Melania Trump In The White House: Public Tours Of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue To Resume Under New First Lady

After an unusually long closure amid an administration shift, the White House is set to re-open to the public for tours, according to a press statement Tuesday from the office of first lady Melania Trump. The tours, a duty typically handled by the first lady's office, ae scheduled to resume March 7.

"I am excited to reopen the White House to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come each year," the first lady said in a statement. "The White House is a remarkable and historic site and we are excited to share its beauty and history. I am committed to the restoration and preservation of our Nation's most recognizable landmark."

Congress had grown impatient about the lack of tours. While there's typically a halt in tours as a new administration takes office, the Trump pause has lasted far longer than usual. Some two dozen lawmakers signed a letter urging the tours to get back under way, the Washington Post reported Monday.

"This time-honored tradition of allowing visitors into the White House was started by Thomas Jefferson in 1805, and previous administrations have been quick to reopen the White House doors to the public, even doing so the day after the Inauguration," the letter read. "Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama all appointed a White House Visitors Office Director before being sworn in, and had reopened the White House to the public at this point."

The first lady has hired Lindsay Reynolds, former associate director of the visitors office under President George W. Bush, as her chief of staff. Reynolds has promised to make tours a priority, but the White House has yet to hire someone to head up the visitors department.

The tours will be self-guided and scheduled on a first-come, first-serve basis. The requests can be filed up to three months in advance and must be submitted through a member of Congress. The White House has set up a page about tours here. Requests for tours were already piling up by the thousands early this month, according to report from the New York Times.