The White House Historical Association is opening a technology-driven educational center in 2024

A White House tour is practically a must-do when visiting Washington, but the experience can leave some guests wondering about spaces they didn’t get to see, like the Oval Office. The White House Historical Association hopes to provide answers to some of those questions when it opens The People’s House: A White House Experience, in the fall of 2024. Situated on three floors of a building a block from the White House at Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street, the $30-million educational center will use cutting-edge technology to teach the public about the storied executive mansion and its history. “This will be a technology-rich, immersive experience where you will actually go into spaces and, due to the miracles of modern technology, those spaces will become White House rooms around you,” Stewart McLaurin, the association’s president, told The Associated Press before the project was announced to the public. The center will feature a large cutaway model of the White House with rooms that, with the help of technology, can morph into the Green Room, the Blue Room, or the Red Room. A full-scale replica of the Oval Office will reflect the incumbent president’s décor. A recreation of the Rose Garden will offer the experience of strolling through its blooms. Upstairs galleries will allow visitors to experience the Cabinet Room, the State Dining Room, and the movie theater. Another gallery will teach about the many unseen people — ushers, chefs, florists, butlers, housekeepers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters — who care for the White House and keep it functioning in its multiple roles as a home for the president and his family, an office for the president and his staff, a ceremonial stage and a museum. People will also learn about the slave labor that went into building the White House. “That’s horrific. But we can’t shy away from the ugliness of that history,” McLaurin said. “Those enslaved people are just as much part of White House history as any president or first lady, in my view. And that is another story that we’re deeply involved in telling.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.