The White House might be the most famous address in America, but it’s also a home to the people who live in it. Residents get to customize the house with personal upgrades that reflect their tastes and hobbies, like a movie theater, horseshoe pit, or bowling alley.  

Over the years, two different presidential pools have been added to the executive mansion. From nude power meetings to rodent encounters, here are some unusual facts about the White House swimming pools. 

The first White House pool was constructed for FDR

In 1933, an indoor swimming pool was built at the White House specifically for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who swam as a form of physical therapy to manage the debilitating effects of polio. FDR preferred to keep his condition out of the public eye and opted to build a private pool just off the West Wing. 

The New York Daily News ran a fundraising campaign to finance the 50-foot-long pool. According to the White House Historical Association, the Roosevelt Swimming Pool Fund brought in $12,000 in just two weeks. After three months of construction, FDR took his first dip in the pool on June 2, 1933. 

The pool was renovated during the Kennedy years

During John F. Kennedy’s presidency, the indoor swimming pool was remodeled as part of the “Camelot”-style restoration led by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The most notable renovation included the addition of a large mural on three of the walls, with a mirror covering the fourth. The mural, painted by artist Bernard Lamotte, depicted a tropical seascape of Christiansted Harbor in St. Croix, complete with beaches, palm trees, and blue skies.

In Once Upon a Secret, a memoir by Mimi Alford, the former White House intern wrote that the newly painted “space felt vast, and you were completely enclosed by the faux warmth and sun.” 

Infamous pool parties

Kennedy used the pool daily to relieve his chronic back pain from WWII injuries, and the Kennedy children also enjoyed swimming there. The indoor pool, according to multiple sources, was also the site of several less wholesome activities. 

Alford, who had an affair with Kennedy, said her intimate relationship with the president began in the pool area just days after she started working at the White House. Other accounts describe alcohol-fueled skinny dipping parties.

If only that mirrored wall could talk…

LBJ allegedly held meetings in the nude

President Lyndon B. Johnson was known for his unorthodox, sometimes shockingly informal personal style. Unsurprisingly, this behavior extended to the White House indoor swimming pool.

LBJ used the pool for relaxation and exercise, and he’d also occasionally summon staffers or politicians to talk while he swam or relaxed in the nude. As reported by biographer Robert Dallek in Flawed Giant, Johnson once called a meeting with aide Bill Moyers and speechwriter Richard Goodwin while in the pool. Goodwin said the two men “entered the pool area to see the massive presidential flesh, a sun bleached atoll breaching the placid sea, passing gently, sidestroke, the deep-cleft buttocks moving slowly past our unstartled gaze.”    

Richard Nixon had the pool covered up

According to a report on his exercise habits, “Nixon also like[d] to swim, but not indoors nor in fresh water.” The president also said the cramped press quarters at the White House were a “disgrace.” His solution to both issues was to order the construction of a larger press briefing room, which was built over the swimming pool and sauna in 1970. 

The facilities under the new floor were left intact, however, so the pool could be restored in the future. A trap door under the speakers’ platform provided access to the empty swimming area. 

According to the White House Historical Association, a popular joke among the press was that Nixon might install a podium button that could drop uncooperative reporters straight down into the pool underneath.

Gerald Ford built the outdoor pool

President Gerald Ford was an avid swimmer and spoke of missing the heated pool in his Alexandria backyard. While Ford contemplated installing an outdoor pool at the White House, his press secretary quoted the president as saying: “15 minutes in the pool is worth two martinis.”

Per the White House Historical Association, the cost of building the outdoor pool was roughly $66,800. As with FDR, it was funded with private donations. Ford took his first dip in the pool on July 1, 1975. First Daughter Susan Ford helped him dive in.

Showing off

Ford invited the press to observe him testing out the new pool on July 5, 1975. He disrobed in front of reporters, revealing his dark purple swimming trunks before getting in the water and showing off his skills with “a few freestyle, breast, and backstroke laps.” 

Thanks to the photographers who “furiously” snapped pictures of the presidential swim session, we have plenty of visual evidence of Ford’s enjoyment of the White House pool.

Underground tunnel

A new poolside cabana offered showers and a place to change. 

The cabana even included a private underground walkway. This allowed the first family to access the pool area from the West Wing’s ground floor without stepping outside in view of others.

Swimming rats during the Bush years

First Lady Barbara Bush once had a decidedly unpleasant experience in the White House pool when she encountered a rat. While in the water for her daily laps, “it just went right by in front of me,” she told the Houston Post.  “It did not look like a Walt Disney rat, I’ll tell you that,” she said. “I was out of that pool so much faster than I thought I could.”

President George H.W. Bush came to the rescue and “drowned the beast,” according to Mrs. Bush. 

First Dog Millie ‘helped’ with the pool rodents

In a 1989 Mutual Radio interview, President Bush was asked about rumors of a rodent infestation at the White House. He indicated that the First Dog, an English Spaniel named Millie, would be tasked with solving the problem. 

“Look, I just want to keep them out of the swimming pool,” he said. “When my wife – one jumped in there when Barbara was swimming. And we’re relying heavily on Millie to cut that down.”

Book cited:

Alford, M. (2013). Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath. Random House Trade Paperbacks.