Alexander himself spent little time in the palace, and once he ascended to the throne he in turn presented to his brother and future heir, Nicholas I. Nicholas was particularly fond of the building, and made extensive improvements to the interiors and the grounds. It then became a tradition for the Alexander Palace to be the summer residence of the heir to the throne, and thus the building was regularly renovated and modernized. The Alexander Palace is most famous, however, as the permanent home of Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their children. The family had one wing of the palace completely redecorated to create a luxurious private residence, and Nicholas also commissioned some fine Art Nouveau state rooms later in his reign. After the October Revolution, the palace interiors were preserved untouched as a museum to show the proletariat how the Tsars had lived. This experiment was soon seen as creating too much sympathy for the ousted monarchy, however, and the museum was slowly dismantled through the 1920s and 1930s.