At 5 p.m. on December 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge (Phi Gamma Delta, Amherst College) began a White House tradition. He touched a button and the electric lights on a 48-foot balsam fir sparkled with electricity. First Lady Grace Goodhue Coolidge (Pi Beta Phi, University of Vermont), had previously approved the tree’s site in the middle of the Ellipse.
Frederick Morris Feiker (Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Worcester Polytechnic Institute), an electrical engineer serving as an assistant to Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, with the assistance of an electric industry trade association, conceived the idea of a national tree lit with electric lights; it was also a means to help cultivate a market for the electric outdoor holiday decorations. The tree which was festooned with 2,500 electric red, white and green bulbs donated by the Electric League of Washington was grown in Vermont. The President and his wife were both born and raised in Vermont. Middlebury College donated a tree and its alumni donated funds to ship the tree to Washington.
Electrical cables had to be buried underground in order for electricity to be available to light the tree. The electrical industry donated $5,000 worth of cable in order to accomplish this task.
At 3 p.m., Christmas carols were sung on the White House’s South Portico for two hours prior to the lighting. The National Broadcasting Company broadcast the singing on the radio. Afterwards, the choirs from Epiphany Church and First Congregational Church choir led the crowds in singing Christmas carols. By midnight, more than 9,000 people had visited the lit tree.
President Coolidge is to the right. I have no idea where his wife was when the picture was taken, but she is not the woman in the picture.
To read more about the Coolidges, the first President and First Lady initiated into Greek-letter societies while in college, please visit these links: https://www.franbecque.com/category/calvin-coolidge/
