# Does th President of the US have to live in the White House? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788 "2013-01-10T20:08:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/41 "2013-01-14T21:48:49Z")
Another governor who didn’t live in the official residence: Illinois’ Rod Blagojevich. Blago declined to move his family from Chicago to Springfield (the state capitol), and rarely used his offices in Springfield at all, preferring to operate out of his house, or offices in a state office building in downtown Chicago. His motorcades frequently disrupted traffic in the city…and, as we learned during his corruption trials, it appears that staying in Chicago was, at least in part, a way for him to avoid actually doing any actual gubernatorial work. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/42 "2013-01-14T22:17:32Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > On a sort-of related note, Bill Bryson notes that one of the PM’s of Australia refused to move to Canberra, commuting weekends from Sydney. He only worked on weekends? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/43 "2013-01-14T22:30:13Z")
one of the biggest incentives for the president is because of the party. if you don’t live there then you need to pay catering fees. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/44 "2013-01-14T22:52:16Z")
This thread puts to mind an old Straight Dope Classic: [Isn’t 10 Downing Street, the Home of the British Prime Minister, kind of a dump?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1011/isnt-10-downing-street-the-home-of-the-british-pm-kind-of-a-dump) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/45 "2013-01-14T23:00:39Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > He only worked on weekends? It’s good work if you can get it. Much more convenient for getting dentist appointments and car repairs out of the way. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/46 "2013-01-14T23:28:20Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > On a sort-of related note, Bill Bryson notes that one of the PM’s of Australia refused to move to Canberra, commuting weekends from Sydney. That’s a hell of a commute. It’s 250-300 kilometres one way, depending where in Sydney you’re coming from. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/47 "2013-01-15T05:58:58Z")
Minnesota has a [Governor’s Residence](http://www.admin.state.mn.us/govres/), but our current Governor is the first one in 15-20 years or so to actually live in it. It’s about 3½ miles from the State Capitol, where there is a sizable office for the Governor. But currently, the Governor is operating out of the Residence, since he is recovering at home from back surgery. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/48 "2013-01-15T06:55:55Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > That’s a hell of a commute. It’s 250-300 kilometres one way, depending where in Sydney you’re coming from. The Prime Minister has his/her own 737. The flight from Sydney to Canberra (especially for a VIP aircraft) is barely more than 30 minutes and Canberra airport is only 15 minutes from Parliament House, so the commute isn’t so bad. To be fair, the Lodge (the PM’s Canberra residence) isn’t a great house (especially compared with Kirribilli House) and there has been a lot of talk over the years about renovating or replacing it. Julia Gillard also decided not to move into the Lodge after she assumed the PM role until she won the subsequent election. This caused all sorts of headaches for the security people, who had to secure a non-descript flat/apartment. I can only imagine that a US President trying to live in a normal residence would cause an order of magnitude more problems. Funnily enough for quite a bit of December the entrance to the Lodge was competely blocked off (I live in the same suburb, Deakin, and pass it nearly every day). They seemed to be doing some work on the place. Parliament doesn’t sit in December so Julia would have been wherever her “normal” place of residence is. Melbourne, presumably, since that’s where her seat (Lalor) is based. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/49 "2013-01-15T14:20:30Z")
> [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](#): > > The title pretty much says it. > > I can see all sorts of reasons a president would choose to live there (location, security, tradition and so forth) but if a president were elected who wanted to live in a home somewhere else in DC or the surrounding area that he could still commute and do the job or even in a home that had sufficient space to provide offices for all the staff who would ordinarilly work in the White House, is there a legal reason he would have to live in the White House? Potrebbe abitare in un palazzo 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788/50 "2013-01-15T14:38:07Z")
> [@Notassmartasithought](#): > > President Nixon spent so much time at his home on San Clemente Island, California, that it was regularly referred to by the press as the “Western White House.” Nixon’s house was not on [San Clemente Island](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Clemente_Island). It was in the town of [San Clemente](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Clemente,_California), on the mainland in Orange County. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-th-president-of-the-us-have-to-live-in-the-white-house/646788.md?page=2)