Long Island University's White House (replica) and presidential artifacts can be explored

In Brookville, a large white house on a hill at LIU Post has been turned into a replica of the White House — replete with an Oval Office, a Situation Room where the “president” meets in top secret to handle crises, and a Press Briefing Room.

And that is on top of artifacts from centuries of U.S. presidential politics that are part of a collection of 1.2 million pieces that are being rotated through different rooms in the building as part of a new exhibition.

Organizers of “The White House Experience at the Roosevelt School” hope to attract school groups and others to what is one of only four such replicas of key White House rooms in the United States, said Andy Person, who heads the project for the university.

He sees it as a unique way to teach people about civics and the nation’s political history at a time of extraordinary political divisiveness.

“A lot of people grow up thinking, ‘Hey, I’d love to be the president of the United States someday.’ But they never have the opportunity to truly walk in a president’s shoes.”

Northeast's only White House replica

“We are essentially bringing the White House to the entire Northeast,” Person said. “We want to be a premiere destination for civic education in the country.”

The only other similar replicas are located at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California; the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas, Texas; and the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon in Virginia.

Person said Long Island University consulted extensively with leaders at the Reagan library while building its White House replica rooms. The Long Island project, though, is the only one that tries to replicate much of the White House itself. The others around the country are rooms within museums.

The project also is being backed by a group, organized by Long Island University, of descendants of U.S. presidents including the daughter of Lyndon Baines Johnson and the great-great-nephew of William McKinley. Another, Tweed Roosevelt, is the great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, who spent summers on Long Island at Sagamore Hill — his “summer White House.”

“I think LIU has done a wonderful job with that house, and I think it is going to be a terrific resource,” Roosevelt said in a telephone interview from Boston. “It will be a site that will” become “a significant destination.”

Replica of Resolute Desk

Visitors to the house may sit at a replica of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and meet with the “president” and his “Cabinet” in the Situation Room as they discuss a breaking crisis. Afterward, they adjourn to the Press Briefing Room where they also can assume the roles of the president and reporters engaging in a news conference.

Other sections of the house display some of the artifacts that Long Island University has acquired to add to the experience. They are from the Museum of Democracy, which has about 1.2 million pieces dating back to George Washington’s presidency.

The museum was keeping the artifacts in a warehouse in Queens and showing some of them throughout the country in a traveling show, Person said. Now they have found a permanent home at the Long Island University White House.

“Its partnership with the Museum of Democracy is a win-win for everybody,” Roosevelt said. “What they have in their collection … is spectacular. It is really a world-class collection, much to my surprise.”

The “Hail to the Chief! Electing the American President” exhibit includes:

• A metal parade torch made for John Adams’ campaign in 1796. It features a lighted candle that would burn inside and illuminate his name and the number 1.
• Hand-painted paper lanterns illuminated by candles inside used to light parade routes in the 19th century. The museum has one made to support Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, and another for Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
• A metal and glass ballot box from the presidential vote in New Hampshire in 1872 that remains locked and still has ballots inside — apparently never counted.
• The 1948 Chicago Tribune front page with the infamous  headline declaring “Dewey Defeats Truman.” Unfortunately for the paper, Truman — the heavy underdog — ended up winning. The paper was printed several hours before the election was called. Truman later held up a copy of the paper at Union Station in St. Louis and in a moment of celebratory mockery told the press, “That ain’t the way I heard it!” The museum has a copy of that paper and others from key moments in presidential history.
• Paper dresses that young women in the 1960s wore with photographs of candidates they were supporting, including Richard Nixon and Robert F. Kennedy. The dresses are rare because they were fragile — ashes from cigarettes in the crowd destroyed many.