,
who died in office in 1850.
2.
Does It Have Secret Passages?
One of the most mythical elements of the White House is its secret passages and tunnels.
For example, it was rumored that John F. Kennedy used the tunnels to sneak out of the White
House to meet Marilyn Monroe.
However, that's all they appear to be – myths.
While there have been renovations of the White House over the years, including additions,
the White House wasn't really designed to house things like tunnels and secret passages.
The closest thing to a secret lair is the Presidential Emergency Operations Center,
which was built after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
At the time, the Council of National Defense urged Franklin D. Roosevelt to move out of
the White House because they thought it was a "firetrap."
His compromise was to build a bomb shelter in the White.
The Presidential Emergency Operations Center is in the basement of the East Wing.
It serves as the communication center and it is able to withstand a nuclear blast.
It's also important to note that the shelter is not the same as the Situation Room, which
is in the basement of the West Wing.
One notable time it was used was on September 11, 2001.
Vice President Dick Chaney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among others, were
evacuated from their offices into the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.
1.
It Was Almost Torn Down In 1945 Because It Was In Such Bad Shape
By 1945, the White House had been lived in for 145 years and it was in rough shape.
Besides being nearly destroyed in 1814, there was another fire in the White House on Christmas
Eve 1929.
The White House was hosting a party and when the fire started in the West Wing, Herbert
Hoover left the party to oversee the removal of papers and documents from the Oval Office,
while the First Lady kept the party going.
The fire ended up gutting the West Wing, including the Oval Office.
Another problem was that the White House wasn't constructed to have indoor plumbing and electricity
and that was all added well after it was built.
This added a lot of stress to the structure of the building.
It got to be so bad that Harry S. Truman thought it was going to collapse.
In fact, his daughter's piano fell through a floor into the room below it.
The condition of the White House got to be so bad that it would have been cheaper to
tear it down and build something new in its place.
However, since it was a national monument Truman was against the idea.
They chose to gut the interior of the White House and rebuild it as close to its original
design as possible.
The reconstruction took four years, during which time Harry and Bess Truman lived in
Blair House, which is across the street from the White House.
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