Number One Observatory Circle
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Number One Observatory Circle is the
official residence An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of th ...
of the
vice president of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...
. Located on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., the house was built in 1893 for the observatory's superintendent. The U.S. Navy's
chief of naval operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an Admiral (United States), admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the United States Secretary ...
(CNO) liked the house so much that in 1923 he took over the house from the superintendent for himself. It remained the residence of the CNO until 1974, when
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
determined that it would be easier and less expensive to provide security in a government-provided residence, and authorized its transformation to the first official residence for the vice president, though a temporary one. 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. Although Number One Observatory Circle was made available to the vice president in 1974, more than two years passed before a vice president lived full-time in the house. Vice President
Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
became president before he could use the house. His vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, primarily used the home for official entertainment as he already had a well-secured residence in Washington, D.C., though the Rockefellers donated millions of dollars' worth of furnishings to the house. Vice President
Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928April 19, 2021) was the 42nd vice president of the United States serving from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976. ...
was the first vice president to move into the house. Every vice president since has lived there.


History


Early history

The house at One Observatory Circle was designed by architect Leon E. Dessez and built in 1893 for $20,000 (equivalent to $ in ) for the use of the superintendent of the Naval Observatory who was the original resident. It was built on of land which had originally been part of a farm called Northview, which the Navy purchased in 1880. Northview had been the property of widow Margaret Barber, who at the time of the abolition of slavery in the District in 1862 was one of its largest slaveholders. The Naval Observatory is located from the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
and directly to its south is the British Embassy. The observatory was moved from
Foggy Bottom Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States, located in the city's northwest quadrant. It stretches west of the White House towards the Potomac River, north of the National Mall, east of Georgetown, south of the West ...
to its present location the same year the house was completed and 12 observatory superintendents lived in what was then known as ''The Superintendent's House''. In 1928, with the passage of Public Law 630, Congress appropriated it for the
chief of naval operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an Admiral (United States), admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the United States Secretary ...
, and in June 1929, Charles Hughes became the first resident of what became known as ''Admiral's House''. For the next 45 years, it served as the home of admirals such as Richard Leigh, Chester Nimitz, and Elmo Zumwalt.


Previous vice presidential residences and legislation

Previously, serving vice presidents had lived in hotels or their own private homes. In 1923, to honor her late husband, Senator John B. Henderson's widow offered to provide their newly built home as an official residence. President
Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...
, who lived in a hotel when he served as vice president from 1921 to 1923, wrote in his autobiography that an "official residence with suitable maintenance should be provided for the Vice-President", and that the office "should have a settled and permanent habitation and a place, irrespective of the financial ability of its temporary occupant." In 1966, the House Public Works Committee approved the construction of a three-story vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory. A month later, President Lyndon B. Johnson suspended construction until the economy improved; construction never restarted. The exact location was to be determined later by the GAO and the Navy. Construction was to commence on the residence when funding was available once the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
was over. In the interim, the Secret Service paid for expensive upgrades to the private homes of vice presidents Hubert Humphrey,
Spiro Agnew Spiro Theodore Agnew (; November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign, the first being John C. ...
, and
Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
. Agnew lived in his house for only three months in 1973 before resigning; shortly after, he sold it at a large profit, in part because of the upgrades (additional quarters for the Secret Service, fences and a new driveway for example), paid for by the government. This resulted in a minor scandal. A subsequent investigation showed that it would be cheaper to immediately set up the new vice presidential residence rather than secure private homes.


Rockefeller and Mondale

In July 1974, Congress passed a new law to make Admiral's House the "official temporary residence of the vice president of the United States" effective upon the termination of service of the incumbent chief of naval operations. Work began on preparing Admiral's House to be the temporary vice president's residence later that fall, after
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
's resignation and move of the CNO to Quarters A at the Navy Yard. The decision was largely made as it was increasingly expensive to add security and communicative equipment to each new vice presidential residence. Elmo Zumwalt was the last chief of naval operations to live in Number One Observatory Circle before it became the official residence of the
vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
. For Zumwalt, not pleased with the choice, this was reason enough to challenge
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. in the 1976 Senate election. The 1974 renovation replaced and updated building systems and increased the size of several rooms by removing internal walls. As a part of this renovation, the interior trim was painted white, and the walls had a palette of mostly neutral colors. Little consideration was given to historic preservation with interior or exterior spaces. No attempt was made to restore any interior space to its appearance at the period of construction or early use. The 1961-era white paint on the exterior was retained. Second-floor shutters, which appear in an 1895 photograph, were reinstalled. The house formally opened as the vice presidential residence in September 1975. Vice President
Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
would have been the first resident if President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
had not resigned, leaving the White House to Ford. The new vice president Nelson Rockefeller chose to live in his larger private home instead and used Admiral's House only for entertaining. In January 1977,
Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928April 19, 2021) was the 42nd vice president of the United States serving from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976. ...
became the first vice president to live in the house, and it has served as the home of every vice president since.


Later vice presidents

Instead of building a new vice presidential residence, One Observatory Circle continued to have extensive remodels. In 1976, the Navy spent $276,000 to replace 22 window units with steam heat and central air conditioning; the leaky roof was replaced in 1980 with slate. In 1981,
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
and Second Lady Barbara raised $187,000 for carpeting, furniture, and upholstery when they moved in. The next year, the Navy spent $34,000 to repair the porch roof. Repairs to interior and exterior walls damaged by water seepage amounted to $225,000, and $8,000 more was spent to build a small master bedroom. Bush also constructed a horseshoe pit and quarter-mile track around the residence. During his eight years at the residence, Vice President Bush hosted over 900 parties.
Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party (United States), ...
delayed his move-in by a month in 1989 for an extensive $300,000 remodeling that included a rebuilt third floor with bedrooms suitable for children, a wheelchair-accessible entrance, and an upgraded bathroom off the vice president's room. In 1991, a non-profit organization, the Vice President's Residence Foundation, was established to raise further funds to redecorate the residence. A sky-lit exercise room was added to the rooftop around that time, and numerous security enhancements were also performed. The Navy, responsible for upkeep on the residence, decided in 1991 that Congress would never build a permanent vice president's residence (ostensibly next door to Admiral's House) and opted instead to remodel and repair the house substantially.
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
agreed to delay his move into the house by nearly six months in 1993 to allow for the largest renovation of the house since 1974. The $1.6 million repair job replaced the heating, air conditioning, plumbing, removed asbestos, rewired the house, replaced the ventilation systems, restored the porch, and upgraded the family quarters on the second floor. Unlike prior additions, these habitability-focused renovations were carried out with taxpayer funds. Second Lady Tipper Gore built an electronic inventory of all the official household items passed down from administration to administration. Vice President
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
and Second Lady Lynne Cheney's changes to the residence included renovating the upstairs exercise room, redoing the kitchen pantry, and decorating the house in neutral colors. Vice President
Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...
and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff moved into Number One Observatory on April 7, 2021. They temporarily resided at Blair House during the renovations as they agreed to move in once the $3.8 million upgrades to the residence had been completed. The repairs consisted of replacing chimney liners, heating, air-conditioning, and plumbing systems. Harris was responsible for having the kitchen remodeled and the hardwood floors refurbished. In October 2021, Emhoff affixed a white
mezuzah A ''mezuzah'' ( "doorpost"; plural: ''mezuzot'') is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew language, Hebrew verses from the Torah, which Jews affix in a small case to the doorposts of their homes. These verses are the Biblical pa ...
to the right-hand side of the doorway of the residence's wooden entryway, which marked the first time an executive home in
American history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...
has carried the abiding sign of
sanctity Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...
of a
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
home. On November 28, 2021, Harris and Emhoff became the first second couple to light a menorah in the window of the official residence in celebration of the first night of
Hanukkah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...
. On April 15, 2022, Harris and Emhoff became the first known second family to host a
Passover Seder The Passover Seder is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (i.e., at the start of the 15th; a Hebrew d ...
at the vice president's residence. In 2024, Harris and Emhoff did not invite Vice President-elect
JD Vance James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republic ...
and the incoming second family to visit the home before moving in. Incoming second lady Usha Vance unsuccessfully sought information about the home from Harris' staff before communicating with Naval officials. Vance was concerned about childproofing the house to accommodate the couple's three young children, all under the age of 7 when they moved into the home in January 2025. File:Vice President and Mrs. Bush at the Vice President's home at the Naval Observatory the day after the VP wins the election.jpg, President-elect
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
and First Lady-designate Barbara, after he was elected president on November 9, 1988 File:1OC2003.jpg, Number One Observatory Circle in 2001 File:Joe Biden and Dick Cheney at VP residence.jpg, Vice President
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
meeting with Vice President-elect
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
, on November 13, 2008 File:VP Biden with Pence.jpg, Vice President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
meeting with Vice President-elect
Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
, on November 10, 2016 File:Halloween at the Vice President's Residence 2019 (48995619023).jpg, Halloween festivities during the tenure of Vice President
Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
in 2019


Architecture and decoration


Queen Anne style

The house is built in the Queen Anne style prevalent in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Hallmarks of the Queen Anne style are an asymmetrical floor plan, a series of rooms opening to each other rather than a common central hall, round turret rooms,
inglenook An inglenook or chimney corner is a recess that adjoins a fireplace. The word comes from "ingle", an old Scots word for a domestic fire (derived from the Gaelic ''aingeal''), and "nook". The inglenook originated as a partially enclosed hear ...
s near fireplaces, and broad verandas wrapping the ground floor, all of which are found at Number One Observatory Circle. 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. Window frames and mullions were painted the same gray, and shutters were painted olive green. The interior was furnished mostly with the personal furnishings of the Naval Observatory superintendent and later those of the
chief of naval operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an Admiral (United States), admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the United States Secretary ...
. Period photographs of the interior show middle-class nineteenth-century furnishings in various styles, including Eastlake. Walls were covered in patterned wall papers. By the first decade of the twentieth century, Victorian-style architecture had begun to fall out of fashion. Many houses that were initially built in brick or wood with complex paintings were simplified and " colonialized" by being painted white. This frequently happened inside as well as outside. Substantial wood
millwork Millwork is historically any wood-mill produced decorative material used in building construction. Stock profiled and patterned millwork building components fabricated by milling at a planing mill can usually be installed with minimal alterat ...
of
mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Universit ...
,
quarter-sawn Quarter sawing or quartersawing is a woodworking process that produces quarter-sawn or quarter-cut boards in the rip cutting of logs into lumber. The resulting lumber can also be called ''radially-sawn'' or simply ''quartered''. There is wides ...
oak,
American chestnut The American chestnut (''Castanea dentata'') is a large, fast-growing deciduous tree of the Fagaceae, beech family native to eastern North America. As is true of all species in the genus ''Chestnut, Castanea'', the American chestnut produces Bur ...
, and walnut were often painted over in white to "lighten" rooms and make them feel more contemporary. The home's exterior was originally dark red brick until 1960 when it was painted "feather" gray. It was changed to white with black shutters in 1963, and by 1993 was cream-colored.


Layout

The house is and includes 33 rooms. The house's first floor has a dining room, garden room, living room, lounges, pantry kitchen, reception hall, sitting room, and veranda. The second floor contains the main bedroom suite, an additional bedroom, a den, and a study. The attic, once the servants' quarters, now houses four bedrooms. The main kitchen is located in the basement.


Interior furnishings

Most of the furnishings placed in the house following the 1974 renovation were twentieth-century copies of either colonial or Federal style pieces. A notable exception was a bed placed in the house by Nelson Rockefeller. The bed was designed by surrealist artist
Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
. Called the "cage" bed, the headboard had the form of a Greek pediment, and the baseboard a lower version of a pediment. The Rockefellers twice offered the bed permanently to the house but it was turned down both by Vice President
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
and Vice President
Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party (United States), ...
. On visiting Barbara Bush at the house, Mrs. Rockefeller offered her the bed, and Mrs. Bush responded, "you are always welcome in this house, but there's no need to bring your own bed." The Rockefellers did leave a lithograph called "The Great Ignoramus", several antique Korean and Japanese chests, and nearly a dozen other pieces. Vice Presidents often bring their own furnishings, often for the upstairs rooms, and redecorate to suit their tastes. When the Mondales occupied the house,
Joan Mondale Joan Mondale (née Adams; August 8, 1930 – February 3, 2014) was the Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States, second lady of the United States from 1977 until 1981 as the wife of Walter Mondale, the 42nd vice president of the United S ...
introduced more saturated upholstery and wall colors and contemporary art. Like the Rockefellers, the Mondales brought some Asian antiques into the house. The Bush family, working with interior decorator Mark Hampton, used a palette of
celadon Celadon () is a term for pottery denoting both wares ceramic glaze, glazed in the jade green Shades of green#Celadon, celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware" (the term specialists now tend to use), and a type of transparent glaze, ...
,
lime green Lime is a color that is a shade of yellow-green, so named because it is a representation of the color of the citrus fruit called lime (fruit), limes. It is the color that is in between the web color chartreuse (color), chartreuse and yellow on ...
, and
light blue Light blue is a color or range of colors, typically a lightened shade with a hue between cyan and blue. The first use of "light blue" as a color term in English language, English is in the year 1915. In Russian and some other languages, there ...
. The Quayles removed the lime green and used
off-white Shades of white are colors that differ only slightly from pure white. Variations of white include what are commonly termed off-white colors, which may be considered part of a neutral color scheme. In color theory, a ''shade'' is a pure color mi ...
. The Gores oversaw a complete redecoration, the addition of a new dining-room table, new furniture for the library, and a substantial renovation of the grounds and porches to make them more suitable for outdoor entertaining. Immediately before the Cheneys moved in, some needed work on the air conditioning and heating was performed and the interiors were repainted. The Cheneys brought several pieces of contemporary art into the house. Before Vice President Kamala Harris moved in the Navy refinished the wooden floors and relined the chimneys.


Garden and grounds

The home is surrounded by a garden planted with cherry trees, Japanese magnolias, tulips and daffodils. In 1989,
Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party (United States), ...
installed a putting green. In 1991, Quayle added a pool, hot tub, and pool house. In 2010, Vice President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
added a tree swing to the grounds as a Valentine's Day present for Second Lady
Jill Biden Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (née Jacobs; born June 3, 1951) is an American educator who served as the first lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025 as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 20 ...
. The grounds include the Family Heritage Garden dedicated in 2012 by the Bidens. The garden contains stones commemorating the vice presidential families who have lived in the house, including pets. The Family Heritage Garden is accented by an arbor, a fountain, and hydrangea plants. Vice President
Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
and Second Lady Karen Pence added a beehive to the grounds in 2017 as well as a new basketball court. In 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris planted a pomegranate tree at the residence to commemorate the
2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinians, Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 ...
. The 73-acre property is bordered by a dense forest, shielding it from the noise of Massachusetts Avenue.


Privacy and security


Privacy

Unlike the White House, Number One Observatory Circle and the surrounding Naval Observatory do not offer any public tours.


Underground bunker

In December 2002, following the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, neighbors of the Number One Observatory Circle, then inhabited by Cheney, complained of loud "blasts" and construction noises. Occurring several times and lasting up to five seconds, the vibrations were able to knock mirrors off the walls of some nearby residences. Neighbors who complained about the construction received a letter from the observatory's superintendent reading, "Due to its sensitive nature in support of national security and homeland defense, project-specific information is classified and cannot be released." It was widely speculated that a nuclear bunker was being constructed. In 2009, recently inaugurated Vice President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
reportedly revealed the existence of an underground "9/11" bunker beneath the house. Elizabeth Alexander, Biden's press secretary, explained the following day, "What the vice president described in his comments was not—as some press reports have suggested—an underground facility, but rather, an upstairs work space in the residence, which he understood was frequently used by Vice President Cheney and his aides." ''
The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...
'' suggested that Biden was actually referring to a tunnel which leads to one of the Navy-operated telescopes on the grounds.


See also

*
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
– the official residence of the president of the United States *
Camp David Camp David is a country retreat for the president of the United States. It lies in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the towns of Thurmont, Maryland, Thurmont and Emmitsburg, Maryland, Emmitsburg, a ...
– country retreat for the president of the United States :* Rapidan Camp – the predecessor to Camp David * Blair House – the official state guest house for the president of the United States * Tingey House - Chief of Naval Operations' official residence since 1974


References

Informational notes Citations


External links

* * {{White House, state=collapsed Buildings of the United States government in Washington, D.C. Continuity of government in the United States Embassy Row Houses completed in 1893 Houses in Washington, D.C. Landmarks in Washington, D.C. Official residences in the United States Vice presidential residences Palaces in the United States Queen Anne architecture in Washington, D.C. Vice presidency of the United States Presidential homes in the United States Walter Mondale