The reason the Oval Office has such an iconic shape
Image: Gorodenkoff
Some traditions seem to have been around forever. The Easter egg hunt at the White House, or the Teddy bear in most kids’ bedrooms. A turkey is pardoned every Thanksgiving. As it turns out, some traditions and food items trace back to a single president having a very ordinary, human moment: a soft spot for a scared animal, a craving from a trip abroad, a wife tired of watching her husband go unnoticed. Here are the real stories behind them.
1
The White House Easter egg roll
In the 1870s, Washington kids rolled colored eggs on the Capitol lawn every Easter Monday until Congress banned the practice in 1876 to save the grass. On Easter Monday 1878, a group of those disappointed children walked up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House gates. President Rutherford B. Hayes told his guards to let them in , and the South Lawn became their new playground. Word spread fast, and by the following year, hundreds of families showed up expecting the same welcome. Hayes never announced a policy; he just opened a gate for some kids with nowhere else to roll their eggs, and a White House holiday tradition was born, with future presidents dutifully continuing it.
2
The "Teddy Bear" stuffed animal
That stuffed bear tucked in with a grandchild owes its existence to a presidential hunting trip gone sideways.
In November 1902, Theodore Roosevelt traveled to Onward, Mississippi, hoping to bag a bear as the rest of his hunting party had. After days with no luck, his guides cornered an exhausted old bear, tied it to a tree, and invited the president to take the easy shot. Roosevelt refused, calling it unsportsmanlike. The story ran in the newspapers nationwide, and Washington Post cartoonist Clifford Berryman turned it into a sketch titled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi." Brooklyn shop owner Morris Michtom saw the cartoon, sewed a small stuffed bear, and displayed it in his windows as Teddy’s Bear. Customers wanted one immediately, and a toy industry was born from a single act of mercy.
3
The official Thanksgiving turkey pardon
Every November, cameras gather in the Rose Garden to watch the president spare a turkey from the Thanksgiving table, a moment that feels as old as the holiday itself. But the origin of that ceremony is very recent.
For decades, presidents from Truman onward accepted a ceremonial turkey each year, and most of those birds ended up exactly where you’d expect. That changed on November 17, 1989. As animal rights activists picketed nearby, President George H. W. Bush looked at a visibly nervous tom turkey and improvised , telling the crowd he’d granted the bird a presidential pardon on the spot and that it would live out its days on a farm instead. The line got a laugh, but Bush kept it going the next year, and the year after. What started as a spontaneous joke became the official ceremony every president has repeated since.
4
The shape of the Oval Office
The Oval Office is instantly recognizable: the presidential seal carpet, that famous desk, the flags and busts. But the curved shape itself traces back to one president's frustration with cramped quarters.
When William Howard Taft took office in 1909, he found the West Wing, built as a temporary fix under Theodore Roosevelt, too small and too disconnected from the rest of the White House. Taft held a competition for architects to expand it into something permanent. The winner, Nathan Wyeth, looked to the White House's own Blue Room, an oval-shaped parlor where presidents had greeted guests since the early 1800s, and echoed its shape for the new presidential office. Construction finished that same year. Every president since has worked inside walls first curved to match a room built more than a century before any of them took office.
5
Modern gourmet macaroni and cheese in the U.S.
Mac and cheese shows up at potlucks and holiday tables across the country, but its American debut came from a president with expensive European taste.
While serving as minister to France in the 1780s, Thomas Jefferson fell for the pasta dishes he encountered in Paris and Italy. He had a pasta press shipped home, but kept importing macaroni and parmesan from Europe for years. In 1802, as president, Jefferson served a baked macaroni dish at a formal White House dinner. Not every guest was impressed. Congressman Manasseh Cutler called the pie disagreeable, mistaking the pasta for onions until a fellow diner explained what it was. Cutler’s confusion didn’t stop the dish from catching on, and it’s been a comfort food staple ever since.
6
Presidential marching music: "Hail to the Chief"
Whenever a president walks into a room for a major event, the Marine Band strikes up the same tune, and the crowd knows exactly who just arrived. That entrance music exists because James K. Polk had the opposite problem.
Elected in 1844, Polk was famously soft-spoken and easy to overlook in a crowded hall, the kind of president who could walk into a reception and have half the room not notice. His wife, Sarah Childress Polk, decided that wouldn’t do. She arranged for the Marine Band to play "Hail to the Chief" whenever her husband entered a room, giving guests a clear cue that the president had arrived. The tune, written by English composer James Sanderson and reserved for special events like inaugurations, had been around for 40 years prior to Polk’s taking office, although it was during his presidency when it started opening the door for every Commander-in-Chief.
7
The national Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony
The National Christmas Tree Lighting each December draws crowds to the Ellipse just south of the White House, but the very first one almost happened somewhere else entirely.
In November 1923, organizers asked First Lady Grace Coolidge for permission to put a community Christmas tree on the White House grounds. She already had a carol sing planned for the North Lawn and didn’t want two events competing, so she suggested the Ellipse instead. On Christmas Eve, President Calvin Coolidge walked over from the White House, pressed a button, and lit a 48-foot balsam fir donated by his home state of Vermont in front of thousands of spectators. True to his famously quiet nature, Coolidge said nothing and simply flipped the switch, letting the lights be the show.
8
The presidential "First Pitch" at Major League Baseball games
Every baseball season still opens with someone tossing a ceremonial first pitch, a tradition that dates back to a president who almost wasn't invited.
On April 14, 1910, William Howard Taft attended the Washington Senators' opener against the Philadelphia Athletics, in Washington, D.C. The plan was for him to throw to Washington Senators catcher Gabby Street, since ace pitcher Walter Johnson had shyly turned down the honor. Taft had other ideas. From his box seat, he turned and fired the ball straight to Johnson instead, who caught it, kept it as a souvenir, and later had the president autograph it. Johnson went on to pitch a one-hit shutout that afternoon. Taft returned to throw another first pitch in 1911, and the ceremony has opened baseball seasons for presidents ever since.
9
Blueberry Jelly Belly Beans
Grab a bag of Jelly Belly beans today, and you'll likely find blueberry among the flavors, a color that didn't exist until one president requested it.
Ronald Reagan started eating jelly beans in 1966 to help quit pipe smoking, and by the time he reached the White House, he kept jars in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room alike. For his 1981 inauguration, Reagan wanted a patriotic red, white, and blue display . Jelly Belly already made Very Cherry for red and Coconut for white, but nobody had ever needed a blue bean before, so there wasn't one. The company invented the blueberry flavor specifically for the occasion and shipped three and a half tons of beans to Washington for the celebration. More than 40 years later, blueberry remains one of Jelly Belly's most popular flavors.
10
Hoover-ball, a new sport
Presidential influence is not to be denied. And one former president even gave Americans a new sport. When Herbert Hoover entered office in 1929, his doctors were concerned about his weight and lack of exercise. His physician, Joel T. Boone, came up with an answer that was considerably more fun than a daily walk.
Boone adapted the game from medicine-ball exercises and tennis , creating a sport in which players stood on opposite sides of a net and threw a heavy medicine ball back and forth. The game quickly became a regular activity on the White House grounds, and players even earned a nickname: the "Medicine Ball Cabinet." Although it never became mainstream, the sport lived on through local competitions in Hoover’s hometown of West Branch, Iowa.
