White House Historical Association

Annie Fulton

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"Annie Fulton," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/746.
Positions
Lady's Maid
Cook
Years in President's House
1925 – 1933
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidencies
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Biography
Annie Fulton was born around 1882 in Scotland, and immigrated to the United States in 1914.1 She likely worked at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. prior to joining the White House staff in 1925.2 Fulton lived onsite and worked on the Second Floor as a personal maid to Mrs. Coolidge.3 Fulton continued to work at the White House throughout the Hoover presidency and was sometimes listed as third cook, meaning that she likely helped to prepare meals for the other domestic staff and cleaned the kitchen.4 In 1933, incoming First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reduced the size of the staff due to budgetary restrictions and relieved several White maids of their positions on the domestic staff, including Annie Fulton and Nora Mannix, as they were paid more than their African-American counterparts.5 Biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook wrote that Roosevelt “explained that it was easier for white employees to find alternative jobs in Depression America.” According to White House Maid Lillian Rogers Parks, “Annie got a good job with a foreign embassy” after leaving the White House, perhaps returning to the British Embassy.6 By 1950, Annie Fulton worked as a maid to banking heiress Therese Laughlin, who lived in D.C.’s historic Meridian House mansion.7 Further information about her life is scarce.
  1.  Different census data lists her birthday between 1882-1884. Annie Fulton in the 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 0066; FHL microfilm: 2340028, Ancestry,com; Annie A. Fulton in the 1950 United States Federal Census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 4812; Page: 7; Enumeration District: 1-1144, Ancestry.com.
  2. In May 1925, Lady Isabella Howard of the British Embassy posted a recommendation for Fulton in DC’s Evening Star newspaper, “to take charge of a town house.” Based upon Annie Fulton’s skillset and background, this is likely the same individual and a probably stepping stone for employment at the White House. See “Situations, Female,” Evening Star, May 5, 1925, pg. 42.
  3. “Coolidge Party Leaves Tomorrow,” Evening Star, November 27, 1928, pg. 2. Ellen A. Riley to Lou Henry Hoover, January 1929, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, Servants and Aides General 1929-1933, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  4. Christmas 1930, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1930, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; White House Employees, 1932, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1932, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; Xmas List 1931, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1931, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  5. See Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt: The Defining Years Vol. 2 (New York: Penguin Books, 1999, pg. 57-59; Lillian Rogers Parks and Frances S. Leighton, It Was Fun Working at the White House (New York: Fleet Press, 1969), 101; Alonzo Fields, My 21 Years in the White House (New York: Conrad-McCann, Inc., 1960), pg. 43.
  6. Lillian Rogers Parks, The Roosevelts: A Family in Turmoil (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1981), 33; Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt: The Defining Years Vol. 2 (New York: Penguin Books, 1999, pg. 57-59.
  7. Annie A. Fulton in the 1950 United States Federal Census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 4812; Page: 7; Enumeration District: 1-1144, Ancestry.com; “Meridian House History,” Meridian, https://meridian.org/meridian-house/.
Birthplace
Scotland
Unclear from Context
Related Workers
Nora T. Mannix
Housekeeping and Laundry, 1928 – 1933
Lillian Rogers Parks
Housekeeping and Laundry, 1929 – 1960
Sarah O'Kane
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1930 – 1931