“From the jailhouse to the White House”

Three floors of rooms in the White House model reveal miniature furniture and accessories that have been replicated in painstaking detail. Credit: The White House Historical Association

The White House Historical Association recently opened a new, cutting-edge education experience in Washington, D.C., a first-of-its-kind, immersive center telling the story of the Executive Mansion, its inhabitants, and the people who have dedicated their careers to its functions.

Situated on 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, “The People’s House: A White House Experience” is a 33,000-square-foot, three-floor site featuring exhibits and galleries that bring the White House and its storied history to life.

Visitors can interact with a large-scale White House model, recreation of the Rose Garden, full-scale replica of the Oval Office, recreation of White House moments, and more dimensional galleries combining immersive media and inventive scenic representations.

Various such recreations, galleries and scenic media representations for the new project were created here in Wheeling, through a collaboration between Wheeling-based Unique Miniatures and the Mother Jones Center for Resilient Community.

For the women operating Unique Miniatures, the opportunity to be part of the $85 million project took a few minutes to register. Owner Wendy Barbeau said she and General Manager Amanda Donaldson had no idea who was behind the request for a custom order when they logged into a Zoom meeting to discuss the creation of several resin-cast fireplaces.

“We were in conversation with a lovely woman from the DC area who showed us photos of the items she wanted us to make and explained that these would be replicas of existing items from a residence,” Barbeau said. “Then, she told us that the client was The White House Historical Association, [and] we were speechless.”

47 replica items created through collaboration between UM and the MoJo are now on display for the public within the permanent exhibit located less than a block from the White House.

The vague inquiry Barbeau received last spring ended in the large-scale White House model that reproduces the building’s South Façade, as well as nineteen rooms and the furnishings and accessories within them, in exquisite 1:5 scale miniature detail.

The UM-MoJo team produced miniature versions of 15 White House fireplaces, 9 framed mirrors, and 23 picture frames—including replicas of an ornate mirror that hangs in the Lincoln Bedroom, the fireplace in the Diplomatic Reception Room into which is carved a blessing by President John Adams, and frames that hold paintings of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

The model of the Blue Room fireplace starts to take shape. Credit: Unique Miniatures

Barbeau, who also is a clinical social worker and therapist practicing in Wheeling, purchased UM in 2021 and relocated it to West Virginia. Barbeau said that a fundamental motive in buying the business—after her experience of roughly a dozen years of directing programs in the Greater Pittsburgh area for people experiencing homelessness—has always been to provide second-chance employment for individuals, especially women, with barriers to employment.

To that end, Barbeau says, the best part of the project has been forging an ongoing collaboration with folks from the MoJo, who are “already doing incredible work in our community to help address homelessness and support formerly-incarcerated people and those in recovery—and who are amazing artists.”

The MoJo is a non-profit born out of The House of Hagar Catholic Worker Community, founded in Wheeling in 2012.

Barbeau said the work for the White House project—accomplished over the course of four months—would have been impossible without the help of HoH Share Director Kate Marshall and her AmeriCorps team from the MoJo.

“We could not have taken on this project,” Barbeau said. “There’s no way we could’ve accomplished this alone.”

Marshall said working on the project presented a major opportunity for the MoJo crew.

“For MoJo’s artistic team members, several of whom have overcome histories of incarceration and substance abuse, serving their community is already an honor,” Marshall said. “But to be part of a collaboration using these artistic skills to serve the nation—that is an opportunity of a lifetime.”

Ashlie Howard, an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving at the MoJo, said she initially felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the project she was invited to help with.

“Kate came to me with the information about the project because she knew that I had a background in construction,” Howard said. “I was definitely intimidated and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the project because it was for the White House Historical Association, and there were forty-seven pieces that needed to be built in a fairly short amount of time. I had never really built anything in the ‘miniature’ realm, and my background was in framing, roofing, flooring and things of that nature, so this was definitely something new to me.”

Ashlie Howard teaches others on the team about woodworking. Credit: Rebecca Kirk

Although it was a new and major experience, Howard said she also was confident in her abilities as an artist and knew she had a lot to contribute to the project.

“I knew I possessed enough of the knowledge required to be able to build these pieces,” Howard said. “My father was a general contractor, so I was basically raised with a hammer in my hand, whether I liked it or not. I’m very thankful now, as an adult, that my father taught me the skill of carpentry. I’m nowhere near as talented as he is, but his love for building has definitely rubbed off on me throughout the years and has been extremely useful.”

Howard said her favorite part of the project was the challenge of replicating original pieces which were very detailed and ornate. She said the project required lots of experimentation and trial-and-error with various materials and techniques to find the right fit.

“Because these were miniature versions of the originals, scaling down some of the details was challenging. I’m most proud of the fireplaces, because of my ingenuity in replicating the details, however, I have to say that building the picture frames and mirrors allowed me to master mitered corners, which was something I struggled with before I started this project,” Howard said. “Being part of this project has immensely increased my confidence in myself and my ability to create something beautiful. It is definitely an honor to know that my work is going to live on forever in Washington, D.C, and I have officially gone from the jailhouse to the White House—which, as a person in recovery, is a pretty big deal to me.”

Additional photos and videos of the process and products can be found on UM’s website. The replica miniatures themselves are available for purchase through UM’s online shops, as will be the miniature stained-glass items on which Barbeau and Marshall plan to collaborate next. A portion of the purchase price of these items will support the programs at HoH Share, including the MoJo.

For more information, please visit www.uniqueminiatureswv.com or www.thepeopleshouse.org.