1929: Herbert Hoover was the first president to have a telephone installed on his desk on March 27. A fire on Christmas Eve 1929 gutted the executive office building and a reconstruction began immediately.
President’s Park is approximately 80 acres of urban landscape surrounding the White House. A fence encloses the house, providing 18 acres of gardens and grounds for the first family’s enjoyment. To the south is the Ellipse, the site of National Christmas Tree events. To the north of the White House is a seven-acre plot called Lafayette Park. Named after revolutionary war
Eighteen years ago when the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was dedicated, President Reagan expressed his dream that it would bring the presidency closer to the American people. The opening of the Air Force One Pavilion at the Reagan Library in 2005 featuring SAM (Special Air Mission) 27000 marked an important milestone in achieving President Reagan’s wish.
For President Reagan, nothing better re
The histories of the White House and of Ford’s Theatre are obviously linked by their association with Abraham Lincoln. Their histories conjoined on the spring evening of April 14, 1865, when a popular comedy of the day became a tragic backdrop for a horrific real-life drama of national intrigue and violence. However, they are similar in another way: their respective images in
In the early months of 1914, reporters who regularly covered the White House became alarmed at rumors that the Congressional Standing Committee of Correspondents would be entrusted with choosing reporters for a series of regular press conferences being planned by President Woodrow Wilson. Eleven White House reporters responded to the reports by establishing the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) to support “the
During the 1920s, press conferences emerged as a main form of presidential communication with the American people. Warren G. Harding hired professional speechwriter Judson Welliver in 1921 and began to hold public press conferences twice a week. Calvin Coolidge was the first president to use radio to speak directly to the citizens of the nation, broadcasting monthly programs. Herbert Hoover used
Two leading ladies appeared at Washington’s National Theatre on the evening of July 2, 1886. On stage was Nellie McCartee, the star of the opera The Black Hussar. In the audience was the 21-year-old first lady Frances Folsom Cleveland, who, exactly one month earlier, on June 2, had married 49-year-old President Grover Cleveland in a White House ceremony. Public opinion was favorable to
When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, the modern period of president-press relations began. FDR held long and informal press conferences in the Oval Office and began the tradition of an annual press reception modeled after state diplomatic events. FDR was the first president to fully exploit radio as a force to promote his programs and policy. On March 6, 1933, First Lady
Ronald Reagan preferred to present himself and his policies in venues other than a formal presidential press conference. He held about six conferences a year and usually staged them in the East Room at night. George H. W. Bush made frequent use of press conferences in the Press Briefing Room during his first three years in office, holding on average
Most Native American tribes during the War of 1812 sided with the British because they wanted to safeguard their tribal lands, and hoped a British victory would relieve the unrelenting pressure they were experiencing from U.S. settlers who wanted to push further into Native American lands in southern Canada and in the lower Great Lakes and the south. Although some