1

The numbers behind it

Image: Melo Liu

One could say the White House is a home, but a more accurate description would be "small city." With 132 rooms, 32 bathrooms, and six levels, it accommodates everyone from the First Family to visiting dignitaries.

As if that wasn’t enough in terms of numbers, add 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, seven staircases, and three elevators, and you’ve got a place that’s as grand as it is functional. The only number left to wonder about is how many people it takes to clean it! With so much going on, it’s safe to say the White House is always buzzing.

2

From "President’s House" to "The White House"

Image: Saul Rodriguez

Did you know the White House wasn’t always called that? Over the years, it’s been referred to as the "President’s Palace," the "President’s House," and the "Executive Mansion."

But it wasn’t until 1901 that President Theodore Roosevelt made "The White House" the official name. The change reflected a more democratic image, distancing the building from European-style palaces.

3

6,000 visitors a day: A popular destination

Image: Saul Rodriguez

You have probably toured the White House at least once, haven’t you? Well, on any given day, the White House welcomes around 6,000 visitors.

From local and foreign tourists on a guided tour, diplomats, to school groups, the building sees a steady stream of guests. That’s a lot of handshakes, selfies, and security checks! More than power and politics, the charm of the White House lies in the national history it holds.

4

Presidential firsts: Planes, photos, and more

Image: Jainam Sheth

Every president brings something new to the White House, but some have achieved truly historic "firsts."

For example, John Tyler was the first to have his photograph taken. Theodore Roosevelt rode in the first presidential car and became the first president to travel abroad, to Panama. Franklin Roosevelt added air travel to the mix as the first president to fly.

You may be wondering who the first president to live there was, but we’ll cover that fact later in this article!

5

A kitchen built for a crowd

Image: Odiseo Castrejon

We may not know about the cleaning crew, but we do have some facts about the chefs!

There are five full-time chefs in the White House, so the kitchen is ready for any occasion. It can serve dinner to 140 guests or hors d’oeuvres to more than 1,000 people at a time. From state dinners to casual family meals, the kitchen staff handles it all with finesse. Five stars for them, please!

6

Painting the town (or the House) White

Image: Steve Johnson

Keeping the White House pristine is no small task: Can you guess how much paint it takes to cover it? Here’s the answer: It takes a whopping 570 gallons of paint to cover its iconic exterior. This monumental paint job ensures the building remains the picture of elegance and charm. Over the years, this white coat has become a symbol of the presidency itself. Who knew painting could carry so much historical weight? Fun fact: ours is not the only presidential home with a trademark color!

7

Fun and games at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Image: Jay Wennington

When you think of the Executive Mansion, you probably picture people in suits going from one point to another, solving national and international matters, right? Well, that may be true, but the White House isn’t all business; there are some recreational rooms, too.

Residents (which range from the presidential family to diplomats to staff) enjoy a tennis court, jogging track, swimming pool, movie theater, billiard room, and even a bowling lane. Talk about a house with some serious amenities, huh?

8

George Washington never slept here

Image: Kenny Eliason

While George Washington oversaw the creation of the White House, he never got to live in it. The mansion wasn’t completed until 1800, a year after Washington’s death.

So, to answer the question from the "presidential firsts" section, John Adams became the first president to move in, and it’s been the home of every president since. Washington’s influence is still felt, but don’t expect to see his ghost wandering the halls.

9

The White House has survived two fires

Image: Cullan Smith

Well, the title pretty much covers it, right? The White House has faced fire twice in its history.

In 1814, British forces burned it during the War of 1812, though some exterior walls and the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington were saved. Then, on Christmas Eve in 1929, a chimney flue sparked a blaze that gutted parts of the West Wing. President Herbert Hoover even directed firefighting efforts during the chaos. Now, this is proof of its true Americanness: It only came back stronger and taller!

10

Teddy Roosevelt built the West Wing

Image: Srikanta H. U

Teddy Roosevelt is the man behind the West Wing. In 1902, he expanded the White House by adding this now-famous section to house presidential offices.

The project replaced some old conservatories and introduced the colonnaded gallery that connects it to the main residence. Later presidents, like Taft and Franklin Roosevelt, expanded the West Wing further, but it all started with Teddy’s vision. Today, the West Wing is the spinal cord of the presidency as it holds the Oval Office.

1

The Purple Store – Online (with a location at Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA)

The Purple Store does exactly one thing: it sells purple items. Every single thing in the store is purple . Shirts, socks, kitchen appliances, furniture, jewelry, dog collars, dice, cowboy hats—if it exists and can be purple, The Purple Store has it.

This is the store for the person in your life who is very, very serious about their favorite color, or for anyone who finds the concept of a store with a strictly enforced color policy absolutely hilarious and also kind of admirable.

2

The Museum of Bad Art Store: Somerville, MA

The Museum of Bad Art exists to celebrate paintings that tried hard, fell short, and ended up magnificent for entirely the wrong reasons. The gift shop sells prints, books, and merchandise built around the museum's collection of gloriously terrible masterpieces .

Nobody here is embarrassed: the art is bad, everyone knows it, and that's precisely the point. This is the store for people who believe that effort deserves recognition regardless of outcome, and for anyone who has ever hung a painting in their living room that wasn't quite right and left it there for fifteen years anyway.

3

Marty's Reliable Cycle: Westfield, NJ

Operating since 1946, Marty's Reliable Cycle is the kind of place that shouldn't still exist but absolutely does. It's famous nationwide not just for its vintage bicycle inventory, but for its ceiling-to-floor stacks of cycling memorabilia, spare parts, and decades of accumulated everything that give it the feel of a very organized avalanche.

Walking in feels like stepping into a time capsule where someone hit pause around 1978. Cyclists make pilgrimages here. If you're passing through New Jersey and remotely enjoy bicycles, nostalgia, or both, it's worth the detour.

4

The Sock Drawer: Providence, RI

The Sock Drawer is devoted entirely to novelty and compression socks in every pattern, theme, and level of absurdity imaginable . Cats riding tacos. Flaming hot dogs. Historical figures on argyle. If you can think of it, there’s a good chance The Sock Drawer already has it in stock.

What makes it more than a joke is that it also carries medical-grade compression socks for people who need them, meaning you can solve a circulation problem and walk out with a pair of socks featuring a screaming eagle at the exact same time.

5

Archie McPhee: Seattle, WA

Archie McPhee has been selling rubber chickens, bacon-scented soap, canned unicorn meat, and inflatable Stonehenge for decades, and it shows no signs of slowing down or becoming even slightly more sensible. It is the undisputed gold standard of American novelty shops: the place other weird stores aspire to be when they grow up .

The genius of Archie McPhee is that everything is absurd, but nothing feels accidental. Someone sat down, thought very carefully about what the world needed, and concluded the answer was a horse head mask and a bag of dismembered gummy bears. They were right, and the store has the loyal following to prove it.

6

Wall Drug: Wall, SD

Wall Drug started as a modest drugstore in 1931 in the middle of South Dakota and somehow became one of the most aggressively advertised destinations in America. Signs for it appear thousands of miles away, and the complex has grown to fill an entire block with shops, exhibits, animatronic dinosaurs, and attractions that resist easy categorization. A five-cent cup of coffee is still on the menu.

Nobody drives to Wall Drug because they need something. They go because the signs wore them down over five straight states and they finally gave in. Once inside, the sheer scale of the thing (part store, part roadside attraction, part collective hallucination) becomes impressive.

7

Possumbilities: Fredericksburg, VA

Possumbilities is a gift shop, wildlife education center, and opossum advocacy organization all rolled into one cheerfully strange package. Run by a licensed wildlife rehabilitator named Karen Brace, the store sells opossum-themed merchandise —plushies, mugs, apparel, hand-crocheted baby opossum figures— and features live opossum ambassadors on-site Thursday through Monday.

This is the store for anyone who has ever been told that opossums are ugly and gross and wants to argue the point. Imagine stopping in Fredericksburg on a road trip, wandering into what looks like a small gift shop, and coming face-to-face with a real, live opossum named Stuart. That is a story you'll tell at every barbecue for the rest of your life.

8

Unclaimed Baggage: Scottsboro, AL

Unclaimed Baggage is exactly what it sounds like : a store that buys luggage that airlines have given up on reuniting with its owners—after a full three-month search—and sells the contents to the public . Items are cleaned, tested, appraised, and priced at up to 80% below retail value. New inventory arrives daily, because bags are lost daily.

Over the years, the store has turned up a NASA Space Shuttle camera, an Egyptian burial mask from around 1500 BC, a live rattlesnake, and a puppet from the Jim Henson film Labyrinth . The everyday inventory includes designer clothes, electronics, jewelry, and sporting goods, but the real draw is the promise that you have no idea what you'll find.

9

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop: Seattle, WA

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has been operating on Seattle's waterfront since 1899 and in that time has assembled a collection of genuine mummies, shrunken heads, narwhal tusks, and oddities that blur the line between souvenir shop and sideshow attraction. You can buy a snow globe or stand two feet from an actual mummified human body.

It’s the kind of place that would be impossible to open today and which survives partly on reputation, and partly on morbid curiosity.

10

The Mütter Museum Store: Philadelphia, PA

The Mütter Museum is a medical history museum housing anatomical specimens, preserved human remains, and things in jars that no one entirely expects to find in downtown Philadelphia . Its gift shop sells anatomical models, medical curiosity replicas, and books that somehow make the whole experience feel educational and gift-able rather than deeply alarming—most of the time.

You can buy a soap shaped like a human brain, a replica Civil War surgical kit, or a calendar featuring unusual medical case studies from the 1800s. It's oddly tasteful given the subject matter, and the store has developed a devoted following.

1

The helmet catch

Image: Lucas Andrade

In Super Bowl XLII, with the Patriots seconds away from winning a perfect match, Giants receiver David Tyree made an impossible grab by pinning the football against his helmet as he fell .

To this day, fans call it the greatest "miracle catch" in championship history, a moment that proved even the unbeatable can be beaten.

2

The infamous wardrobe malfunction

Image: Anders Krøgh Jørgensen

At the 2004 halftime show, Justin Timberlake tore part of Janet Jackson’s costume , revealing more than intended before a live worldwide audience. The moment lasted half a second but changed broadcasting rules forever.

Outrage, apologies, and fines followed, turning that split second into a pop-culture synonym for live-TV mishaps.

3

Prince in the rain

Image: Manos Gkikas

4

When Prince took the stage at Super Bowl XLI, thunder rolled, and rain began to pour . Instead of retreating, His Royal Badness leaned into the storm, closing with "Purple Rain." 

Viewers still recall that electric silhouette in the drizzle: a performer literally singing through his own anthem, transforming bad weather into living symbolism of showmanship.

5

Whitney Houston’s anthem

Image: Anders Krøgh Jørgensen

In 1991, Whitney Houston opened Super Bowl XXV with a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" so powerful it eclipsed the game.

That performance was replayed on the radio, released as a single, and later revived for charity, proof that a national anthem could become a timeless pop classic.

6

Beyoncé and the blackout

Image: Emily Bauman

Super Bowl XLVII’s halftime show is remembered by Beyoncé’s choreography, fireworks, and sheer voltage. Minutes after her final pose, half the stadium lights failed .

Fans joked she blew the fuse herself, and the event worked to her advantage, turning a technical glitch into an incredible moment.

7

The Budweiser frogs

Image: gary tresize

During the 1995 broadcast, three computer-animated frogs croaked "Bud… Weis… Er." The simple rhythm and humor made the ad an overnight sensation.

Viewers repeated it endlessly, making what was a simple ad (albeit a very expensive one) into a cultural phenomenon of its day.

8

The Philly Special

Image: Myron Mott

With the Eagles facing the Patriots in 2018, quarterback Nick Foles pulled off the unthinkable: catching a touchdown pass himself on a fourth-down trick play .

Dubbed the "Philly Special," it symbolized daring over doubt. Philadelphia celebrated its first title as fans shouted that a backup QB had outmaneuvered Tom Brady in football’s biggest game.

9

Shakira & J.Lo together

Image: Alexander Wark Feeney

In 2020, Latin superstars Shakira and Jennifer Lopez performed together during Miami’s halftime . From swirling dance moves to a surprise cameo by J.Lo’s daughter, it was a cultural statement.

The show fused salsa, rock, and pop with Latin symbolism, leaving audiences buzzing with music and color.

10

The 28–3 impossible comeback

Image: Fredrick Lee

When Atlanta led 28–3 in 2017, viewers assumed Tom Brady’s Patriots were finished. Then came a jaw-dropping rally: overtime, a final drive, and a 34–28 victory. 

It became the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, a lesson in patience and belief, replayed whenever anyone wants proof that no lead is truly safe when Brady is behind center.

11

The King of Pop takes over

Image: Call Me Fred

Before 1993, halftime shows were novelty acts. Then came Michael Jackson, standing motionless for a full minute before launching into "Billie Jean." Ratings skyrocketed.

The spectacle turned halftime into prime-time entertainment. Every star since, from U2 to Rihanna, has followed in that path.

12

U2’s 9/11 tribute

Image: Roberto Rendon

Just months after the September 11 attacks, U2’s halftime show in 2002 honored victims as their names scrolled behind the band . Bono opened his jacket to reveal an American-flag lining.

Viewers remember the quiet tears as much as the songs, a moment where football yielded to shared mourning and hope.

13

A left shark dances on

Image: Adam Rutkowski

14

Katy Perry’s 2015 halftime delivered pyrotechnics, flying stars, and a confused blue shark dancer. While "Right Shark" hit every beat, "Left Shark" flailed endearingly off-tempo. 

Within hours, he became an internet hero, proving that even in a multimillion-dollar production, spontaneity and silliness can steal the spotlight from perfection.