White House Historical Association

Joseph Washington

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"Joseph Washington," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/613.
Position
Coachman
Years in President's House
circa 1907
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
Unclear from Context
Presidency
Theodore Roosevelt
Biography
All known information about Joseph Washington comes from a single source. In 1907, the Evening Star newspaper published an article about the White House Stables under President Theodore Roosevelt. The article stated: “A man bearing the illustrious name of Washington, whose front name is Joseph, is the President’s coachman.”1 At this time, little else is known about Joseph Washington.2 He is not included on a list of staff working at either the White House Stables or White House Garage compiled in 1910 under President Willima Howard Taft.3 As such, it is likely Washington left his position when President Taft assumed the presidency in 1909. President Taft preferred cars to horses, and later converted the White House Stables into the first White House Garage, which necessitated fewer coachmen.4
  1. L.D. Sale, “The President’s New Team,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), January 20, 190, pg. 60, https://www.newspapers.com/image/214874236/
  2. The 1907 D.C. City Directory lists two men named Joseph Washington living in the District and working as coachmen. As such, it is difficult to discern which one is the White House coachman. The first is Joseph Eli Washington, who was born in Brooke, Virginia, on October 15, 1876, passed away on April 25, 1931, and was buried in Columbian Harmony Cemetery in D.C. The other is Joseph Washington (no middle name or initial given), living in D.C. in 1907 at 70 Canal sw, but no further information is known about him. See Boyd’s Directory of the District of Columbia for 1907 (Washington, D.C.: W. Andrew Boyd, 1907), 1221, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/15795074?queryId=8a62db3c-5ac0-473a-82b7-79cda7666c72&usePUB=true&_phsrc=KCT3015&_phstart=successSource&pId=1018980405
  3. The list is found in Michael L. Bromley, William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency (McFarland & Co., 2003), 381. Bromley notes that the list is not exhaustive. (4) Hillary Mannion, “Motor Cars Come to the White House,” White House History Quarterly Vol. 28 (Fall 2010), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/motor-cars-come-to-the-white-house 
Birthplace
Unclear from context
Unclear from context