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White House History Profile picture
@WhiteHouseHstry
Oct 9, 2019 • 7 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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Sports are an important window into the history of the White House. What do the sports facilities in today’s thread suggest to you about the presidential administrations that installed and used them? (1/7)
The White House tennis court, first built in 1902 behind the West Wing, was moved to the west side of the South Lawn in 1909. Here, President Gerald Ford and his son, Steve, play tennis on the White House court in 1974. (2/7)

Credit: National Archives and Records Administration
A heated indoor swimming pool was built in 1933 for Franklin D. Roosevelt's therapy as he was disabled by polio. During President Richard Nixon's first term, this space in the West Wing was converted into the Press Room. (3/7)

Credit: National Archives and Records Administration
The Ford administration installed an outdoor pool on the South Lawn in 1975. Here, President Gerald R. Ford swims as reporters look on. (4/7)

Credit: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum / NARA
Bowling lanes were first installed in 1947 in the basement of the West Wing but were moved to the Old Executive Office Building in 1955. In 1973, President and Mrs. Nixon had this one-lane alley built in an underground workspace. (5/7)

Credit: White House Historical Association
A jogging track was built around the driveway of the South Grounds during President Bill Clinton's first term. (6/7)

Credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum / NARA
President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a putting green with a small sand trap installed outside the Oval Office. This practice green was removed in the 1970s, and a new green was installed during the presidency of Bill Clinton. (7/7)

Credit: White House Historical Association

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More from @WhiteHouseHstry

White House History Profile picture
Dec 19
Meet Abby Gunn Baker – the woman responsible for the creation of the White House China Collection. In 1901, Baker was tasked with turning public opinion toward preservation by Colonel Theodore A. Bingham after he discovered previous presidential State Services had been discarded.

📷: White House Historical AssociationImage
To combat the poor preservation of the State Services, Colonel Bingham asked Baker to write a scholarly article on the subject, which led her to spend four months studying the remaining presidential china in the White House.
By 1903, Abby Baker’s first article on the preservation of the services was published in Munsey’s Magazine. First Lady Edith Roosevelt (pictured) took great interest in Baker’s article and formed the White House china collection.

🖼️: White House Historical Association/White House CollectionImage
Read 6 tweets
White House History Profile picture
Dec 18
First Lady Mamie Eisenhower’s iconic hairdo was the work of renowned salon owner Elizabeth Arden. Though Mrs. Eisenhower sported the hairstyle since the 1920s, it was perfected at Arden’s Paris salon while she and General Dwight Eisenhower lived abroad during the 1940s. Image
Image
When Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election, Arden offered to dispatch a hairdresser to Washington to help the new first lady style her “precious, much discussed bangs.” Mrs. Eisenhower graciously accepted the offer. Image
Image
In order to preserve the first lady’s signature look, Arden suggested that one of her stylists make a structural diagram to give any hairdresser a guide to recreating Mrs. Eisenhower’s look. It worked: the first lady wore bangs for the rest of her life. Image
Read 4 tweets
White House History Profile picture
Oct 18
Since 1817, President James Monroe's gilded bronze and mirrored plateau has impressed White House visitors.

Image: White House Historical Association Image
After the British burned the White House in 1814, President Monroe purchased Parisian furniture to refurbish the scorched Executive Mansion. Among the newly acquired furniture was the gilded centerpiece, made by the Parisian firm Denière et Matelin.

Image: White House Collection/WHHAImage
Described as "mat gilt with garlands of fruit and vines," Monroe's plateau featured 16 figures presenting wreaths and pedestals. It is accompanied by three baskets, a pair of urns, and stands, which remain today.

Image: White House Historical Association Image
Read 10 tweets
White House History Profile picture
Jun 10
One of First Lady Edith Roosevelt’s White House legacies was the introduction of garden parties (pictured). Before becoming first lady, she held extravagant garden parties at the Roosevelt’s family home in Oyster Bay, New York.

📷: @SagamoreHillNHS Image
@SagamoreHillNHS Mrs. Roosevelt’s White House garden parties gained such traction that local papers announced that her inaugural party as “the first time in the history of the White House that the mistress of the mansion has given this kind of function.”

🖼️: White House Collection/WHHA Image
@SagamoreHillNHS With hundreds of guests attending her inaugural party, she wore an elegant white taffeta and organdy dress, trimmed with ruffles and lace. Pictured is Mrs. Roosevelt’s 1905 garden party on the South Lawn of the White House. 

📷: @librarycongress Image
Read 8 tweets
White House History Profile picture
Mar 12, 2021
It’s #FirstLadyFriday, and today we’re highlighting the life of First Lady Jane Pierce, born in New Hampshire on this day in 1806.

Image: Library of Congress

1/7
Jane Appleton married Franklin Pierce in 1834, though she was uninterested in politics and the spotlight that came with it.

Image: White House Collection/White House Historical Association

2/7
Their marriage was marked by tragedy, as they had lost two young children before Pierce’s election to the presidency in 1852. Unfortunately, death followed them to the White House.

3/7
Read 7 tweets
White House History Profile picture
Feb 27, 2021
Salvadore Catalano, a Sicilian-born sailor, became an American naval hero as a critical player in a secret mission during the First Barbary War.

A native of Sicily, his composure and knowledge of Tripoli Harbor were essential to the mission.

Image: Library of Congress

1/7
In one of the most courageous actions in American naval history, Catalano piloted the Intrepid for Lieutenant Stephen Decatur’s destruction of the captured USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor in 1804.

Image: U.S. Naval Academy Museum Collection/U.S. Navy Photograph

2/7
The mission to destroy the USS Philadelphia was perilous. Pirates (also called Corsairs) on board the Philadelphia hailed Decatur, but it was Catalano who answered, buying time for the Intrepid crew to attach ropes to the Philadelphia to pull the vessels together.

3/7
Read 7 tweets

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