The People's House, an interactive attraction on Pennsylvania Avenue, spent a week installing dozens of historic portraits and specialized metallic paint to mirror the president's current executive suite.
WASHINGTON — Inside an interactive exhibit hall situated just steps from the executive mansion, tourists this week encountered a striking display of gilded moldings, heavy carved picture frames, and historical portraiture mirroring the current presidential office.
The People's House: A White House Experience, located at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, recently finished an extensive redesign of its life-sized presidential office replica. Managed by the nonpartisan White House Historical Association, founded by Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961, the educational attraction refreshed the exhibit to reflect Donald Trump's second-term aesthetic, replacing the simpler presentation of previous administrations with an ornate array of metallic finishes, historic artwork, and crowded tabletop displays.
Replicating the president's workspace required a synchronized fabrication effort across North America. A specialized production crew visited the real Oval Office while the president was away, recording precise dimensions and capturing high-resolution reference photographs. Designers utilized three-dimensional scanning technology in Indianapolis, artisans hand-carved gilded frames in California, and regional workshops in Virginia and Canada produced reproduction tabletop pieces and brass vases.
Onsite installation required seven days and involved more than 25 crew members working with laser levels and temporary adhesives before securing components to the curved walls. Rather than applying delicate gold leaf, museum fabricators opted for a specialized gold paint formulation designed to withstand physical contact from daily crowds and prevent chipping over time.
The updated room replaces the minimalist choices of Joe Biden, who displayed seven paintings, with two dozen historical portraits in heavy gold-colored frames. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Andrew Jackson feature prominently across the curved walls. Ronald Reagan appears twice, while former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy is the only woman portrayed in the space. A bronze bust of Theodore Roosevelt sculpted by James Earle Fraser anchors a crowded bookshelf, surrounded by volumes of Roosevelt's writings, Nathaniel Hawthorne's works, and official collections of Washington's papers. Two wall mirrors, the Seymour Case Clock, military service branch flags, and a reproduction of the Declaration of Independence complete the room perimeter.
For hundreds of thousands of guests traveling to the federal capital, the Pennsylvania Avenue attraction offers the closest attainable look at presidential power. Traditional public tours of the White House remain curtailed due to extensive ongoing construction and demolition projects on the executive grounds, including work on a planned East Wing ballroom and extensive outdoor renovations.
Public reactions among attendees have mirrored the country's divided response to the president's decorative preferences. Nine-year-old Sydney Wright sat behind the reproduction Resolute Desk, posing for family snapshots and calling the gilded room cool. Her father, Drew Wright, an Athens, Georgia firefighter who voted for Trump twice, praised the visual presentation as an appropriate tribute to historical leaders who paved the pathway for the country.
Out-of-town travelers and visiting state officials also noted the visual impact. Cheri Lujan Hamilton, chief clerk of the New Mexico state senate, expressed awe at the room while remarking that the heavy gold framing around the doorways felt intense. Pedro Robles, a Nashville police officer, disputed suggestions that the gilded finishes crossed into bad taste, describing the final look as classic rather than tacky. Carl Wilkerson, a 73-year-old retired Marine from Hereford, Arizona, defended the opulent aesthetic, arguing: “We need to have a little bling-bling, man. This is the United States of America, so we need to show it off.”
Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reportedly recounted once entering the real Oval Office to find the president personally attempting to affix gold ornaments to the fireplace mantel with superglue. Trump previously told Time magazine that the executive office was a beautiful room that nobody should be allowed to tear down.
According to Matthew Costello, chief education officer at the White House Historical Association, the recurring updates help visitors explore executive history as each leader reshapes the workspace according to personal style. Luke Boorady, managing director of the attraction, noted that updating the replica preserves educational value for more than 600,000 people who have visited the three-story cultural facility since its opening in September 2024. The 33,000-square-foot museum offers free admission seven days a week, greeting visitors with an introductory film narrated by actor Martin Sheen.