Electricity Comes to the White House

The White House gets an upgrade...Electricity! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Electricity comes to the White House. We'll discuss as we
take a bite out of history with Ingles Markets. The
White House was built in seventeen ninety two, but has
only had electricity for the last century. Electricity first flowed
through the White House in eighteen ninety one during the
presidency of Benjamin Harrison. The city of DC didn't have
an established electrical system until the Capital Power Plant began
supplying the city in nineteen ten, so army engineers installed

(00:20):
a generator system in the now Eisenhower Executive Building next
door to the White House to supply both buildings. The
twenty third President, Benjamin Harrison and his wife Caroline didn't
trust the new technology and refused to turn any of
the new electrical lights on or off anywhere in the
White House for fear of electrocution. The task was exclusively
done by staff members only. The electrical system has been
upgraded multiple times with additions and remodels over the years.

(00:42):
One president famous for his use of the lights in
the White House was Lyndon Johnson, who hated waste and
was known to walk through and turn off all the
lights and rooms that were not being used, sometimes in
rooms that were actually being used, giving him the name
light Bulb Johnson among staffers. This has been a bite
out of history with Ingles markets