The White House Family

Life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with Edith and Six Children

When Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office in September 1901, at 42, he became the youngest president ever to assume the office. He also brought children with him. Few presidents had brought so many. Alice, 17, was his daughter from his first marriage, to Alice Lee, and she was a force of nature. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, whom T.R. had married in 1886, came with their five children: Ted Jr. (14), Kermit (11), Ethel (10), Archie (7) and Quentin (3). The White House was about to become one of the liveliest households it had ever known.

Edith's Quiet Mastery and the President's Affection

If the White House had an anchor in the Roosevelt years, it was Edith. They had been neighbors as children in New York, and they met again when he was a widower.

In the White House she ran a big, busy household. She redecorated the residence with care. She made musicales a regular part of White House life, with performers such as cellist Pablo Casals and pianist Ignacy Paderewski. Above all, she made the White House a home for the children.

Edith's Management: Elegance and Household Authority

Edith's role went well beyond hosting. She supervised a large staff and ran the President's social schedule. Her state dinners were among the most sought-after invitations in Washington.

Historian Lewis Gould credits her with "the sense of a salon" in the Roosevelt White House. T.R. had energy to spare, and sometimes acted on impulse. He relied on her judgment.

Alice: The Rebellious Firstborn

Alice Roosevelt, "Princess Alice" to the press, was 17 when her father became president. She was smart, quick and happy to shock Washington society. She smoked cigarettes, famously on the White House roof after her father banned smoking under his roof. She took to motorcars without a chaperone and bet on horses. The public couldn't get enough of her.

Owen Wister, a friend since Harvard, recalled that when someone asked the President why he didn't look after Alice more, Roosevelt replied: "I can be President of the United States—or—I can attend to Alice."

In 1906 Alice married Congressman Nicholas Longworth at the White House. Thousands gathered outside, and the wedding was front-page news.

Ted Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archie, and Quentin: The Gang of Five

Each of the five younger children had a personality of their own. Ted Jr., the eldest, was serious and conscientious, with an early taste for soldiering. Kermit was quick-witted and adventurous. Ethel was studious, with her mother's grace and her father's love of books. Archie was athletic and mischievous, always in motion and accident-prone. Quentin, the baby of the family, was impish and fearless, and the leader of the "White House Gang."

The younger children ranged through the White House, racing through its corridors and keeping the Secret Service busy. This was not a house where children were seen and not heard.

Individual Personalities and Life Paths

The children went on to very different lives. Ted Jr. was a decorated officer in both world wars, a New York assemblyman, Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Governor of Puerto Rico, and he received the Medal of Honor for Utah Beach. Kermit's taste for adventure took him exploring and hunting big game across Africa and South America. Ethel nursed wounded soldiers in Paris in World War I, gave six decades to the Red Cross and her Oyster Bay community, and led the effort to preserve Sagamore Hill. Archie, too, saw combat. Quentin was killed in aerial combat over France on July 14, 1918, a loss that devastated his father.

In the White House years they went to school like other children. Quentin and Archie went to the public Force School, Ethel to the National Cathedral School, and Ted and Kermit to Groton. They also grew up in the public eye.

A President Who Joined the Pillow Fights

The President joined in the fun. In the evenings he took part in the boys' pillow fights up and down the hall. He read aloud to them from Uncle Remus and Scott. "Usually Mother reads them," he admitted of the Uncle Remus tales.

"I don't think that any family has ever enjoyed the White House more than we have," T.R. wrote to Kermit (letter to Kermit Roosevelt, White House, June 21, 1904). For the Roosevelt children, the White House was home.

The 1902 Renovation: Modernizing the President's House

Before 1901 the building's official name was the "Executive Mansion." On Oct. 17, 1901, at Roosevelt's direction, his secretary George Cortelyou asked Secretary of State John Hay to change the heading of official papers from "Executive Mansion" to "White House."

The renovation began with Edith. In 1902 she asked architect Charles F. McKim for advice on the cramped family quarters. McKim's firm, McKim, Mead & White, designed a full renovation. Part of the plan moved the offices out of the house and into a new executive office building, today's West Wing. Edith approved the fabrics and furniture and shaped the family quarters. T.R. approved the plans, as the congressional appropriation required.

The main work ran from June to November 1902. The new West Wing gave the President proper offices away from the residence. The State Rooms were restored. The electric wiring, first installed under Benjamin Harrison in 1891, was replaced throughout, because the old system had become dangerous. Gas lighting stayed only as a backup in service areas. New bathrooms and modern plumbing went in. Much of the house visitors see today still reflects the design of 1902.

Domestic Life and the Working Presidency

The new offices put the President's work in a separate building. The residence stayed a family home.