Long before the elegant National Building Museum space hosted popular interactive exhibits like The Beach and Icebergs; before it put on avant-garde concerts by John Cage and Laurie Anderson; it was the place to be for the Inaugural Ball.

To commemorate its presidential history, the National Building Museum will display inauguration-related artifacts and hold special tours, including a virtual reality demonstration of what the building looked like during the inaugural balls of yore.

The Pension Building was constructed between 1882 and 1887 in part to serve as an impressive event space in D.C. According to the Building Museum, there were so few options that Grover Cleveland’s 1885 inaugural ball was held in the Great Hall before they’d even put the roof on.

With everything firmly in place for the following presidency, Benjamin Harrison’s 1889 inaugural ball cost nearly $50,000 to produce, which in today’s dollars would be $1.25 million, and an estimated 12,000 people attended. Eleven other presidents had inaugural parties in the Great Hall, including President Barack Obama in 2009.

If you weren’t invited to any of the area’s inaugural balls this year, you can still experience a glimmer of the historical spectacle downtown. Among the objects on display are a ticket for Teddy Roosevelt’s ball in 1901 (it cost $5, which was equivalent to about $130 today), an invitation to Richard Nixon’s 1969 event, and stereographs from William McKinley’s 1887 ball.

The Inaugural Balls exhibit will remain up at the National Building Museum (401 F Street NW) through President’s Day. Tours are free, drop-in programs at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through February 14, 2017, except on days closed for 2017 Inaugural events.