It’s big. It’s white. It’s presidential — but only vice presidential. It’s the Naval Observatory.
Kamala Harris, 56, is now the eighth vice president to live in the six-bedroom, 9,150-square-foot mansion on the observatory’s grounds. The Queen Anne-style house was named the official residence of the vice president in 1974, according to the White House’s official website.
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. Made of brick and wood, the exterior of the house features a wraparound veranda porch and a turret, images show.
The ground floor has a dining room with a fireplace, pantry kitchen that was redone by Vice President Dick Cheney’s family, a reception hall with a fireplace, a living room with rounded outset, a sitting room, two lounges and a garden room, plus a garage, according to a floor plan at WhiteHouseMuseum.org, which is not affiliated with the US government.
The second floor has two bedrooms, an office and a den, and the third floor has four additional bedrooms. The kitchen and staff quarters are on the basement level. It is also rumored to have a bunker, according to the book “Number One Observatory Circle” by Charles Denyer.
The house is filled with art, including studio pottery made by Joan Mondale (wife of Vice President Walter Mondale) and art on loan from museums including Helen Frankenthaler’s “Lush Spring,” Andrew Wyeth’s “Siri” and western paintings by George Catlin, according to White House archives.
The backyard has a vine-covered gazebo, a heated swimming pool installed by the Cheneys and a pool house, according to pictures on the White House Museum website. 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.
DC architect Leon E. Dessez built the house in 1893 for the superintendent of the US Naval Observatory. It cost only $20,000, according to Denyer, which is the equivalent of about $575,000 today, according to inflation calculators.
The chief of naval operations soon commandeered the house as his own home in 1923 because “the house was so lovely,” according to the White House website. Since then, millions of dollars in renovations have been poured into the house, raised in part by the Vice President’s Residence Foundation, created by Vice President Dan Quayle in 1991.
Vice President Mike Pence spent $122,000 on home renovations and furnishings in 2018, tax records show.
The house was made the official residence of the vice president when housing prices near DC began to be a burden to vice presidents during Richard Nixon’s term.
Residents including the Mondales, the Gores and the Bushes have expressed what a treat it was to live in the house, with Al Gore’s wife, Tipper Gore, calling it an “amazing place,” according to Denyer’s book. It remains to be seen whether the Naval Observatory will meet Harris’ standards, compared to her $8 million real estate portfolio — but she might even bring her own design touch to the VP’s white house.
