The White House
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97 free The White House trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free The White House trivia questions with answers. Did you know The White House contains 132 rooms and has its own movie theater? Challenge yourself with our 97-question quiz covering the history, architecture, and iconic moments of America's most famous residence. See how much you really know about the President's home!
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the street address of the White House?
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The avenue was laid out to link the president's house with the Capitol, which is why newly sworn-in presidents traditionally parade along it.
Q 02Who was the first president to live in the White House?
John Adams
John Adams moved in on November 1, 1800, and the next day wrote a blessing on the house that was later carved into one of its mantels.
Q 03For the ten years before the White House was ready, the president lived in a mansion in which city?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia was the temporary capital from 1790 to 1800 while the new federal city on the Potomac was being built.
Q 04Which president first opened the White House to public tours?
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson. After his second inauguration in March 1805 much of the crowd followed him home from the Capitol, and he received them in the oval reception room.
Q 05Why was the White House first coated in whitewash in 1798?
To protect the stone from frost
To protect the stone from frost: the porous walls soaked up water, so a lime whitewash sealed them. The story that white paint hid scorch marks left by British troops is a myth.
Q 06Which garden beside the Oval Office is often used for presidential announcements and press events?
The Rose Garden
The Rose Garden was redesigned in the early 1960s as a setting for outdoor ceremonies, which is why so many announcements are made there.
Q 07About how many rooms does the White House residence have?
132
132 rooms, by the White House's own count. The total grew with the house: a third floor was added in 1927, and two basement levels were dug out around 1950.
Q 08The Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and the Situation Room sit in which part of the White House complex?
The West Wing
The West Wing went up in 1902 as a temporary office building, and it has never come down.
Q 09What is the name of the helicopter that flies the president to and from the White House?
Marine One
Marine One is a call sign, not one aircraft: any Marine Corps helicopter takes it while the president is aboard. Its squadron, HMX-1, began in 1947 as an experimental unit for testing helicopters.
Q 10Which president officially gave the White House its name?
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt officially established 'White House' as the building's name in 1901 by having it printed on presidential stationery. Before that it was called the 'President's House' or 'Executive Mansion.'
Q 11The Easter Egg Roll moved to the White House lawn in 1878 after Congress banned egg rolling where?
The Capitol grounds
The Capitol grounds. After the 1876 roll tore up the Capitol lawn, Congress banned using the grounds as a playground; in 1878 the children were welcomed onto the White House grounds instead.
Q 12On which part of the White House grounds does the president's helicopter land?
The South Lawn
The South Lawn. It has also hosted the Easter Egg Roll since 1878, when Rutherford B. Hayes opened the grounds to children on Easter Monday.
Q 13What material is the White House primarily built from?
Sandstone
Q 21Which room in the White House is the largest?
The East Room
The East Room is the largest room in the house, used for balls, press conferences and presidential funerals; one president's children are even known to have roller-skated across its floor.
Q 22What significant renovation took place at the White House from 1948 to 1952?
A complete gutting of the interior
A complete gutting of the interior. The rooms were dismantled inside the old stone walls and rebuilt on a steel frame; the old timbers were made into panelling for the Library.
Q 23Which president had the first Oval Office built in 1909, his first year in office?
William Howard Taft
Sandstone from Aquia Creek in Virginia: enslaved workers quarried and cut the rough blocks, and Scottish masons then dressed and laid them.
Q 14Banquets for visiting heads of government are traditionally held in which White House room, which seats 140?
The State Dining Room
The State Dining Room seats as many as 140 because a grand staircase was torn out in 1902 to enlarge it.
Q 15Which event led the Secret Service to close the avenue outside the White House in May 1995?
The Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing. A month after the truck-bomb attack, the Treasury secretary ordered traffic off the avenue in front of the White House, and the Secret Service closed it.
Q 16Who designed the original White House?
James Hoban
James Hoban won the 1792 design competition, then was called back to rebuild the house after British troops burned it.
Q 17Which president chose the site of the White House?
George Washington
George Washington chose the site and approved the design, yet never lived there: he left office in 1797 and died in 1799, a year before the house was ready.
Q 18During which war was the White House burned by British forces?
The War of 1812
The War of 1812: British troops burned the house in August 1814, and the Madisons never lived there again. The rebuilt mansion reopened under James Monroe in 1817.
Q 19First Lady Dolley Madison is famed for saving which object as the British approached in 1814?
A portrait of Washington
A portrait of Washington by Gilbert Stuart: she ordered it saved, and the steward, the gardener and Paul Jennings, an enslaved servant, were among those who took it down and sent it to safety.
Q 20Where did the Truman family live from 1949 to 1952 while the White House was closed for building work?
Blair House
Blair House, just across the street, was the Trumans' home for more than three years, and in 1950 two gunmen tried to shoot their way in to kill the president.
William Howard Taft wanted to sit at the centre of his staff, so he put his new oval office in the middle of the office wing.
Q 24Which floor of the White House holds the first family's private quarters?
Second
Second: the floor has been the family's own since 1902, when the president's offices moved out of the residence.
Q 25Which first lady led a major historical restoration of the White House in the early 1960s?
Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline Kennedy hunted down period furniture and art for the state rooms, then showed them off herself in a televised tour broadcast in February 1962.
Q 26The Situation Room was created in 1961 after which failed operation exposed poor intel?
The Bay of Pigs invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion. After the 1961 fiasco, the president insisted that intelligence reports feed straight into the White House, and the round-the-clock room was set up to do it.
Q 27Which oval room on the White House's State Floor holds the official Christmas tree each December?
The Blue Room
The Blue Room only turned blue in 1837, when Martin Van Buren redecorated what had simply been the oval salon.
Q 28Who is the only president to have married in the White House?
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland wed 21-year-old Frances Folsom in the Blue Room on June 2, 1886; John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson also married while in office, but not at the White House.
Q 29Which part of the White House complex was torn down in 2025 to make way for a new ballroom?
The East Wing
The East Wing, long home to the first lady's offices, was demolished in October 2025, and the White House's small family cinema went with it.
Q 30An indoor swimming pool was built at the White House in 1933 for which president?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt swam to ease his polio, and a New York Daily News campaign raised the money for the pool, which opened in June 1933.