Western White House
 |
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into List of residences of Presidents of the United States . (Discuss) Proposed since February 2012. |
CRAWFORD, TEXAS
The Western White House is a term applied to additional residences of the President of the United States. It was used for the Crawford, Texas ranch of George W. Bush, known as Prairie Chapel Ranch, and has also been used by other chief executives for their homes, including Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Contents |
[edit] Franklin Delano Roosevelt
[edit] Maryland
Roosevelt was also the first President to use the Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, facility later named Camp David (named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower's grandson). Camp David is sometimes known as the "Weekend White House". The model for Camp David is Herbert Hoover's retreat known as Rapidan Camp (Camp Hoover).
[edit] Dwight D. Eisenhower
[edit] Gettysburg
The first governmental spending on property improvements of private presidential residences was at Dwight Eisenhower’s Gettysburg farm, where the Secret Service added three guard posts to a fence.[1] Federal law now allows the president to designate a residence outside of the White House as his temporary offices,[2] so that federal money can be used to provide required facilities.[3]
[edit] Lyndon B. Johnson
[edit] Texas White House
During the Johnson administration, the LBJ Ranch on the Pedernales River in Texas served as the Western White House.[4] However, the Johnson home was, and still is referred to as the "Texas White House". The Johnson administration spent nearly 500 days (cumulative total) in residence at the LBJ Ranch at the Texas White House. President Johnson took the remote white house concept to a new level far surpassing the "Summer White House" idea.
[edit] Richard Nixon
[edit] California
Likewise, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan often retreated to their California homes during their presidencies. Nixon went to La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California. This home was officially dubbed the Western White House, and substantial Federal funds were used to make security, communications, and real estate improvements.[1]
[edit] Florida
Nixon also had a home in Key Biscayne, Florida, which was known as the "Southern White House" or the Florida White House.[5]
[edit] Gerald Ford
[edit] Colorado
Gerald Ford conducted a considerable amount of the nation’s business from "The Lodge" in Vail, Colorado, which became known as the Western White House during his presidency.[6]
[edit] Ronald Reagan
[edit] California
While Reagan spent nearly 1/8 of his presidency at his Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara County, California. Reagan also spent so much time at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, that the press also dubbed the hotel the Western White House for a time.
[edit] Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton did not maintain a "Western White House" during his presidency[citation needed] (neither did he maintain a personal residence as Governor of Arkansas)[citation needed], choosing instead to spend most of his vacations in borrowed homes on Martha's Vineyard. Before leaving office, he and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, purchased a home in New York.
[edit] George W. Bush
[edit] Texas
The most recent official Western White House was Prairie Chapel Ranch, the Coryell City, Texas, home of George W. Bush. The Bush administration created a logo for the Western White House in August 2001. A sign with the logo had been hung in the press briefing area in Crawford at the start of each of Bush's August vacations; the blue oval sign bore the Seal of the President of the United States and read, "The Western White House / Crawford, Texas".[7][8] The daily press operations in Crawford were set up in the gymnasium of Crawford Middle School, which is several miles from the Bush ranch. (The ranch actually lies about four miles from Coryell City) The iconic ramshackle barn seen behind correspondents as they did their live reports is actually the school's maintenance shed, and had no connection to the Western White House.
[edit] Barack Obama
[edit] Illinois
Speculation that the Obama home in the Kenwood neighborhood in Chicago would be used as the Western White House during Barack Obama's presidency [1] proved false,[citation needed] when on August 23, 2009, he arrived in Martha's Vineyard to spend the week near Chapaquiddick.
[edit] Hawaii
Additional speculation that Plantation Estate in the Kailua neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii will become the Western White House has emerged as President Obama vacationed there as President-Elect in 2008 and as President in December 2009 and 2010. [2] [3][dated info]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Damon, Allan L. (June 1974). Presidential Expenses. Volume 25, Issue 4. American Heritage Magazine. http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1974/4/1974_4_64.shtml.
- ^ 31 C.F.R. 408.2(c)
- ^ "Around the Nation; Reagan designates ranch a 'Western White House'". The New York Times (Associate Press). 1981-02-05. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E6DF1339F936A35751C0A967948260.
- ^ "Texas Research Trip" (Website). The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. http://www.gvsu.edu/hauenstein/?id=94BEEE52-A369-060C-F0C69A3F25782FC2&CFID=975852&CFTOKEN=45366706. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
- ^ "Richard Nixon, Mortgagee". TIME Magazine. 1973-09-10. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907827,00.html. Retrieved 2006-08-25.
- ^ Wyrick, Randy (2006-07-14). "Ford celebrates 93rd birthday in Vail". Vail Daily. http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20060714/NEWS/60714010.
- ^ "Pictures of the Week". Time. August 2001. http://www.time.com/time/potw/20010810/. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
- ^ "Press Briefing by Scott McClellan" (Press release). The White House. 2001-08-09. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/briefings/20010809.html.
