William Bushong

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Unbuilt White Houses of the 19th Century

Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, several major proposals were made to alleviate crowding at the White House by erecting a new residence for the president and converting the old building to office and ceremonial use. A new mansion would also relieve concerns for the president's health. Tiber Creek had been walled and deepened early in the century,

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White House Gingerbread: Holiday Traditions

The holiday season at the White House is celebrated with an array of annual traditions, glittering holiday décor, fresh pine, and sugary treats for all to enjoy. One of the sweetest holiday traditions is the official White House gingerbread. Since the late 1960s, pastry chefs have baked, constructed, and decorated a gingerbread house for the enjoyment of the First F

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Presidents and the Hey Day of Horse Racing in the Federal City

President Richard M. Nixon was the first sitting president to attend the Kentucky Derby on May 3, 1969. In his party that day were Mrs. Nixon and then Governor and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, all rooting for the winner, California-based Majestic Prince. Presidential parties attending horse races was once a common occurrence in the colonial period and early republic. Even before the seat

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Presidents as Horsemen

The nineteenth century might be called the golden age of the horse. Horsepower pulled plow, canal boat, and wagon to market; horse-drawn stages linked towns; and omnibuses and carriages conveyed people to work within cities, to shop, or to the train station, which, a decade after the Civil War, emerged as the hub of a transcontinental transportation system. Before automobiles,

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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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Steve Vasilakes, the White House's Peanut Man

Nicholas Stefanos “Steve” Vasilakes emigrated from Ligerea, Greece, to the United States in 1910 and soon thereafter set up his hot peanuts and fresh popped popcorn cart on what actually was White House property. He listed his business address as “1732 Pennsylvania Avenue” and reporters observed he came to represent the “little man” in America. He was described as a “burly, fierce mustached Gree

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Glimpses of the Old Family Dining Room

The Family Dining Room on the State Floor of the White House today is used primarily for smaller formal dinners and working lunches. The space, adjacent to the State Dining Room, also often serves as a staging area for State Dinners. White House families have traditionally dined in the Family Dining Room since about 1825 when President John Quincy Adams and

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White House Vegetable Gardens

John Adams, the first resident of the White House, wanted a vegetable garden plowed and fertilized with the goal of planting in the spring of 1800. By the time the ground was ready for planting, Adams had returned to private life after Thomas Jefferson’s victory in the 1800 presidential election. President Jefferson inherited a construction site when he came into office an

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The President's House: A Notorious Haunt for Ghosts

Americans love ghost stories, and the White House, a large and imposing mansion where things go bump in the night, has been considered a prime spot for the paranormal for many years. The ghosts of William Henry Harrison (the first president to die in the White House), Abigail Adams hanging her laundry in the East Room, and Dolley Madison overlooking

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Forgotten Ghosts of the White House

Not all White House ghosts are well-known or have been presidents and first ladies. There are also lesser-known spirits like a white-haired old man that disturbed President Chester Arthur at night, a beautiful maiden in a flowing white dress sited in the old conservatory, and the unidentified boy called the “Thing” that greatly frightened the Taft residence staff in 1911. Perhaps they

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The Life and Presidency of Calvin Coolidge

John Calvin Coolidge (he rapidly let go of "John") was born on the Fourth of July in 1872 to an old New England family. His father John Calvin Coolidge farmed in Windsor County, Vermont. The young Calvin lost his mother Victoria Josephine Moore to what may have been tuberculosis when he was twelve; when he was seventeen, his younger sister and

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The Origin of the Abraham Lincoln Ghost Story

When it comes to White House spirits, Abraham Lincoln’s ghost is the most famous of them all. The legend of Lincoln’s ghost may have emanated from stories that Jeremiah “Jerry” Smith would spin for reporters. Smith started working at the White House during the Ulysses S. Grant administration in the late 1860s as a footman, and also served as a but