WASHINGTON, D.C. – If you’re looking for a unique experience visiting our nation’s capital, why not try being President for a few moments? Well, you can at a new interactive experience from the White House Historical Association. In September, they unveiled their new immersive experience for visitors and what it’s like inside the world’s most powerful building.
Just a block away from the White House is The People’s House: A White House Experience. It’s a new visitor experience by the White House Historical Association where visitors get to learn about the White House’s history throughout time.
While the White House itself does allow visitors, not every room is accessible. This experience aims to give a peek inside the most powerful building.
“During COVID we learned about this great reach we could have with technology and virtually and what we really wanted was a physical space where we could continue to tell those stories as people started to come back together,” said Luke Boorady, Managing Director of The People’s House: A White House Experience. “So November 2022 we embarked on this mission and then 20 months later we opened the doors.”
So far they get about 600 people each day and expect that number to grow.
“People will be able to see a one to five scale replica of the White House,” said Boorady. “They will be able to see into those rooms both in those inside rooms interactive areas to peak into those rooms see historical moments. You can go up to a space or an object and hover your hand over the object like here turn the light on and learn more about those historical aspects.”
Visitors can sit across presidents during a cabinet meeting, experience a State Dinner, lounge in the family theater and yes, even experience one of the most famous rooms: the Oval Office.
“Visitors will see a scale replica of the Oval Office exactly how it is across the street and this will transform with every new administration what they have furnishing their Oval Office,” said Boorady. “We really hope people feel connected to White House history and the continuity of the space both through the people who have inhabited it, people who have worked there and that it’s a continuous representation of American democracy.”
