US ELECTION 2024
This is the exact address of the White House, the POTUS’s residence: how many rooms does it have?
Having left the White House at the start of 2021, Donald Trump is poised to once again be handed the keys to the US president’s official residence.
Four years after departing from the South Lawn aboard the Marine One helicopter, Donald Trump is set to move back into the White House - the iconic residence and workplace of the United States president.
Trump has been chosen as the 47th president of the US after beating Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s 2024 presidential election - meaning the 78-year-old will become only the second man in US history to serve two non-consecutive terms in the job, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
“Hopefully it’s not a long-term goodbye - we will see each other again,” Trump said as he left the White House in January 2021, in the wake of his 2020 election defeat to current president Joe Biden. His prediction has been borne out.
Where is the White House?
Given its name by president Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, the White House is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. - just under two miles from the US Congress and the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill.
How big is the White House?
Previously known as the “President’s Palace”, the “President’s House” and the “Executive Mansion”, the White House features 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms, spread across six levels. There is also a tennis court, a jogging track, a swimming pool, a movie theater and a bowling lane, plus 18 acres of gardens.
The site for the White House was selected by George Washington, the first president of the US - and the only commander-in-chief not to live there. His successor, John Adams, became the building’s first resident in 1800.
What’s in the West and East Wing?
Located in the White House’s West Wing, which is home to presidential offices, the Oval Office is the instantly recognizable chief work space of the American president. However, it didn‘t become a feature of the White House until 1909, seven years after the West Wing had been added to the building. President William Howard Taft was the Oval Office’s first occupant. On the West Wing’s ground floor is another facility that will be familiar to fans of the big and small screen: the Situation Room, a 5,000-square foot national-security complex.
The East Wing, which primarily houses office space for the first lady and her staff, was added in 1942. It includes the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) - a secure bunker with which Trump is already well acquainted from his time as the 45th president.
While mainly intended for use during war or terrorist attacks - then-vice-president Dick Cheney took shelter there on September 11 , 2001 - Trump reportedly retreated to the PEOC amid the demonstrations that followed the May 2020 killing of George Floyd.
The White House has undergone three major renovations in its more than two-century-long history, the most recent of which came in 1952, under the presidency of Harry S Truman.