Hidden DC Series: The White House’s Secret Pool

The West Wing briefing room is one of the most watched spaces in American politics. Reporters cram into 49 assigned chairs, television lights beam down, and millions of viewers follow the daily dance between the press secretary and the journalists. What most people do not know is that every question, every heated exchange and every carefully crafted answer happens atop a room that was once filled with water. Hidden directly beneath the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room is a tiled swimming pool installed in 1933 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s polio therapy. This article explores how a presidential rehabilitation pool became a media theater, what still lies beneath the podium, and why this piece of White House history continues to captivate our curiosity. Along the way you will learn about the presidents who swam there, the mural that transported JFK to the Caribbean, Nixon’s instructions to protect the pool even as he converted it, and how guests at the nearby Hotel Washington can connect with this hidden story.

Why This Hidden Pool Matters Now

Every time a new administration begins, Americans tune in to see the first White House press briefings. New press secretaries bring new styles, and fresh faces in the briefing room often inspire casual viewers to wonder about the space itself. In early 2026 the cycle repeated as the administration’s communications team took its seats; trending posts on social media once again asked if there was really a pool under the podium. The story’s resurgence coincides with several anniversaries: the pool was installed 93 years ago and covered 56 years ago. Major structural work on the Executive Mansion occasionally recalls the pool conversion; for instance, a 2025 White House press release about the addition of a new ceremonial ballroom referenced President Richard Nixon’s decision to turn the pool into a press room in 1970. The narrative also resonates with our fascination with hidden chambers, especially when they sit beneath a space as public as the briefing room. For Washington visitors staying at Hotel Washington—located across from the U.S. Treasury and steps from the White House lawn—this untold story adds another layer to their experience of the city.

Origins: FDR's Polio and the Birth of the White House Pool

To understand why a swimming pool exists beneath the press room, we must return to the summer of 1921. Thirty‑nine‑year‑old Franklin D. Roosevelt was vacationing at his family’s Campobello Island cottage when he fell suddenly ill. Over the course of a few days his legs weakened, his skin became hypersensitive and he was eventually unable to stand. Doctors diagnosed him with infantile paralysis—better known as polio. Determined to walk again, Roosevelt spent years in rehabilitation, swimming three times a week in the Astor Pool and ponds near his Hyde Park home. Water buoyed him, allowed his legs to move without bearing his weight, and helped him rebuild strength.

Roosevelt’s search for healing led him to Warm Springs, Georgia, where he found a resort whose mineral waters were believed to ease polio symptoms. Impressed by the therapeutic benefits and hoping to help others, he purchased the facility in 1926 and transformed it into the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, precursor to the March of Dimes. Swimming remained central to his routine; the image of FDR smiling in a pool became a symbol of resilience and public optimism. When Roosevelt entered the White House in 1933, he needed a private facility where he could continue exercising without the difficulty of traveling to Warm Springs. Because the Executive Mansion lacked an indoor pool, supporters launched the Roosevelt Swimming Pool Fund to raise money for one. The New York Daily News led the campaign, quickly raising more than $12,000 from readers and March of Dimes donors. In just two weeks the fund reached its goal.

Designing a Presidential Pool

Architect Lorenzo Winslow and engineer Douglas Gillette designed a rectangular pool encircled by arched ceilings and half‑moon windows within the West Terrace of the White House. The location connected the mansion to the West Wing yet remained private enough for the president’s therapy sessions. Construction began in March 1933 and lasted three months. On June 2, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt took his first plunge, thanking donors who had made the pool possible. The pool’s size—40 feet by 20 feet—allowed him to swim laps; adjacent rooms held massage tables, changing areas and mechanical equipment. A small deck and deck chairs gave the space a club‑like ambience, yet it was primarily a therapeutic tool.

For Roosevelt the pool was not a luxury but a medical necessity. Eleanor Roosevelt and family members often joined him, providing support while he exercised. During these sessions he would chat with advisers and sometimes host informal meetings, demonstrating his preference for relaxed, conversational governance. Photographs of the president smiling in his striped bathing suit offered the public a rare glimpse of his disability, at a time when most Americans were unaware of his physical limitations. Swimming helped him maintain upper‑body strength and cardiovascular fitness, enabling him to project vitality on the world stage.

Presidents at Play: From Truman to Johnson

After FDR’s death in 1945, successive presidents embraced the pool. Harry Truman, who was famously near‑sighted, swam while wearing his glasses, earning gentle ridicule from the press. Dwight Eisenhower reportedly took a few laps to keep fit during his time in the West Wing. John F. Kennedy turned the space into a midday refuge. A college swimmer at Harvard, Kennedy enjoyed backstroke laps to relieve stress between meetings. In 1962 his father Joseph P. Kennedy commissioned artist Bernard Lamotte to paint a tropical mural on the walls surrounding the pool. The three‑wall painting depicted the harbor at Christiansted, Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, evoking azure waters and sailboats. The mural transported Kennedy to warm Caribbean breezes and contrasted with the intense Cold War tensions of his presidency.

Lyndon B. Johnson also swam regularly, using the pool as both exercise and entertainment. A robust Texan who favored earthy conversation, LBJ was known to invite aides and journalists to join him—sometimes to persuade them of his policy positions. For a brief period the pool even hosted White House staff family members; First Lady Lady Bird Johnson encouraged swimming lessons there, viewing it as a perk for hardworking employees. These scenes humanized the presidency and cast the White House as a living home rather than a distant castle. Yet the pool remained hidden from public tours, fueling curiosity about what lay behind its arched windows.

Murals, Art, and Tropical Dreams

Bernard Lamotte’s mural merits its own focus. Lamotte, a French‑born artist who immigrated to the United States, created luminous scenes of harbors and cityscapes. His 1962 White House commission transformed the pool’s plain walls into an immersive panorama of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Palm trees, fishing boats and turquoise water surrounded swimmers on three sides. According to the White House Historical Association, the artwork was a gift from Joseph P. Kennedy to his son. The president particularly loved Christiansted, where he had once vacationed. The mural not only reflected his fondness for the sea but also symbolized the optimism of the New Frontier era.

When Richard Nixon took office in 1969, he faced a growing press corps clamoring for workspace close to the West Wing. Television networks wanted permanent camera positions, wire services needed desks and correspondents wanted ready access to the press secretary. Nixon rarely used the indoor pool; he preferred saltwater swimming and spent downtime at his homes in Florida and California. To accommodate the media he decided to convert the pool area into a press center. However, aware that the pool had been built with public donations and wary of criticism for destroying FDR’s legacy, Nixon instructed architects not to damage it. Randall Vosbeck, an architect for the project, later recalled that they were told in no uncertain terms that the design had to allow the pool to be restored easily. The water was drained, a wood floor was laid across the pool and the press facilities—briefing room, offices and broadcast booths—were built over and adjacent to it. The Lamotte mural, deemed too vulnerable to cigarette smoke and camera equipment, was removed, stored and eventually donated to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Nixon's Conversion: Creating the Press Center

The West Wing’s new press center opened on April 2, 1970. President Nixon’s remarks at the ceremony emphasized that all pool equipment had been preserved and could be reinstated if a future president wished to reopen the pool. Reporters noted the symmetrical 7×7 configuration of chairs, wood paneling and the small podium from which press secretaries would speak. The facility included two floors of work and broadcasting spaces; the actual briefing room sat directly above the drained pool, while offices and lounges extended eastward. Changing rooms and massage rooms were repurposed as editing suites and radio booths.

Not everyone supported the conversion. Letters to newspapers protested the idea of covering a pool paid for by citizens, noting that future presidents might need an indoor pool. Others worried that the press would become too cozy with the administration, given the new proximity. But the arrangement stuck. The press center allowed correspondents to monitor events, hold briefings and file stories without leaving the White House grounds. The pool remained hidden but intact, sealed beneath a wooden floor and sheetrock walls.

Ghost Pool: What Lies Beneath Today’s Briefing Room

For decades the old pool was forgotten. Then, during cable‑installation work in 2000, White House contractors discovered that the pool still existed under the floorboards. Workers climbed through a trapdoor and found the tiled basin empty, with some of the original murals removed and others plastered over. According to accounts from press assistants, the deep end sits directly under the briefing room podium; if the floor were removed, the press secretary would be treading water while fielding questions. The space is now used as a secure room for computer servers and audiovisual equipment, a fittingly modern reuse of a 1930s structure. White House aides occasionally show off the hidden pool to visiting dignitaries, entering through a discrete door behind the briefing room. Photographs reveal white subway tiles, metal ladders and pipes that once circulated warm water; they also show cables, servers and racks of electronic gear.

Although the pool remains drained, the ability to restore it endures. Architect Vosbeck said that major elements were left intact to allow a future president to reopen the pool easily. A full restoration would require removing the briefing room floor and relocating the press corps—an unlikely move given the political value of the press’s proximity. Still, the ghost pool continues to capture imaginations. It symbolizes the layers of history embedded in the Executive Mansion and reminds us that even the most modern spaces often rest upon hidden foundations.

The Press Room Today: James S. Brady and 49 Chairs

The space above the former pool is known as the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. In 2000, President Bill Clinton dedicated the room in honor of James Brady, the press secretary who was shot and permanently disabled during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. The room seats just 49 reporters—each chair assigned to a specific news organization. More than 200 members of the White House press corps compete for rotating slots, and the White House Correspondents’ Association manages seat assignments. As the Obama administration’s West Wing tour notes, the briefing room sits atop the emptied pool installed for Roosevelt’s therapy. Renovations in 2006 updated the space with new wiring, lighting and seats, but the underlying structure remains unchanged. At times you can see glimpses of the pool’s outline in the curved walls of the lower hallway behind the stage.

The small theater fosters an intense dynamic. Reporters form personal relationships with press secretaries, yet they must remain skeptical and challenge official narratives. Administrations use the room to set agendas, respond to crises and test messaging. Because the room is narrow and deep, camera angles often capture the first few rows of reporters while the rest sit in darkness. The knowledge that an unused pool lies beneath the floor adds a surreal dimension to daily briefings—a hidden body of water beneath the swirl of words.

Visiting the White House: What the Public Can See

Visitors cannot descend into the ghost pool, but they can connect with its story through official tours and nearby attractions. The White House Visitor Center, run by the National Park Service, offers exhibits on the building’s history and includes artifacts from the West Wing. The West Wing itself is not part of regular public tours; however, those fortunate enough to receive invitations from congressional offices or the White House may catch a glimpse of the briefing room. As the archived West Wing tour notes, the briefing room sits over Roosevelt’s emptied pool, a fact sometimes mentioned by tour guides.

For the general public, the best way to appreciate the history of the White House and its hidden spaces is to explore the surrounding neighborhood. Start at the White House Historical Association’s headquarters, where you can browse exhibits and pick up walking maps. Stroll past Lafayette Square, view the North Portico and continue to the south side to see the Rose Garden. The National Mall, managed by the National Park Service, stretches beyond the Ellipse; it houses the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial. Museums like the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture offer free entry and context for the events that unfolded within the White House walls. While on the Mall, consider visiting the FDR Memorial, a tranquil series of waterfalls and sculptures that honors Roosevelt’s leadership and acknowledges his disability. Each of these sites links back to the pool story by illustrating the personal and political landscapes in which FDR lived.

Hotel Washington: Steps from a Hidden Legend

For travelers seeking to immerse themselves in White House lore, Hotel Washington is ideally situated. The hotel stands on Pennsylvania Avenue, across from the U.S. Treasury and just a block from the Ellipse. Its rooftop bar provides panoramic views of the White House South Lawn, the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial. Marketing materials proudly describe it as the closest hotel to the White House, positioned at the edge of the White House Lawn—a claim that resonates when you step onto the terrace and see Marine One land or presidential motorcades depart. Because the hotel sits within the security perimeter, guests are immersed in the rhythms of federal life, from the sound of Marine drums to the flash of press cameras. Staying here gives you a front‑row seat to the daily rituals that continue just above Roosevelt’s long‑hidden pool.

Beyond location, Hotel Washington offers a sense of continuity with the narrative of presidents and press. Its Beaux‑Arts architecture dates to 1917, and its walls have witnessed inaugural parades, civil rights marches and state visits. Guests can enjoy modern amenities while sipping cocktails on the rooftop, discussing the day’s news and glancing toward the briefing room where reporters spar over policy. The juxtaposition of luxury hospitality and national history mirrors the pool story: everyday comfort layered over a complex past.

Other Hidden Rooms and White House Secrets

The pool is not the only hidden space in the Executive Mansion. Beneath the North Lawn runs a network of tunnels connecting the White House to the Treasury Building and the East Wing. Some were constructed during World War II to provide emergency evacuation routes; others date to earlier expansions. During the 1969 renovation for the press center, workers discovered 19th‑century rooms beneath the West Terrace that may have stored coal or food. These vaults were filled with dirt and left undisturbed when the press facility expanded. Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 plans show a cylindrical “silo” used as an icehouse, further illustrating how each generation adapts the building’s subterranean spaces. Rumors persist of secret escape tunnels and bunkers under the East Wing; while some security features remain classified, historians note that the White House’s basement includes a bomb shelter installed during World War II.

Upstairs, hidden doors and passages allow staff to move discreetly. A small staircase behind the Yellow Oval Room leads down to a private corridor, enabling presidents to reach the ground floor without crossing public rooms. The Queen’s Bedroom has a secret closet that once hid brandy flasks during Prohibition. Even the Resolute Desk has a trapdoor panel—famously photographed when John F. Kennedy, Jr. crawled out from beneath while his father worked. These features remind visitors that the White House is both a stage and a home, built for ceremonial grandeur and private moments. The pool fits squarely within this theme: a medically necessary space turned into a clandestine curiosity.

Practical Planning: Experiencing White House History

If you are planning a trip to Washington, DC, and want to immerse yourself in White House history, consider the following tips:

1. Book tours early. Requests to tour the White House must be submitted through a member of Congress or a U.S. embassy three weeks to three months in advance. Slots fill quickly, especially during spring and summer.
2. Visit the White House Visitor Center. Located at 1450 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, it is free to enter and features exhibits on presidential life. Interactive displays help you visualize spaces like the West Wing pool even though they are off limits.
3. Explore FDR sites. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial along the Tidal Basin contains waterfalls, sculptures and quotes that capture the spirit of his presidency. Panels depict his struggle with polio and his use of swimming for therapy. The memorial is accessible 24 hours a day and is especially beautiful at night.
4. Tour the National Mall museums. The National Museum of American History holds artifacts from various presidents, including campaign memorabilia and First Lady gowns. Nearby, the National Archives displays the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, contextualizing the executive powers exercised in the West Wing.
5. Stay near the action. Booking a room at Hotel Washington places you within walking distance of the White House, National Mall and downtown restaurants. From your hotel window you can watch Marine One lift off from the South Lawn or see the president’s motorcade depart for Capitol Hill.
6. Share the story. Use your visit to spark conversations about the hidden pool. It is a great piece of trivia to share while standing by the North Portico or relaxing at a rooftop bar. Telling friends about the pool encourages them to look beyond the headlines and appreciate the layered history of the Executive Mansion.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is there really a swimming pool under the White House press room?
Yes. A tiled indoor pool built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 remains beneath today’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. It was drained and covered in 1970 but not destroyed.

Why did Franklin Roosevelt need a pool?
Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 and used swimming as part of his rehabilitation. Supporters raised funds to build a pool at the White House so he could continue therapy.

Who raised the money for the White House pool?
The New York Daily News and what later became the March of Dimes launched the Roosevelt Swimming Pool Fund. The campaign raised over $12,000 in about two weeks.

Which presidents used the indoor pool?
Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all swam regularly. Kennedy’s father even commissioned a tropical mural for the pool.

Why did Nixon cover the pool?
By the late 1960s the White House press corps needed more space. President Nixon converted the pool area into a press center but ordered architects to preserve the pool structure in case a future president wished to reopen it.

What is beneath the press room now?
The drained pool is used as a secure room for cables, servers and audiovisual equipment. A trapdoor provides access for maintenance.

Can visitors see the hidden pool?
No. The area is part of the secure West Wing and is not included in public tours. Only staff and authorized guests occasionally visit the space.

Is there another pool at the White House?
Yes. In 1975 President Gerald Ford installed an outdoor pool on the South Lawn using private donations. The outdoor pool remains in use today.

Closing Thoughts

The story of the hidden swimming pool beneath the White House press room is more than a curiosity—it is a window into the way the Executive Mansion evolves with each administration. Built to help Franklin Roosevelt overcome the effects of polio, the pool symbolized resilience and public generosity. Later it became a place where presidents swam laps, held informal meetings and commissioned art. When media demands increased, Richard Nixon transformed the pool into a press center while carefully preserving its structure. Today the drained pool remains under the podium, silently witnessing the exchange of questions and answers that shape national policy. For travelers staying at Hotel Washington, this hidden layer of history adds depth to the view of the White House across the street. It reminds us that beneath the polished surface of politics lies a complex, human story worth exploring.

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