Number One Observatory Circle is the official residence of the vice president of the United States. Located on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., it is sometimes informally referred to simply as "the Naval Observatory". The house was built in 1893 for the observatory's superintendent. The U.S. Navy's chief of naval operations (CNO) liked the house so much that in 1923 he took over the house from the superintendent for himself. It remained the residence of the CNO until 1974, when Congress determined that it would be easier and less expensive to provide security in a government-provided residence, and authorized its transformation to the first official residence for the vice president, though a temporary one. It is still the "official temporary residence of the vice president of the United States" by law. The 1974 congressional authorization covered the cost of refurbishment and furnishing the house.
Although Number One Observatory Circle was made available to the vice president in 1974, more than two years passed before a vice president lived full-time in the house. Vice President Gerald Ford became president after Richard Nixon gave his resignation speech before he could use the house. His vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, primarily used the home for official entertainment as he already had a well-secured residence in Washington, D.C., though the Rockefellers donated millions of dollars' worth of furnishings to the house. Walter Mondale was the first vice president to move into the house. Every vice president since has lived there.
History Early history
The house at One Observatory Circle was designed by architect Leon E. Dessez and built in 1893 for $20,000 (equivalent to $ in ) for the use of the superintendent of the Naval Observatory who was the original resident. It was built on of land which had originally been part of a farm called Northview, which the Navy purchased in 1880. Northview had been the property of widow Margaret Barber, who at the time of the abolition of slavery in the District in 1862 was one of its largest slaveholders.
The Naval Observatory is located from the White House and directly to its south is the British Embassy. The observatory was moved from Foggy Bottom to its present location the same year the house was completed and 12 observatory superintendents lived in what was then known as The Superintendent's House. In 1928, with the passage of Public Law 630, Congress appropriated it for the chief of naval operations, and in June 1929, Charles Hughes became the first resident of what became known as Admiral's House. For the next 45 years, it served as the home of admirals such as Richard Leigh, Chester Nimitz, and Elmo Zumwalt.
Previous vice presidential residences and legislation
Previously, serving vice presidents had lived in hotels or their own private homes. In 1923, to honor her late husband, Senator John B. Henderson's widow offered to provide their newly built home as an official residence. President Calvin Coolidge, who lived in a hotel when he served as vice president from 1921 to 1923, wrote in his autobiography that an "official residence with suitable maintenance should be provided for the Vice-President", and that the office "should have a settled and permanent habitation and a place, irrespective of the financial ability of its temporary occupant."
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, the new president Lyndon B. Johnson had to continue living at his private home in the Spring Valley neighborhood of northwest Washington for two weeks, until Kennedy's widow and children could move out of the White House.McCluskey, Molly. "A Presidential Act of Defiance", Diplomatica, November 24, 2022. This provoked security concerns, and in 1964, Johnson proposed the establishment of an official vice-presidential residence in a location with high security. In addition to the Naval Observatory, Fort McNair and Blair House were considered as potential sites.Timmons, Bascom N. "Vice President May Get A Home", Jackson Clarion-Ledger, October 9, 1964, page 6.
In 1966, the House Public Works Committee approved the construction of a three-story vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory. However, it was criticized as an extravagant expense by Republican congressmen, prominently including House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, who would later become vice president and then president himself."Home-for-Humphrey Action Postponed", Herald Tribune News Service, via the Evansville Courier and Press, March 17, 1966, front page.Clement, Brooke. "One Observatory Circle", Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum Blog, September 7, 2025. A month later, President Johnson suspended construction until the economy improved; construction never restarted.
The exact location was to be determined later by the GAO and the Navy. Construction was to commence on the residence when funding was available once the Vietnam War was over. In the interim, the Secret Service paid for expensive upgrades to the private homes of vice presidents Hubert Humphrey, Spiro Agnew, and Gerald Ford. Agnew lived in his house for only three months in 1973 before resigning; shortly after, he sold it at a large profit, in part because of the upgrades (additional quarters for the Secret Service, fences and a new driveway for example), paid for by the government. This resulted in a minor scandal. A subsequent investigation showed that it would be cheaper to immediately set up the new vice presidential residence rather than secure private homes.
Rockefeller and Mondale In July 1974, Congress passed a new law to make Admiral's House the "official temporary residence of the vice president of the United States" effective upon the termination of service of the incumbent chief of naval operations. Work began on preparing Admiral's House to be the temporary vice president's residence later that fall, after Richard Nixon's resignation and move of the CNO to Quarters A at the Navy Yard. The decision was largely made as it was increasingly expensive to add security and communicative equipment to each new vice presidential residence. Elmo Zumwalt was the last chief of naval operations to live in Number One Observatory Circle before it became the official residence of the vice president. For Zumwalt, not pleased with the choice, this was reason enough to challenge Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. in the 1976 Senate election.
The 1974 renovation replaced and updated building systems and increased the size of several rooms by removing internal walls. As a part of this renovation, the interior trim was painted white, and the walls had a palette of mostly neutral colors. Little consideration was given to historic preservation with interior or exterior spaces. No attempt was made to restore any interior space to its appearance at the period of construction or early use. The 1961-era white paint on the exterior was retained. Second-floor shutters, which appear in an 1895 photograph, were reinstalled.
The house formally opened as the vice presidential residence in September 1975. Vice President Gerald Ford would have been the first resident if President Richard Nixon had not resigned, leaving the White House to Ford. The new vice president Nelson Rockefeller chose to live in his larger private home instead and used Admiral's House only for entertaining. In January 1977, Walter Mondale became the first vice president to live in the house, and it has served as the home of every vice president since.
Later vice presidents Instead of building a new vice presidential residence, One Observatory Circle continued to have extensive remodels. In 1976, the Navy spent $276,000 to replace 22 window units with steam heat and central air conditioning; the leaky roof was replaced in 1980 with slate. In 1981, George H. W. Bush and Second Lady Barbara raised $187,000 for carpeting, furniture, and upholstery when they moved in. The next year, the Navy spent $34,000 to repair the porch roof. Repairs to interior and exterior walls damaged by water seepage amounted to $225,000, and $8,000 more was spent to build a small master bedroom. Bush also constructed a horseshoe pit and quarter-mile track around the residence. During his eight years at the residence, Vice President Bush hosted over 900 parties.
Dan Quayle delayed his move-in by a month in 1989 for an extensive $300,000 remodeling that included a rebuilt third floor with bedrooms suitable for children, a wheelchair-accessible entrance, and an upgraded bathroom off the vice president's room. In 1991, a non-profit organization, the Vice President's Residence Foundation, was established to raise further funds to redecorate the residence. A sky-lit exercise room was added to the rooftop around that time, and numerous security enhancements were also performed.
The Navy, responsible for upkeep on the residence, decided in 1991 that Congress would never build a permanent vice president's residence (ostensibly next door to Admiral's House) and opted instead to remodel and repair the house substantially. Al Gore agreed to delay his move into the house by nearly six months in 1993 to allow for the largest renovation of the house since 1974. The $1.6 million repair job replaced the heating, air conditioning, plumbing, removed asbestos, rewired the house, replaced the ventilation systems, restored the porch, and upgraded the family quarters on the second floor. Unlike prior additions, these habitability-focused renovations were carried out with taxpayer funds. Second Lady Tipper Gore built an electronic inventory of all the official household items passed down from administration to administration.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Second Lady Lynne Cheney's changes to the residence included renovating the upstairs exercise room, redoing the kitchen pantry, and decorating the house in neutral colors.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff moved into Number One Observatory on April 7, 2021. They temporarily resided at Blair House during the renovations as they agreed to move in once the $3.8 million upgrades to the residence had been completed. The repairs consisted of replacing chimney liners, heating, air-conditioning, and plumbing systems. Harris was responsible for having the kitchen remodeled and the hardwood floors refurbished. On October, 2021, Emhoff affixed a white mezuzah to the right-hand side of the doorway of the residence's wooden entryway, which marked the first time an executive home in American history has carried the abiding sign of sanctity of a Jewish home. On November 28, 2021, Harris and Emhoff became the first second couple to light a menorah in the window of the official residence in celebration of the first night of Hanukkah. On April 15, 2022, Harris and Emhoff became the first known second family to host a Passover Seder at the vice president's residence.
In 2024, Harris and Emhoff did not invite Vice President-elect JD Vance and the incoming second family to visit the home before moving in. Incoming second lady Usha Vance unsuccessfully sought information about the home from Harris's staff before communicating with Naval officials. Vance was concerned about childproofing the house to accommodate the couple's three young children, all under the age of 7, when they moved into the home in January 2025.
Architecture and decoration
Queen Anne style
The house is built in the Queen Anne style prevalent in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Hallmarks of the Queen Anne style are an asymmetrical floor plan, a series of rooms opening to each other rather than a common central hall, round turret rooms, inglenooks near fireplaces, and broad verandas wrapping the ground floor, all of which are found at Number One Observatory Circle.