MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
No matter who wins the White House next week, they will be expecting tourists. About 10,000 people a week visit the presidential building. Until this month, they got a public tour which had not changed in decades. NPR's Alejandra Marquez Janse went on a newly revamped White House tour.
ALEJANDRA MARQUEZ JANSE, BYLINE: Since the last time I took this tour about six years ago, they've opened a new room to the public. It's the diplomatic reception room where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the American public directly through the newish medium of radio. These were the famous fireside chats during World War II and the Great Depression.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT: The simple fact is that many million more people have private work today than two years ago today.
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER: You can listen and hear his voice and look in this room and imagine to yourself, this is where FDR made those fireside chats exactly where I'm standing right now.
MARQUEZ JANSE: Elizabeth Alexander is the communications director to first lady Jill Biden, who spearheaded these changes. When Biden spoke at the unveiling, she said she wanted the new tour to mimic a museum experience.
JILL BIDEN: As a teacher for 40 years, I know that we all learn in different ways. Some of us learn some things through hearing. Some of us learn something through feeling something. So we've added dynamic, flexible and tactile tools of learning that let you follow your curiosity.
MARQUEZ JANSE: Like in the Green Room, where Elizabeth Alexander points to an urn used for tea or coffee that's almost 240 years old.
ALEXANDER: It's roped off because it belonged to John and Abigail Adams, but what you can do is you can feel a replica of it.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAND KNOCKING)
ALEXANDER: So I know I have two boys that want to touch everything in every museum that we ever go into, and now they're going to be encouraged to do that.
MARQUEZ JANSE: For visual learners, there are digital slideshows with photos of past presidents, a scale model of the White House that shows key renovations the building has endured. And now you can actually walk into a lot more rooms, like the luxurious Blue Room.
ALEXANDER: So this is the Blue Room.
MARQUEZ JANSE: There's a new sign that notes that back in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln greeted visitors here hours before going upstairs to sign the Emancipation Proclamation.
ALEXANDER: Previously, people didn't know it. They would walk through the Blue Room and admire the furnishings, admire the beautiful view of the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Monument that you can see. But they may not have realized exactly what has happened in this room across history.
MARQUEZ JANSE: The Biden Administration worked with the White House Historical Association, the National Park Service and the History Channel, which provided the funding. Alexander says that collaboration helped enhance the tour while also preserving history. And, she adds, this is an ongoing project.
ALEXANDER: The president, no matter who they are, is only a temporary occupant of this house, and it really is the people's house. And so this tour, this public tour, and its elements will adapt and change as presidents change.
MARQUEZ JANSE: For example, the tour includes video greetings from Joe and Jill Biden, which the next White House occupants will also record.
Alejandra Marquez Janse, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF HIROSHI SUZUKI'S "WALK TALL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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