Table Of Content
- DID YOU KNOW: Where does the Vice President live in Washington DC?
- The Vice President’s Residence
- The Pence Era
- Where does the vice president live? See the VP’s version of the White House
- In 1977, Walter Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter, became the first vice president to live there.
- The Grounds
It cost only $20,000, according to Denyer, which is the equivalent of about $575,000 today, according to inflation calculators. The house, which Harris will share with her husband, Doug Emhoff, 56, is on 12 acres of the 72-acre grounds of the still-operational US Naval Observatory. The three-story building is white with a blue roof and green shutters.
DID YOU KNOW: Where does the Vice President live in Washington DC?
The residence of the United States Vice President is important as it gives them a permanent base in Washington DC. It wouldn’t be practical for them to live out of state, and paid accommodation would be a massive expense for the taxpayer. The VP is free to live here throughout their term and adapt the residence to their needs – as most have. Gore's daughter, Karenna, got married on the grounds of the residence in 1997, with Aretha Franklin performing for the bride and groom's first dance, according to The Washington Post. According to the Washington Post, the family added a beehive in 2017.
The Vice President’s Residence
Funding and the exact location were to be settled on after the Vietnam War. Within this period of indecision, Secret Service paid expensively for upgrading private housing of vice presidents. To mitigate these expense, Congress passes a law in 1974 making the Admiral’s House a temporary residence to the Vice President. "You’re on 80 acres, overlooking the rest of the city. And you can walk out, and there’s a swimming pool. You can walk off a porch in the summer and jump in a pool, and go into work. You can ride a bicycle around and never leave the property and work out." Before it housed American vice presidents, Number One Observatory Circle first served as a home for U.S.
The Pence Era
A tree plaque reads “Joe loves Jill, Valentine’s Day 2010,” courtesy of now-President Joe Biden. Biden also installed the Family Heritage Garden of the Vice Presidents in 2012, which includes the names of the families (and pets) who have lived there. In 2004, Vice President Harris was elected District Attorney of San Francisco where she was a national leader in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights, officiating the first same-sex wedding after Proposition 8 was overturned. She also established the office’s environmental justice unit and created a ground-breaking program to provide first-time drug offenders with the opportunity to earn a high school degree and find employment, which the U.S. Department of Justice designated as a national model of innovation for law enforcement.
Previous vice presidential residences and legislation
Charles Denyer, author of "Number One Observatory Circle," wrote that the home was still in need of upgrades when the Mondales moved in. Part of the basement floor was still dirt, faucets would spout rust-colored water, and the vice president's first shower at the residence turned cold halfway through. Vice presidents used to live in their own homes until Congress devoted funds to refurbish the home for vice presidential use. When the house was constructed, its exterior was faced with terracotta brick. The wood trim was painted in a warm putty-gray, and the wooden porch in a combination of putty-gray and white.
Where does the vice president live? See the VP’s version of the White House
Number One Observatory Circle, often referred to as the Naval Observatory, is the official residence of the vice president of the United States. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., the house was built in 1893 for the observatory superintendent. The chief of naval operations (CNO) liked the house so much that in 1923 he took over the house for himself. It is still the "official temporary residence of the vice president of the United States" by law. The 1974 congressional authorization covered the cost of refurbishment and furnishing the house. "The demands of the vice presidency and the need for security necessitate a government-owned house for the vice president and the second family," Kopko says.
One of the most interesting stories regarding the vice president’s house in Washington relates to the rumor of a bunker. In 1974, Congress determined that it should be transformed into the official residence for the VP. However, there was a short gap between this order and a vice president moving. They were living in Blair House, a president's guest house located across the street on Pennsylvania Avenue, while the repairs were being made. A moving van was spotted outside the home on Tuesday night, and a senior administration official told NBC News that Harris and Emhoff are now moving into their new home. Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are ready to put their personal stamp on a 128-year-old house that seven former vice presidents have called home.
The Grounds
According to author Charles Denyer, who has written one of the most detailed books on the property, titled Number One Observatory Circle, the three-story house cost approximately $20,000 to build. When they affixed the object, which marks the space as sacred and holy, Emhoff's parents came to the ceremony, Harris told Vanity Fair in December 2022. "They're originally from Brooklyn, and they are exactly what you would know and expect," Harris said, adding that the family had a big Hannukah party this year. President George H.W. Bush installed a quarter-mile jogging track at the residence, and he liked it so much that he continued running there even after he became president. Money for maintenance of the home, as well as additions or renovations, comes from private funds or donations to the Vice President's Residence Foundation, which was founded in 1991.
The white 19th Century house overlooking Massachusetts Avenue in Washington D.C. Was built in 1893 for the superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory. The house was so lovely that the chief of naval operations booted the superintendent and made the house his home in 1923. The house was "taken over" again in 1974 when Congress turned "Number One Observatory Circle" into the official residence of the Vice President. WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — While their offices may be located on the White House grounds, every single vice president, since Walter Mondale, and their families have called the grounds of the U.S. Several vice presidents, including former Vice President Al Gore, have used the Naval Observatory to welcome foreign dignitaries and ambassadors.
A nod to their home state of Indiana, they also put a "Hoosiers" logo on the basketball court — making sure it was removable for the next resident. According to government records, Tipper began a collection of new and antique Christmas ornaments to be used by the home's residents for years to come. Though tours of the home are not available to the public, photographers and reporters are let in from time to time, allowing glimpses at the ways the property has changed through the years. In November 2021, the second couple put a white mezuzah — which contains a small scroll of certain Hebrew text from the Torah — on the right side of the doorway of their residence, CNN reported. Newsweek's Eleanor Clift reported in 2009 that then-Vice President Biden revealed the existence of the bunker at an annual Gridiron Club dinner, but Biden's spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander told Fox News that his comments were not reported accurately. Eleanor Mondale wrote in a 1998 issue of Swing magazine that the Secret Service was less than pleased when they found out she had reported a ghost sighting, not an actual intruder.
The house became the vice president's official residence in 1975, but sitting Vice President Nelson Rockefeller decided to stay in his mansion in Washington, D.C., and did not move in. The first occupants were Walter Mondale and his family in 1977, after he became the veep under President Jimmy Carter. Prior to Number One Observatory Circle, vice presidents lived everywhere from apartments to hotel rooms to suburban homes, which became a headache for the Secret Service to always be changing security protocols to accommodate new residences. The vice president and second gentleman are moving into the official residence of the vice president this week after having waited more than two months while the Queen Anne-style house was being renovated.
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