On January 4, CNN Reporter Michelle Kosinski tweeted a photo of a Moving Masters truck outside the White House, implying it must have something to do with the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. The tweet was retweeted over 750 times, liked over 1,000 times, and was quickly picked up by The Washington Examiner. In reality, while Moving Masters was working under Secret Service escort in the executive wing of the White House, it was not to move President Obama and his family out, or President Trump and his family in. Instead, they were moving thousands of historic books into the library in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB).
The EEOB, located just west of the White House on 17th Street, was built in the 1870s and is occupied by the Executive Office of the President, including the Office of the Vice President. Inside is a massive library, which contains over 60,000 volumes, all the treaties signed between the United States and other countries, George Washington’s sword, Ben Franklin’s walking stick, and other items of national historic significance.
Eight years ago a decision was made to renovate the space and so Moving Masters, recognized as the premier government and commercial moving company in the region for over 35 years, was contracted to move many of the books in the library to two new locations – some were taken to the New Executive Office Building (NEOB) down the street and some were taken to the Moving Masters warehouse, located just 15 minutes from downtown Washington, D.C. in a secured facility with a capacity of 150,000 square feet and a number of safeguards and security measures in place. After the renovation was completed seven years ago, the space had been used for a variety of purposes by several departments, including the Secret Service.
Over the years the books being stored at the warehouse were taken to other locations. In late December 2016, Moving Masters was contacted by the White House administration once again, this time with a contract to move the books from the NEOB, and other rooms within the EEOB, back into the EEOB library, merging the books from both locations into a single resource library.
Kevin Boss, the Operations Manager at Moving Masters for 17 years, oversaw the January move.
“There was some frustration of having to go through all of the security checks – submitting all our personal information for background checks, going through multiple checkpoints, and being sniffed by the canine units, every day, and being escorted and watched by the Secret Service at all times,” he said. “But then there was the exciting part of it – being in beautiful, ornate surroundings, the history of the building, being in the hallways of the executive office building, all of that was fascinating.”
“There was also the anticipation of seeing members of the executive branch,” he added. “We did see Vice President Biden, we saw President Obama and the First Lady [Michelle Obama] from a distance, and Nancy Pelosi was there one of the days we were there, plus there was always top people walking back and forth from the West Wing to the executive office building.”
Over the course of nine days the Moving Masters team used 55 library carts, moving approximately 15,000 books from the NEOB and within the EEOB to the EEOB library. Normally it would take longer to move that many books, especially with all the detail involved with protecting the library (including the mosaic flooring, brass railings, and all the paint and gold trim), but Moving Masters was told the work had to be completed before the inauguration and so they worked Monday through Saturday of that week and completed the job on time.
For over 35 years, Moving Masters has successfully moved dozens of libraries across buildings, campuses, towns, and states, and can now add two successful White House moves to their long list of accomplishments and satisfied clients.
Whether you are moving to a new location or temporarily relocating during renovations, Moving Masters has the expertise to complete an efficient and organized move for you. If you are interested in using a company trusted by the White House for your library moving and archiving, or any of our other moving services, please contact us today.
