SIMI VALLEY : White House Exhibit to End Next Week

Ventura County residents have only a few more days left to get an up-close view of the White House before it is whisked back to Washington.

A scale model of the executive mansion has been on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley since it opened Nov. 4.

The model will be taken down next Wednesday to be shipped to the Smithsonian Museum, where it will be exhibited for the rest of the year, library official Dennis Daellenbach said.

The model, built by Florida craftsman John Zweifel, is a replica of the White House as it was decorated when the Reagans lived there from 1981 to 1988. It measures 60 by 20 feet and is four feet high.

The model offers a cutaway view of the three-story building and includes ringing telephones, working quarter-inch screen television sets and chimneys that puff smoke. Zweifel said the model took 30 years to complete at a cost of $800,000.

Library hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $2 for adults and $1 for senior citizens. Children 15 years and younger are admitted free.

Daellenbach said that during the holidays, the White House exhibit had to be closed early on several occasions because of overcrowding.