Ellen A. Riley

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"Ellen A. Riley," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/709.

Position: Housekeeper
Years in President's House: 1926 – 1929
Legal Status: Free Person
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Presidencies: Calvin Coolidge; Herbert Hoover
Biography: Ellen Agnes Riley was born in Rowley, Massachusetts in 1884. (1). (2) Riley attended secondary school at the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in Boston, where she trained as a dietician. During World War I, she relocated to Virginia to manage cafeterias at a naval base in Norfolk. In 1919, Riley was recruited to direct the department store cafeteria of Frank Stearns, a Massachusetts businessman and close friend and advisor to President Calvin Coolidge. (3)

In spring 1926, Stearns’s wife Emily learned that First Lady Grace Coolidge was in search of a new housekeeper, and asked Riley if she would be interested in the job. (4) The Stearnses arranged an interview between Riley and Mrs. Coolidge, and Riley was offered the position of housekeeper at the White House in May 1926. (5)

Riley began at the White House on July 1, 1926, succeeding previous housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffray. (6) In September, following the death of White House Custodian Major Arthur Brooks, Riley’s responsibilities increased, and she was tasked with overseeing all government property inside the White Houses.(7) Riley’s salary was reported to be $150.00 a month; she also received board and a small suite of living spaces on the Third Floor of the White House. (8)

Riley’s duties included supervising roughly twenty members of the White House Residence staff, developing menus for daily meals and special events, managing the White House China collection, and taking an old horse-drawn carriage on errands around the city. (9)

In March 1929, the Coolidge family left the White House. Riley stayed on for the first few months of Herbert Hoover’s presidency to train her replacement, Ava Long. On March 31, Riley wrote to her mother, "One of the papers said that all the Coolidge policies are being carried out -- on a stretcher. And I am in the same class with the policies... The Hoovers are making it very evident that they intend to do away with everything that was close to the Coolidges and are making a clean sweep… It is not personal - but a general condition." She moved out of the White House to a Washington apartment in March 1929, and returned to Massachusetts in May. (10) In 1940 she opened a restaurant in Boston. (11)

Riley kept extensive notes about her time in the White House, which she compiled into an unpublished series of memoirs. She continued to exchange letters with Mrs. Coolidge until the former first lady’s death in 1957. She also regularly delivered public talks about her time as White House housekeeper. (12) She passed away in July 1972 at the age of 88. (13)
Thank you to the Vermont Historical Society for providing research assistance with this biography.
: (1) “1900 U.S. Federal Census,” s.v. “Ellen Agnes Riley” (1884-1972), Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/74317397/person/44430578988/facts?_phsrc=jCG6&_phstart=successSource.
(2) Corinne Danforth, “Ellen Riley is ‘All Business,’” Boston Globe, July 3, 1926, 1-2, https://www.newspapers.com/image/431206698/.
(3) ibid. See also “Biographical Note,” Ellen Agnes Riley White House Papers, Vermont Historical Society, Barre, VT, https://vermonthistory.org/documents/findaid/RileyEllenWhiteHouse.pdf.
(4) Danforth, “Ellen Riley is ‘All Business.’” See also “Biographical Note,” Ellen Agnes Riley White House Papers.
(5) Associated Press, “Coolidge’s White House Revealed,” Daily Hampshire Gazette, May 20, 1995, 32, https://www.newspapers.com/image/834604301/?match=1.
(6) ibid.
(7) “Biographical Note,” Ellen Agnes Riley White House Papers.
(8) “Add to Miss Riley’s White House Duties,” Holyoke Daily Transcript-Telegram, September 24, 1926, 6, https://www.newspapers.com/image/837303783/.
(9) Associated Press, “Coolidge’s White House Revealed”. See also Corrine Frazier, “White House China Represents All But Two Administrations,” Washington Evening Star, February 24, 1929, 7-8, https://lccn.loc.gov/sn83045462, and United Press, “White House Coach Passes,” Wolf Point Herald, July 27, 1928, 4, https://lccn.loc.gov/sn86075272.
(10) Ellen Agnes Riley to Adell G. Carpenter Riley, March 31, 1929, Ellen Agnes Riley White House Papers, Vermont Historical Society, Barre, Vermont.
(11) Mary Mahoney, “Ellen Riley, Former White House Housekeeper, Defies Food Pinch,” Boston Globe, October 14, 1946, 17, https://www.newspapers.com/image/434047817/.
(12) “Biographical Note,” Ellen Agnes Riley White House Papers.
(13) “U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014,” s.v. “Ellen Agnes Riley” (1884-1972), Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/74317397/person/44430578988/facts?_phsrc=jCG6&_phstart=successSource.
Birthplace: Rowley, Massachusetts, USA

Related Workers: Daniel Webster
Transportation, 1913 – 1933; Elizabeth A. Jaffray
Housekeeping and Laundry, 1909 – 1926; Arthur Brooks
Housekeeping and Laundry, Valets, Lady's Maids, and First Family Attendants, 1909 – 1926; Ava Long
Housekeeping and Laundry, 1929 – 1933; Mitchell Rogers
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1927 – 1929; Eugene W. James
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1924 – 1929