First Look: The White House’s Interactive People’s House Experience

To visit the real White House, you have to contact your member of Congress at least 21 days in advance, arrive no later than 15 minutes before the show starts, and… it’s not like you’ll see the Oval Office. But starting Monday, you can walk across the street to the People’s House: A White House Experience and, for $0, wander through the Executive Mansion, attend Lynda Bird Johnson’s wedding to Chuck Robb, or sit behind the president’s incredibly ugly desk and pretend to make a phone call that will shake the world. (“Syrup prices are down in Vermont? Fire all your missiles at Canada now!”)

Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, stood in front of a 1/5 scale replica of the south facade Friday to greet a group of onlookers from media organizations for a preview Friday morning. The WHHA built the People’s House in the Mills Building across 17th Street, Northwest, from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in record time — the association announced it last November, construction began the following month, and when Washington We visited this summer and the drywall was still being taped and spackled.

The next stop was a wall of more miniatures—dollhouse-sized replicas of some of the mansion’s rooms, with screens depicting events that took place there, such as Rutherford B. Hayes’ 1876 inauguration, which took place in the Red Room. From there, we moved to a room that, thanks to Panasonic’s immersive projection technology, changes from the East Room to the Green Room and a few other room colors every five minutes. Hover your hand over an object on the wall and information about it pops up.

The main attraction is a recreation of the Oval Office, which will be meticulously furnished with the exact furnishings based on who is currently sitting in it. President Biden’s Oval Office features a replica of his family Bible, a moon rock and busts of JFK and Cesar Chavez, as well as the yellow curtains that Bill Clinton installed and Donald Trump rehung after they spent most of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations in storage. The president’s famous “45-second commute” from the residence to work has been recreated, with a simulated Rose Garden painted on the windows on one side and the Western Colonnade on the other. “Martin Sheen was here yesterday and he was squirming in his chair,” McLaurin said. “It looks smaller than the real thing,” he said. New York Times reporter who went to the White House after all this. (McLaurin assured him that it was all done on a grand scale.)

Just down the stairs is the “People’s Voices Gallery,” which pays tribute to some of the “people who are unseen,” McLaurin said. You can learn about the history of the mansion’s gardeners, put a “book” on a table that lets you flip through digital “books,” and have your photo taken in front of a green screen booth where you can choose a White House backdrop and have it emailed to you.

Then it’s time to get down to business: Guests can sit in on a meeting in the Cabinet Room and help Abe Lincoln, FDR or JFK decide what to do about various problems. Next door, another immersive projection lets you drop in on a state dinner—the Salahis were ahead of their time in more ways than one—and then you enter the back of the exhibit, which features a replica of the Family Theater and outdoor screens where you can “vote” for presidential pets by donating $1 to the White House Historical Society (Macaroni, Caroline Kennedy’s pony, was in third place for some reason). Nearby is a gallery of White House objects painted white—“to intrigue you,” McLaurin said—with all sorts of interactive features.

You’ll exit either through the gift shop or, if you’ve made an appointment, head to third-floor classrooms, where your school or corporate group can learn about the association’s in-depth research into the building, such as the roughly 200 enslaved people identified who built the actual White House 150 yards away. It’s a good reminder that, as with so much of U.S. history, there’s usually a deeper story to tell. “There are some tough, tough stories that we’re tasked with explaining,” McLaurin said. “Every day,” he said before leaving, “I learn something new about the White House.”

The People’s House, 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest. The exhibit opens Monday, September 23. Reserve your free timed tickets in advance here.

Senior Editor

Andrew Beaujon joined Washington in late 2014. He previously worked at the Poynter Institute, TBD.com and Washington City NewspaperLives in Del Ray.