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48 free The White House trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 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 48-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 48 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. Pennsylvania Avenue runs diagonally from the White House to the Capitol and is the route of every inaugural parade.
Q 02Who was the first president to live in the White House?
John Adams
John Adams moved in on November 1, 1800, while the building was unfinished; Abigail Adams hung the family laundry to dry in the bare, unplastered state rooms.
Q 03Before the White House was ready, the president lived in a mansion on High Street in which city?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia; the High Street mansion had served as the presidential residence since 1790, and the capital moved from there in 1800.
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 05The original whitewash that gave the house its colour mixed lime, rice glue, casein and which metal?
Lead
The porous stone needed the coating; a later theory holds the name may also owe something to Martha Washington's White House Plantation in Virginia.
Q 06Which planted area bordering the Oval Office is commonly used as a stage for press events?
The Rose Garden
The Rose Garden, beside the Oval Office. Ellen Wilson first planted roses there in 1913, and Rachel Lambert Mellon gave it its present formal layout in 1962.
Q 07How many rooms does the White House have?
132
132 rooms. The residence also has 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, eight staircases and three elevators, and employs five full-time chefs.
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, which also holds offices for about 50 senior staff and was partly replicated on a sound stage for the TV series that shares its name.
Q 09What is the name of the helicopter that flies the president to and from the White House?
Marine One
Marine One is the call sign of any Marine Corps helicopter carrying the president; the aircraft belong to squadron HMX-1, based at Quantico, Virginia.
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 grounds does the presidential helicopter land?
The South Lawn
The South Lawn. Marine One lands on the South Lawn, which also hosts state-arrival ceremonies; a 2018 test landing by the new VH-92A helicopter scorched its grass.
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 White House at approximately 80 feet long and 37 feet wide. It has been used for dances, receptions, press conferences, and even the lying in state of presidents.
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. Only the outer stone walls were kept while a steel frame went in; the old timbers were sawn into panelling for the Library.
Q 23Which president added the Oval Office to the White House?
William Howard Taft
Sandstone. The Aquia Creek sandstone was quarried in Stafford County, Virginia, largely by enslaved African-Americans, and is porous enough to need its protective coat of paint.
Q 14Formal White House banquets for visiting heads of government are traditionally held in which room, which seats 140?
The State Dining Room
The State Dining Room; a 1902 makeover briefly turned it into a 'baronial' hall with stuffed animal heads on dark oak panelling.
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 April 19, 1995 attack, the Secret Service closed Pennsylvania Avenue between 15th and 17th Streets to vehicles on May 20, 1995.
Q 16Who designed the original White House?
James Hoban
Irish-born architect James Hoban won the design competition with a neoclassical plan in the Palladian style, and he supervised the rebuilding after the British burned the house.
Q 17In what year did construction of the White House begin?
1792
Construction of the White House began on October 13, 1792. The cornerstone was laid that day, and the building took approximately eight years to complete enough for occupancy.
Q 18During which war was the White House burned by British forces?
The War of 1812
The War of 1812, in 1814; a Canadian returned a looted jewellery box in 1939, and a Royal Navy officer's descendants sent back Madison's medicine chest the same year.
Q 19First Lady Dolley Madison is famed for saving which object as the British approached in 1814?
A portrait of Washington
Her enslaved footman Paul Jennings later wrote that the doorkeeper and gardener actually took the Gilbert Stuart canvas down; Jennings's 1865 memoir was the first from the White House.
Q 20While the White House was reconstructed from 1949 to 1952, where did the Truman family live?
Blair House
Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenue. A 1948 engineering report warned the second floor was near collapse, so the Trumans moved out in November 1948 and returned on March 27, 1952.
William Howard Taft, in 1909; he placed the office at the centre of the addition, echoing the residence's three oval rooms.
Q 24How many floors does the White House have?
Six
Six. The White House has two basement levels, the ground floor, the State Floor, the second floor where the family lives, and a third floor added in 1927.
Q 25Which first lady led a major historical restoration of the White House in the early 1960s?
Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline Kennedy undertook a major historical restoration of the White House in 1961-1963, acquiring period furniture and artwork. She gave a famous televised tour of the restored rooms 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 April 1961 failure, President Kennedy had the Situation Room built in the West Wing basement to bring intelligence feeds together in one place.
Q 27Which president installed the first electric lights in the White House?
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison. Edison General Electric wired the house in 1891, but Harrison and his wife Caroline would not touch the switches for fear of shocks and often left the lights on all night.
Q 28Which of these, on the State Floor, is oval-shaped and used for receptions?
The Blue Room
The Blue Room. It is the middle of three stacked oval rooms in Hoban's design and hosts the official White House Christmas tree each year.
Q 29Who 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 30What was the name of the 42-seat cinema converted from an East Wing cloakroom in 1942?
The White House Family Theater
The White House Family Theater. The East Wing cloakroom was converted in 1942 so wartime newsreels could be screened; its 42 seats have since hosted presidential movie nights.