New President Joe Biden is officially in the White House, but the vice president’s official residence has received little attention. The New York Times reports that the first female vice president in the history of the United States, Ms. He Jinli, will move into the 128-year-old vice presidential residence at Number One Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C., with the first “second gentleman”, Doug Emhoff.
Located just 3.2 miles from the White House, Number One Observatory Circle is a former naval observatory near several embassies and is not open to the public on a daily basis. The Vice Presidential Residence is a 9,000-square-foot English Baroque Queen Anne-style building with a library, basement kitchen and sleeping quarters, designed by Washington architect Leon E. Dessez in 1893. The Home served as the home of the Navy Chief and his Family from the 1920s to the 1970s, and was officially converted to the official residence of the Vice President in 1974.
Before One Observatory Circle became the vice presidential residence, all U.S. vice presidents worked from their homes or hotels, and Calvin Coolidge, who served as vice president from 1921 to 1923, worked from the hotel. He later mentioned in his autobiography the need to provide uniform and stable housing for the vice president. Charles Denyer, a national security and cyber security expert, said it would be difficult to establish a consistent security mechanism for the team responsible for the vice president’s security if he did not have a unified residence.
In March 1966, the House Public Works Committee approved funding for a $750,000 (U.S. dollars) renovation of the vice president’s official residence at the Naval Observatory, but for economic reasons, then-President Lyndon Johnson suspended the project and his deputy, Hubert Humphrey, went ahead with the renovation. Hubert Humphrey, his deputy, had to stay home and work. It was not until 1974 that One Observatory Circle was officially named “the official temporary residence”, and the “temporary” designation remains to this day.
It was not until 1977 that Walter Mondale, the deputy of Jimmy Carter, became the first vice president to occupy the residence. Subsequently, successive U.S. vice presidents have brought their own personal touch to the residence, with George Bush Sr. His successor, Dan Quayle, built a swimming pool, a decision praised by Biden, who later also took over the residence.
Mike Pence, the immediate past vice president, often held private dinners in the house to welcome business leaders and political donors. The public is concerned about the changes that will be brought to the residence as the first minority and female vice president. Her husband, Derek Yam, will be responsible for the day-to-day receptions, a role usually filled by a woman, a change that has also drawn attention.
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