Fun Facts About Heating and Cooling in The White House!
The White House is America’s House, home to the president, and the scene of many historical events. But, it hasn’t always been the luxurious mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue that it is today. President’s once sweltered in the swampy heat of D.C. and shivered in the cold of winter. The story of the White House’s HVAC system is a fascinating adventure through the hallowed halls of the White House’s history.
Working Outdoors
The hills around Washington D.C. were the escape route for many presidents in the summer heat. When business called them back to the boiling rooms of the White House, they would frequently escape the heat by doing their work outdoors.
Presidents Taft and Wilson were two well-known excursionist presidents. Taft actually attempted an early version of air conditioning to cool the White House using fans and blocks of ice, but his system wasn’t efficient, and eventually, the 27th president took to working outside in the shade. He even slept in a screened room on the White House roof to enjoy the cooler evening air.
President Wilson moved his office into a tent left behind by Theodore Roosevelt. The tent, kept in the Rose Garden, had electrical lighting and a telephone to assist in the President’s work. Eventually, after loud tennis matches became a distraction to the president, Wilson returned to working in the Oval Office despite the heat.
Frigid and Sneaky Nixon!
The first air conditioning system was installed in the White House around 1929 in the West Wing. The family quarters received the gift of A/C in 1933. Since then, presidents were able to escape the heat of summer inside the White House.
President Richard Nixon took many liberties during his time as president. While Watergate is the most infamous incident to come out of the Nixon Administration, Nixon’s antics with the air conditioning was pretty cold, too. Nixon reportedly kept the White House cold enough that he enjoyed a roaring fire during the hottest days of summer. Imagine the rise in energy costs!
Nixon wasn’t the only president to prefer frigid temperatures, though. President Johnson was known to keep the White House cold enough to need an electric blanket through the summer!
Warming the White House
For about a century, the White House was heated through fireplaces. Rooms that weren’t used weren’t heated, and firewood was always being delivered to the White House during the winter. The first technical heating system wasn’t installed until 1840, when a gravity hot-air system using a furnace was installed. The system only heated the staterooms and transverse hallways of the main floor. Bedrooms and the remaining area of the White House remained heated by fire.
1845 saw the first whole-home heating system installed in the White House under President James K. Polk’s orders. Plaster-lined air ducting was installed and sent through the registers installed in the staterooms, bedrooms, offices, and remaining spaces.
Over the decades, the White House continues to experience changes in its heating and cooling systems. Heating and cooling a historic building can be a challenge, but the HVAC technicians that service the White House are more than up to it.
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