By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-23 16:33:25 | Updated at 2024-11-24 20:06:53
1 day ago
J.D. Vance, wife Usha and their three children are packing up to live in their new residence - a 9,000 square foot home on the 80-acre Naval Observatory with a tree swing and a swimming pool.
A swimming pool Joe Biden is obsessed with. And loved to use for skinny dipping when he lived there.
Joe and Jill Biden resided at One Naval Observatory for eight years when he was vice president under Barack Obama.
And, even as president, he still talks about the place, including its private, heated swimming pool.
'You're on 80 acres, overlooking the rest of the city, and you can walk out, there's a swimming pool, you can walk off the porch in the summer and jump in the pool and go into work,' Biden said at a CNN town hall during the first year of his presidency.
'You can ride a bicycle around and never leave the property. You can work out, but the White House is very different,' he noted.
And Biden reportedly jumped into that pool naked, Secret Service agents told author Ron Kessler for his 2014 book about the agency.
'Agents say that, whether at the vice president's residence or at his home in Delaware, Biden has a habit of swimming in his pool nude,' Kessler wrote in his book, The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents.
'Female Secret Service agents find that offensive,' he noted.
J.D. and Usha Vance (above) will move in the Vice President's residence in January
The vice president's house - known as One Naval Observatory, has a private, heated pool
The White House also has a swimming pool but it's behind the Oval Office patio, which means it would be almost impossible for Biden to skinny dip without baring all before the West Wing staff.
Biden even told his successor Mike Pence and his family to enjoy the vice presidential swimming pool, calling it one of his favorite perks.
Karen and Mike Pence used it often as part of their exercise routine.
'It's great,' Karen Pence told Washington Life magazine in 2017 when she was second lady. 'That's the thing that Joe Biden said to us as he got into the limo and left the Capitol on inauguration day — he said, 'you're gonna love the pool.'
Biden, as vice president, said his favorite vice president was Dan Quayle, who installed the pool at the residence.
'No can say a negative thing about Dan Quayle,' he told reporters in 2010, adding Quayle 'built that pool.'
'He's my favorite vice president,' said Biden. 'And my granddaughters love it.'
Biden even dubbed it 'the Dan Quayle swimming pool.'
Naomi, Finnegan and Maisey - the daughters of Hunter Biden - lived with their parents in Washington D.C. when Joe Biden was president. They frequently visited their grandparents at the Naval Observatory.
Joe BIden, as a vice president, would host pool parties where he used a super soaker
The 9,000 square foot vice presidential residence has six bedrooms
Biden, as vice president, bragged about his living conditions: 'I voted all those years for public housing. I didn't know it was gonna be this good.'
The vice presidential residence is technically public property.
It sits on the United States Naval Observatory, a Navy base that is one of the oldest scientific research areas in the country. It remains the country's leading facility for astronomical and timing data and is a center for navigational information.
Only two miles from the White House, Vance will have a short commute, particularly since he'll be traveling in a motorcade.
There's also plenty of room for him, his three children Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel and the family dog Atlas.
The Queen Anne style house is 9,150 square feet with 33 rooms, seven wood-burning fireplaces, a library and solarium.
It has six bedrooms and a wrap around porch. There's also sweeping grounds with plenty of room for Atlas to run and the children to play.
And it's completely private. Unlike the White House, there are no public tours of the vice pesidential residence although the public can sign up for tours of the observatory itself to see the giant telescope and scientific library.
The home was built in 1893 for the Naval Observatory's superintendent. The three-story house cost approximately $20,000 to build.
It began housing its chief of naval operations in 1923 and became the vice presidential residence in the 1970s. Vice President Walter Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter, became the first vice president to live there full-time.
J.D. Vance and Usha with Evan, Vivek, and Mirabel
Dick Cheney, as vice president, dressed up his labrador retrievers Jackson (left as Darth Vader) and Dave (right as Superman) for Halloween
Al Gore, as vice president, and wife Tipper held big Halloween events where they would dress in costume - above the couple in 1998 dressed as mummies
Many vice presidents have hosted receptions there as part of their official duties.
The Pences and the Bidens each hosted parties for military families. The Bidens held summer barbeques for supporters and press that would feature Joe Biden running around with a super soaker.
Al and Tipper Gore were famous for their Halloween events, which Dick and Lynne Cheney continued.
The vice presidents and spouses who lived there have add their personal touches.
Joe Biden surprised Jill with a tree swing for Valentine's Day in 2010. The commemorative plaque on the tree reads 'Joe loves Jill. Valentine's Day 2010.'
Karen Pence installed a bee hive.
Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, added a white mezuzah - a small scroll of Hebrew text from the Torah in a decorative case - on the right side of the doorway of their residence.
The Vance family will move into the residence on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025.
