Western White House

The Western White House is a term applied to additional residencies of the President of the United States. It is currently used for the Crawford, Texas ranch of George W. Bush, known as Prairie Chapel Ranch, and has also been used by other chief executives for their homes, including Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt briefly resided and administered the duties of his office from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaiokinai, during World War II. The hotel was called the Western White House during his stay. Roosevelt was also the first President to use the Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, facility later named Camp David (named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower's grandson). Camp David is sometimes known as the "Weekend White House". The model for Camp David is Herbert Hoover's retreat known as Rapidan Camp (Camp Hoover).

The first governmental spending on property improvements of private presidential residences was at Dwight Eisenhower’s Gettysburg farm, where the Secret Service added three guard posts to a fence.cite paper
author = Damon, Allan L.
title = Presidential Expenses
version = Volume 25, Issue 4
publisher = American Heritage Magazine
date = June 1974
url = http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1974/4/1974_4_64.shtml ] Federal law now allows the president to designate a residence outside of the White House as his temporary offices, [31 C.F.R. 408.2(c)] so that federal money can be used to provide required facilities.cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E6DF1339F936A35751C0A967948260
title = Around the Nation; Reagan designates ranch a 'Western White House'
publisher=The New York Times (Associate Press)
date=1981-02-05 ]

During the Johnson administration, the LBJ Ranch on the Pedernales River in Texas served as the Western White House.cite web
url=http://www.gvsu.edu/hauenstein/?id=94BEEE52-A369-060C-F0C69A3F25782FC2&CFID=975852&CFTOKEN=45366706
title = Texas Research Trip
publisher = The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies
format = Website
accessdate = 2006-08-09 ] Likewise, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan often retreated to their California homes during their presidencies. Nixon went to La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California, while Reagan spent nearly 1/8th of his presidency at his Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara County, California. Reagan also spent so much time at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, that the press also dubbed the hotel the Western White House for a time. Their homes were each officially dubbed the Western White House, and substantial Federal funds were used to make security, communications, and real estate improvements. Nixon also had a home in Key Biscayne, Florida, which was known as the "Southern White House" or the Florida White House. [cite news
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907827,00.html
title=Richard Nixon, Mortgagee
publisher=TIME Magazine
date=1973-09-10
accessdate=2006-08-25]

Gerald Ford conducted a considerable amount of the nation’s business from "The Lodge" in Vail, Colorado, which became known as the Western White House during his presidency.cite news
last=Wyrick
first=Randy
title=Ford celebrates 93rd birthday in Vail
publisher=Vail Daily
date=2006-07-14
url=http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20060714/NEWS/60714010 ]

Bill Clinton, in contrast to his successor, did not maintain a "Western White House" during his presidency (neither did he maintain a personal residence as Governor of Arkansas). After leaving office, he and his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), purchased a home in New York.

The current official Western White House is Prairie Chapel Ranch, the Crawford, Texas, home of George W. Bush. The Bush administration created a logo for the Western White House in August 2001. A sign with the logo has been hung in the press briefing area in Crawford at the start of each of Bush's August vacations; the blue oval sign bears the Seal of the President of the United States and reads, "The Western White House / Crawford, Texas".cite news
title = Pictures of the Week
publisher = Time
url = http://www.time.com/time/potw/20010810/
accessdate = 2006-08-09
date = August 2001 ] cite press release
title = Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
publisher = The White House
date = 2001-08-09
url = http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/20010809.html ] The daily press operations in Crawford are set up in the gymnasium of Crawford Middle School, which is several miles from the Bush ranch. The iconic ramshackle barn seen behind correspondents as they do their live reports is actually the school's maintenance shed, and has no connection to the Western White House.

References

ee also

* List of U.S. Presidential residences