Ready for some White House trivia?
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George Washington never lived there
In 1791, our founding father and first United States president chose the site where the White House would be built. (He also approved its final design.) On Oct. 13, 1792, the cornerstone was laid and a group of Freemasons began construction. But President Washington, whose term ended in 1797, never had the opportunity to live there. When he died in 1799, construction was still ongoing.
President John Adams and his wife Abigail moved into the unfinished house in 1800, becoming the nation’s first First Couple to live there.
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It’s bigger than you think
Although it’s relatively modest in terms of today’s sprawling mansions, the White House was the country’s biggest house until after the American Civil War. It has 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms on six levels, as well as 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases and 3 elevators. It is 168 feet long by 85 feet wide, not including the porticoes. As for height, it’s 70 feet tall on the south side and 60 feet, 4 inches tall on the north side. The building and grounds stretch across 18 acres.
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It was torched by British soldiers
In 1814, during the War of 1812, British soldiers invaded the White House, setting it aflame in retaliation for U.S. soldiers who were torching buildings in York, Ontario. The fire completely destroyed the interior and roof of the building. President James Madison called for immediate reconstruction, summoning the return of the original designer, James Hoban. Madison and his wife were never able to return to the White House, but reconstruction was completed in time for newly elected President James Monroe to move there in 1817.
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It didn’t have an official name until 1901
Although it’s been the official residence of all U.S. presidents since 1800, the building wasn’t formally called the White House until President Theodore Roosevelt used it on his stationary in 1901. Prior to that, it was just referred to as the President’s House or the Executive Mansion. There used to be a belief that the name originated after the fire of 1814, when the smoke-stained walls were painted over with white paint, but historians point out that the house first got its white color in 1798, two years before John Adams moved in.
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Suffragists protested outside the gates for two straight years
On Jan. 10, 1917, during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, a group of women began protesting outside of the White House gates. The group represented the National Women’s Party and refused to move until women were given the right to vote. They stood in front of the White House for seven and a half hours a day, six days a week for two and a half years, and became known as the “Silent Sentinels.”
During that time they were repeatedly harassed, mistreated, arrested and even beaten—and yet they remained, until June 4, 1919, when the 19th Amendment was passed. It then took more than a year for the states to ratify the amendment and finally give women the right to vote.
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It’s rumored to be haunted
Presidents, first ladies, staffers and guests have reported seeing ghosts lurking in the rooms of the historic building. The ghost of Abigail Adams has been seen in the East Room, where she used to hang her laundry, and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln told friends that she had heard an angry and defeated Andrew Jackson stomping and swearing throughout the building’s many halls.
Of course, the most notable “ghost” comes in the form of President Abraham Lincoln. Sightings have been reported by the first ladies of the Coolidge, Johnson and Roosevelt presidencies, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill reported seeing Lincoln’s ghost while staying at the White House during World War II.
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It’s housed bears, goats, a raccoon and other animals
Plenty of presidents have lived in the White House with standard house pets like dogs and cats, but others welcomed animals that are much more … farm-friendly, even exotic.
President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy had a slew of animals, including birds, hamsters, a rabbit, dogs, cats, horses and ponies. Explorer Zebulon Pike gave Thomas Jefferson two grizzly bear cubs that were kept in a cage on the White House lawn for a short time, and First Lady Grace Coolidge had a pet raccoon, Rebecca, which she walked on a leash. Not to be outdone, William Henry Harrison kept both a billy goat and a cow, and among his array of puppies, ponies and fish, Grover Cleveland also kept chickens on the White House property.
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It needs tons of paint … literally
Just like any other historic house, the White House requires ongoing maintenance to keep it looking fresh. Unlike most other houses, however, the White House requires 570 gallons (about 3 tons) of white paint to cover the exterior. When the White House was renovated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, more than 30 layers of paint were removed from the exterior walls! A full repainting now takes place every four to six years, with touch-ups and cleanings done on a regular basis.
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There’s a secret command center below the West Wing—or is there?
In 2010, construction workers started digging a giant hole in the ground in front of the West Wing. It was a project literally shrouded in secrecy by a tall green construction fence. Two years later, the fencing came down, the surface repaved, and it looked like nothing had changed—or had it?
The official word was that work was being done to replace the West Wing’s aging utilities, but the numerous truckloads of heavy-duty concrete and beams raised suspicion among conspiracy theorists and curious citizens alike: Had a secret underground command center been established?
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It has been punked
Throughout modern times the transition of power between exiting and incoming presidents has been mostly seamless and dignified, but the exits of a few past presidents have been anything but. The 1932 Hoover-to-Roosevelt transition was notably frosty, as was the more recent Biden-Trump transition. Other outgoing administrations have resorted to harmless pranks.
One departing administration in particular truly upped its punking game: Before George W. Bush took over in 2001, Clinton staffers allegedly caused more than $10,000 in damage to the White House by removing the w keys from between 30 and 60 computer keyboards, then taping or gluing the keys to the walls. The staffers also reportedly stole doorknobs, office signs and a presidential seal, smeared desk drawers with sticky goo and even ripped phone cords out of the walls.
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More than 1,800 people work there full time
When a past president leaves the White House, he typically takes his staffers with him, leaving the president-elect to fill the void. With thousands of full-time positions to fill, that’s no easy task—and that’s not even counting the folks who work for the White House part-time or who are employed by the Executive Branch but have their offices off-site.
The White House Office alone traditionally employs around 500 people; the Office of the Vice President nearly 100. Rounding out the group are the more than 1,000 working in the Executive Office of the President and as part of the 15 Cabinet departments.
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The original cornerstone has disappeared
One of the most notable mysteries surrounding the White House is the disappearance of its original cornerstone. According to the White House Historical Association, after the cornerstone was laid in 1792, it disappeared, along with its inscribed brass plate. Another theory is that is was destroyed as part of the British attack in 1814.
The Freemasons, who constructed the building, denied taking it, and numerous presidents, including Roosevelt and Truman, have tried to locate it, to no avail. One theory is that the cornerstone is hidden between two stone walls in the Rose Garden, but it has never been found.
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