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Presidents' Day at the White House
Just how does the president celebrate Presidents’ Day? Throughout the more than 200-year history of the White House, presidents themselves have taken time to celebrate the American presidency. Originating as a public celebration of our first president, George Washington, this holiday’s commemoration has taken various forms over the years. As time passed, additional presidents, most notably Abraham Lincoln, have also
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Sicilian Salvador Catalano
Few people today know the story of a Sicilian-born sailor named Salvadore Catalano who became an early American naval hero. During the First Barbary War (1801-1805) against the North African states of Morocco, Tripoli, Algiers and Tunis, he was a critical player in a secret mission now fabled as one of the most courageous actions in American naval history. Catalano
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Hoover Easter Egg Rolls
The annual White House Easter egg roll was a well-established tradition when President Herbert Hoover took office, and the Hoovers were present on April Fools’ Day, 1929 to observe their first Easter egg roll take place. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover put her own imprint on the event by ordering part of the South Lawn roped off so maypole dances and Na
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A Prominent Early White House Neighbor
When Commodore Stephen Decatur and his wife, Susan, moved into their new three story brick home across from the White House in 1819, they desired to link their futures with that of the growing national capital. It is no coincidence that they chose to reside in such close proximity to the Executive Mansion.One of the nation’s first post-Revolutionary War he
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Civil War Veterans Visit the White House
In May 1865, at the close of hostilities, a Grand Review throughout Washington, D.C., exhibited parading Union troops from the Eastern and Western Theaters of the Civil War. For numerous Civil War veterans, this was their last memorable act as soldiers, as many were soon mustered out of service and began civilian life. A presidential reviewing stand was erected outside
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The Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square
The Dolley Madison House, a yellow structure on the corner of H Street and Madison Place in “The President’s Neighborhood” surrounding Lafayette Square near the White House, was built in 1818-1819 by Richard Cutts, a congressman from Massachusetts who was married to Dolley Madison’s sister Anna. The mortgage passed to President James Madison, and, after his death, to his wife
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Inauguration of 1861
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the United States. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed soon after. In the midst of an unprecedented sectional crisis, President Abraham Lincoln entered office on March 4, 1861, to assume leadership of an anxious and worried nation. The Baltimore Sun commented that the “close of an old and the beginning of a new administration of
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Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings was born in 1799 at Montpelier, the Virginia estate of James and Dolley Madison. His mother, an enslaved woman of African and Native American descent, told him that his father was the local English trader Benjamin Jennings. While Paul had no documented relationship with Benjamin and probably never met him, he did adopt the ‘Jennings’ surname as his own. As a
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April 6, 1917
At eight o’clock on the morning of April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith “threw responsibilities to the winds for a few hours,” boarding their limousine at the White House and riding to a local club where they played golf for a few hours before returning to Washington, D.C. Grave events were afoot there, thanks to Germany’s recent
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The American Protective League and White House Security During World War One
The United States remained neutral during the early years of World War I, from the outbreak of hostilities in August, 1914, to April, 1917. As a result, the country continued to interact with both the Central Powers and Allied Powers.1 However, security for the White House, President Woodrow Wilson and those closest to him was becoming a concern on the eve of
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Tennessee in the White House
As he left the White House in 1869, President Andrew Johnson supposedly exclaimed that he could “already smell the sweet mountain air of Tennessee.”1 Despite the considerable distance between Washington, D.C. and Tennessee, there have been numerous connections between the state and the Executive Mansion that highlight Tennessee influence in the history of the president’s home. Three presidents, all servin
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White House Pigeons
As any visitor to Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. will tell you, pigeons are a universal feature of the environmental landscape surrounding the White House. One reporter even designated the park across from the White House “almost as famous an abode for pigeons as St. Mark’s Square, Venice.” For many years, however, “carrier” pigeons transported messages for many miles, in