White House glass cleaner reflects on a sparkling career

For more than three decades, Stewart Calvin Stevens Sr. cleaned the windows, the doors and the chandeliers at the White House – and often a lot more.

“I cleaned everything . . . except the dishes,” said Stevens, 74. “I cleaned all of the doors . . . the china cabinets, the wall sconces. . . . I cleaned everything glass at the White House except for what the president ate out of.”

And when he was done cleaning, Stewart would occasionally slip out of his blue work clothes and into a tuxedo to check coats for those attending state dinners.

Stevens retired in 2002,

and has captured his recollections in a self-published book he co-wrote with his daughter, Lynetta Stevens Wright, titled “The White House Chandeliers: My Experience While Working for Seven U.S. Presidents.”

Stevens was one of 13 children - seven girls and six boys - raised in Washington. He made it to the seventh grade but had to drop out of school to find work to help his family.

Stevens said it was critical to find work because he had just married. His solution was to join one of his brothers in starting a window-washing service.

The two were able to get contracts with several companies in the area, and that helped them land a job one day cleaning the windows and doors at the Executive Office Building.

Their work got noticed, and Stevens got a temporary pass to work at the White House.

He had been there about six months when he spotted two chandeliers in Cross Hall, the broad hallway on the first floor of the White House. They looked pretty dirty, so he asked the building supervisor if he might clean them.

“I mixed up my cleaning solution, and I worked on the chandeliers for about eight hours, polishing each crystal,” Stevens said. “When I finished and got down off the scaffold . . . and everybody else saw how the chandeliers sparkled like diamonds, the word got around.”

That was 1969. He would soon be a full-time employee of the White House.

His days began at 6 a.m. and often ran into late nights and weekends. It was the early-morning hours, cleaning the glass doors between the White House residence and the West Wing, however, that allowed him to interact with several presidents.

Most of the presidents were early risers, he said, and a brief “Good morning, Mr. President” is what he would offer them as they made their start.

He never interacted with President Richard Nixon - he came to the office a bit later than the others - but Stevens was there to greet presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and both George H.W. and George W. Bush. And they would all greet him by name. (It probably didn’t hurt that each day he wore a belt buckle with an abbreviated version of his last name: “Steve.”)

Stevens’ career at the White House ended in 2002 after he missed a few rungs on a 12-foot-ladder while washing windows and tore a tendon in his left knee.

Despite rehabilitation and an offer to work in another capacity at the White House, Stevens decided to retire.

He is proud that, in all his years cleaning the chandeliers, not one crystal was broken. He said the most challenging chandelier was in the East Room. “It has more than 6,000 pieces of Bohemian cut glass,” he said.

This story was originally published October 7, 2016 at 2:11 PM with the headline "White House glass cleaner reflects on a sparkling career."