 Above: Aaron Schock's Downton-esque office. | Illinois Representative Aaron Schock announced his resignation from congress on Tuesday in the wake of numerous reports of capricious spending. However, one bit of unfair criticism aimed at Schock was that he spent over $40,000 on decorating his Capitol Hill office in the manner of a room from the PBS hit show "Downton Abbey." Such disparagement is unwarranted, though, because almost every politician in Washington remodels his or her office to copy a famous room from the past. The practice started when President Chester A. Arthur remolded his bedroom at the White House after Emmett Lee Dickinson's bedroom. Dickinson was Arthur's favorite poet. Now known as "the Dickinson Bedroom," the room is the top attraction on the White House tour (Elvis Presley once visited the White House and stayed in the Dickinson Bedroom; he loved the décor so much that he patterned his Media Room at Graceland after it). After President Arthur's bold move in redecorating the room look like Dickinson's bedroom, other politicians in Washington began remodeling their homes and offices to look like other famous rooms. The tradition continues to this day. |
Pictured below: The Dickinson Bedroom at the White House, modeled after the bedroom of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request). This bedroom is the top attraction on the White House tour.
| Below: John Boehner remodeled his office in Washington, D.C., to look like the living room from "The Addams Family" TV show.  | Below: Former President Bill Clinton had his offices in Harlem, New York, built to look like the interior of the bottle from "I Dream of Jeannie."  |
Below: South Carolina Congressman Lindsey Graham modeled his congressional office like Malibu Barbie's dream house.
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