Funny story #23! Benjamin Harrison (23rd, 1889-1893) had a fear of electricity (at least for a little while). Shown here is a light...
thepresidentguy on May 30, 2024: "Funny story #23! Benjamin Harrison (23rd, 1889-1893) had a fear of electricity (at least for a little while). 

Shown here is a light fixture within the White House which had been converted from gas to electricity, taken in 1899. As part of a larger effort to wire the State, War, and Navy Building next door to the White House, (now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building), electricity was added and brought into the Executive Mansion. This effort began in 1891, shortly after Harrison’s inauguration, and was overseen by the Edison Company. They installed a generator in both building and wires were strung across the lawn and i to the White House, wires then being buried in plaster with round switches installed for each room. Both Harrison and First Lady Caroline Harrison harbored a deep, and not wholly unfounded, fear of operating these switches and refused to turn on or off the circuits themselves. This task was delegated to White House staff. 

Irwin “Ike” Hoover, an electrician who later became White House Chief Usher, recalled that “the Harrison family were actually afraid to turn the lights on and off for fear of getting a shock…I would turn on the lights in the halls and parlors in the evening and they would burn until I returned the next morning to extinguish them.” But electricity would soon become popular for guests in the White House with the often dark East Room being transformed “brilliantly” with the greatly admired lighting enhancement. Harrison would overcome his fear of electricity and after the presidency install electric lights in his home in Indianapolis. 

Image Credit: Library of Congress 
#ThePresidentGuy #USA #History #USHistory #America #Presidents #PresidentHistory #USPresidents #Harrison #BenjaminHarrison #WhiteHouse #Edison #Electricity #EEOB #Libraryofcongress #Republican #GOP".
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