The Executive Privilege of Air Conditioning
(Syracuse, N.Y., May 13, 2002) -- In the early days of America's capital, Washington D.C. was surely not what we've come to expect. At least until the development of air conditioning, that is. Selected by compromise between the newly independent northern and southern states, the area on the Potomac River was dutifully surveyed by President Washington himself. Washington D.C. was built on a swamp and, at least in the early years, an open sewer ran through the city. This, in addition to the sultry summer months, made spending time in the nation's capital absolutely miserable.
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George Washington, the nation's "first weatherman" as well as first president didn't live to see the new city's transformation into the U.S. capital. But he did create a relatively cool environment at his Mount Vernon, Va. estate, approximately 10 miles south of where the White House would eventually stand. Others tried to stay cool by fanning themselves in front of giant blocks of ice. Congress dealt with the problem by vacating the city during the summer months. According to the original Constitution, Congress was to meet in December. Members were long gone by the scorching month of July.
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Not much changed in the intervening 100 years. In 1909, President William Howard Taft attempted the installation of a cooling system in the White House. It consisted of electric fans blowing over great bins of ice in the attic and cooling the air, which was forced through the air ducts of the heating system. It never worked and was soon abandoned. It seemed as though the nation's capital would never find a solution to the summer heat.
But in the late 1920s, Washington got its wish thanks to Carrier. In 1928, the Chamber of the House of Representatives was air conditioned. A Carrier indoor weather system was officially inaugurated on the opening of the short session of the U.S. House of Representatives in December 1928. Shortly after, in 1929, the Senate was air conditioned.
In 1930, the West Wing of the White House was reconstructed due to the extensive damage of a Christmas Eve fire in 1929. The reconstruction included a central air conditioning system installed by Carrier. The Executive Office Building and the Department of Commerce also received air conditioning systems that year. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his staff experienced their first warm season at the White House in 1933, air conditioning units were added to the private quarters on the second floor, to no doubt ease the pain of the polio-stricken Commander-in-Chief.
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In 1998, Carrier caught the attention of the executive office yet again. President Clinton was the featured speaker at a groundbreaking ceremony in San Fernando, Calif. to introduce a new residential community, WestSide Village. The homes of the community feature innovative, advanced systems that meet the criteria for the "next generation of American homes," as defined by The Partnership for Advanced Technologies in Housing (PATH). Carrier's non-ozone-depleting WeatherMaker¿ with Puron® central air conditioner was the only HVAC system represented.
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Practically 70 years after air conditioning Roosevelt's White House, Carrier is still helping to keep U.S. presidents cool. In the fall of 2000, the Clinton administration requested Carrier's help. President Clinton was scheduled to make a historic trip to Vietnam in November, and although officials assumed most of the venues visited would be air conditioned, this was not the case! Carrier Vietnam stepped in and provided 30 Slim Pac Units to be used at various stops throughout the trip.
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