It has 147 rooms, 28 fireplaces and three elevators, and what goes on behind the imposing front doors has long been secret.
Now, however, some of the dozens of maids, butlers, cooks and nannies who work behind the scenes at the White House are telling their stories.
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, is a new book by Kate Anderson Brower, based on interviews with the White House servants.
It covers 50 years of White House adventures, from the Kennedys through to the Obamas.
And what adventures they are.
There are cute stories, such as the time young Caroline Kennedy’s hamsters got loose; and there are terribly sad stories, such as the time Jackie Kennedy had to return to the White House – and to her little children – a widow, after the President was shot in his motorcade.
The details – how beds are made, how staff stand, to attention with spare forks at the ready, lest anyone at a State Dinner drop one (and how guests routinely try to slip White House souvenir forks into their handbags) – are exquisite.
Of course, Chapter Five (the Clintons) has so far attracted the most attention.
It begins: “There was blood all over the president and first lady’s bed.”
This was shortly after the affair between President Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky had become public. The President was injured and needed stitches. He would later say he ran into a door, but staff didn’t buy it.
“We were pretty sure she clocked him,” says one.
The book says the affair was known to staff for at least 18 months before the public found out.
Brower says Monica was frequently spotted with the President, and staff used to whisper: “That’s her – that’s the girlfriend.”
There were “flying objects” and “screaming matches.”
A White House florist, Ronn Payne, is quoted as saying “you heard so much foul language” when the Clintons were in the house, adding: “When you’re somebody’s domestic, you know what is going on.”
White House maid, Betty Finney, now 78, says: “You felt bad for the whole family. There wasn’t much laughter.” Hillary ordered Bill to sleep on the sofa, and apparently had the support of every maid in the house.
Of course, Clinton wasn’t the only philanderer to live in the White House. There are plenty of tales of Kennedy swimming nude with White House secretaries in the heated White House pool.
There’s a delightful anecdote, regarding a visit by Queen Elizabeth to the Ford White House.
The Ford’s son turned up to the State Dinner in jeans and a T-shirt.
First Lady Betty Ford was mortified but the Queen turned to her and said: “Don’t worry, I have one of those at home too.”
She was referring to a young Prince Charles.
Then, too, there’s the time Elvis turned up, and somehow managed to present Nixon with a Colt .45 that he had slipped past startled security.
The Obamas are the first African American family to be waited on by a predominately black staff, and Brower says the situation was at first uncomfortable for everyone.
Michelle Obama wanted her daughters to have as normal an upbringing as possible, which includes getting to do the dishes, and telling them: “Don’t get used to having somebody make your bed. That’s on your chores list.”
“The Bushes were used to having help and they knew how to deal with it,” she says (George Bush’s father had also been president; the family is wealthy in its own right.) “The Obamas came from a middle class background.”
The book also reveals that the Obamas danced to Mary J. Blige on their first night in the house, then turned to the staff and asked if they’d ever heard rap music played in the house before (of course they had; Chelsea and the Bush twins had lived there.)
The book has been criticized by some commentators, who say the gossip, however truthful, is unfair on both Presidents and First Families, who don’t necessarily choose a public life.
As Michelle Obama once said: the White House is nice, but there is no privacy. In that sense, “it’s a really nice prison.”
