Washington Post, Oct 14, 2006 (abridged) - As Julie Eisenhower tells it, her mother, Patricia Nixon, favored the English Tudor home her family occupied in Wesley Heights over any other -- maybe even the big white one on Pennsylvania Avenue.

In her biography of Pat Nixon, the daughter goes on to say that her mother fell in love at first sight with the house her family moved into in 1957, when Richard M. Nixon, the author's father, was vice president. The Nixons moved out in 1961, after he lost his first presidential bid.

Once home to the Nixons, the Tudor sits on more than half an acre. It's on the market for $4.75 million. For $4.75 million, that house could now be yours -- all 9,000-plus square feet of it.

"The house is too big for us now," said Adelaide Whitaker, who bought the property in 1980 for $525,000 with her husband, A. Duncan Whitaker. "We've had so much fun here, but we don't use it in the same way we used to when we were younger."

The couple, in their 70s, used to think nothing of holding parties for 200.

There's a large step-down living room that opens onto the porch, which the Whitakers enclosed with Palladian windows about 10 years ago. The dining room is spacious. And off the kitchen, where Pat Nixon's fruitwood cabinetry is intact, is a butler's pantry that the Whitakers have used as a bar when hosting events such as engagement parties and music recitals.

"We entertained so much," Adelaide Whitaker said. "The flow of this house is perfect for that sort of thing."

The house, which has eight bedrooms and 6 1/2 baths, is on a cul-de-sac, on more than half an acre of landscaped grounds backing onto Glover-Archbold Park. It shows up in Life magazine photos, both in 1958 (Nixons frolicking in the back yard and lounging on the porch) and in 1961 (Nixons departing).

Duncan Whitaker, a lawyer who retired in 1997 from the law firm now known as Howrey LLP, said he and his wife made no changes to the house's structure. "But we certainly refurbished a lot," he said.

For instance, they ripped out the wall-to-wall carpeting and finished the original wood floors underneath. They also ripped out plenty of wiring in the "Secret Service room" turned laundry room.

"There were hundreds of wires everywhere," Adelaide Whitaker said. "It bothered me to see those wires. So I got my electrician to thin it out."