primary residence (12. 706)

Planning for a permanent US vice-presidential residence beginning in 1966 under the Johnson administration in order to economise on security detail and upgrades to private residences, as had been done in the past, construction was halted on a new building on the campus of the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC within a month due to the general recession, hoping to commence he project once conditions improved and the conflict in Vietnam had ended. The Government Accounting Office had selected the location in 1974, in the interim retrofitting the private homes of vice-presidents at rather great expense—but with a succession of quick turn overs, Spiro Agnew only living in his re-modeled house for three months prior to his resignation and flipping the property for a great profit at the tax-payer expense and igniting a minor scandal, overshadowed since by the Watergate controversy. Congress moved quickly to appropriate (Public Law 93-346) an existing secured, government building, built originally for the superintendent of the observatory in 1893 in Queen Anne style but so admired by the chief of naval operations it was commandeered by the admiral and remained so until this day in 1975, when the address was dedicated as the temporary official residence of the vice-president of the United States of America—fifty years on, it is still designated as so and unlikely ever to return to the admiralty though the navy is responsible for upkeep and repairs. The first occupants were Nelson and Happy Rockefeller, though already having a larger home in DC, only used the house for entertaining and state functions. Upon the inauguration of Jimmy Carter in January 1977, Walter and Joan Mondale (pictured) became the first second couple to move in.