Presidents since our nation’s founding have endeavored to make the White House accessible to visitors. But in a nation of more than 330 million, the Executive Mansion can seem like a very distant symbol of power Americans only see on television.

The good news is a cutting-edge new educational center just opened a block from the White House, offering an inside, you-are-there look at the inner workings of “The People’s House.”

Making the White House accessible has always been a challenge. On New Year’s Day 1801, just two months after John Adams became the first president to move into the White House, he began a custom of Jan. 1 public receptions. For more than 130 years, with occasional interruptions, New Year’s Day offered ordinary Americans a chance to line up (for hours, in the winter cold and wind) to greet their president.

President Thomas Jefferson added traditions of his own, like an inaugural open house after his 1805 swearing-in, when attendees followed him home from the Capitol to celebrate in the Blue Room. (He also began the tradition of shaking visitors’ hands instead of stiffly bowing, which had been the custom since Washington.)

Six inaugurations later, many of Andrew Jackson’s supporters poured into the White House − some breaking crystal and standing on upholstered furniture in their work boots. It was so crowded that Jackson was forced to slip out through a window.

Jefferson held the first White House Fourth of July reception, featuring the Marine Band and horse racing on the north grounds.

He also first opened the White House for what became a tradition of public tours, which for generations have given Americans a chance to get an inside sense of history that few other experiences can provide. My own fifth-grade visit to the White House sparked my interest in American history and laid the foundation for my work to help preserve it in this role.

As our young nation grew, offering this kind of personal access became more challenging. President James Polk “had to shake, shake, shake, till I should think he had almost........

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