President’s Day is a good time to think about history, and here’s something to ponder: If you’re a baby boomer do you realize there’s a good chance the White House did NOT have central air conditioning when you were born? It wasn’t installed until a 1952 renovation during the Truman administration.
That little factoid is one example of the HVAC revolution we’ve seen in just a handful of decades. Imagine what your life would be like without the comfort your heating and cooling professionals at Armstrong Plumbing, Air & Electric can provide for you.
Until the White House got central air, presidents tried everything they could think of to stay cool during the stifling summer heat in Washington, D.C. During the day, President Woodrow Wilson often worked out of an open-air tent set up in the Rose Garden. The 27th president, William Howard Taft, had a screened-in porch built on the roof of the White House so he could sleep outdoors. Can you imagine the Secret Service dealing with THAT security risk in this day and age?
Central heat came to the White House much earlier, but the first rudimentary system wasn’t installed until 1840, nearly 50 years after construction began. At first, it only heated rooms on the first floor and took several years to be expanded to the entire house.
At least there wasn’t much call to hire a plumber in the early days since there wasn’t any plumbing. When the country’s 2nd president, John Adams and his wife Abigail, moved into the new White House in 1800 they were dismayed to find there was no running water or indoor plumbing. On the plus side, outhouses meant there was no such thing as a clogged toilet. It wasn’t until 1833 that running water was introduced, mostly for drinking water and to fill reservoirs for fire protection.
Those days are now in the past. Today, the White House counts 35 bathrooms among its 132 centrally heated and cooled rooms. The president and First Family can call on a staff of skilled workers to handle any problem that comes up. That is befitting for the leader of the free world.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about the history of cooling, heating, and plumbing in the White House for this Presidents’ Day. We want you to know that your HVAC and plumbing needs are just as important to us at Armstrong Plumbing, Air & Electric as the needs of the White House and First Family are to the professionals who serve them.
We have all the services to keep your Northwest Texas home comfortable including yearly maintenance and emergency repairs.
Contact us today to get started!
