White House Visitors Office

[1] The director of the White House Visitors Office has been termed in media accounts as "the most powerful person in Washington that you've never heard of.

During the Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations, the general public could see the ground floor hallways and the East Room.

[3] Upon reopening in November 1946, the Truman administration decided to open all the aforementioned areas to all tour visitors, no senator needed.

A schedule was established: tours took place between 10:00 and noon, Tuesday through Saturday, with desiring visitors lining up outside the East Gate.

[4] About a half million people a year visited, until the operation was shut down in November 1948 for a major renovation of the entire structure.

[6] In 1976 during the United States Bicentennial, long waits in line and a whole morning spent were commonplace due to large numbers in Washington, and a color-coded ticket distribution system was put in place.

[8] In 1981, there was a dispute between First Lady Nancy Reagan and New York U.S. representative Thomas Downey over his free tickets privileges having been suspended.

[9] During the early 1980s recession, White House tours remained fully booked even when other Washington attractions saw declining attendance;[10] the Visitor Center continued to process well over one million visits a year.

"[12] Carol McCain, director of the White House Visitors Office from 1981 to 1987, added participatory activities and doubled the size of the crowds attending the Easter Egg Roll.

[13] Later, director Ellie Schafer and First Lady Michelle Obama changed the Egg Roll procedure to have a lottery system for gaining access and to allow more people to participate.

In September 2003 they were resumed on a limited basis for groups making prior arrangements through their congressional representatives and submitting to background checks.