Hillwood Estate

A hidden gem of magnificent proportions. Marjorie Merriweather Post, prominent businesswoman and heiress to the Post Cereal fortune, fashioned her estate next to Rock Creek Park to be an extraordinarily stately and luxurious site for entertaining guests, housing her impressive art collections, and with the intention of leaving it behind for the world to enjoy. The mansion is a treasure trove of French and Russian decorative arts, much of which she obtained from the USSR, whose government under Stalin was then auctioning off a good portion of its cultural heritage to finance its war efforts. Second in grandeur only to the art collection itself are the French and Japanese-style gardens—great places to linger long after the tour.

• outdoors

Address

4155 Linnean Avenue NW

Getting there

A little under a mile from the Van Ness-UDC station—about a fifteen minute's walk

Hours

Tue-Sat 10AM-5PM; tours: 11:30AM,1:30PM, garden tours: 10:30AM, 12:30PM (Spring & Fall) cafe: 10AM-4PM, lunch: 11AM-2:30PM, tea: 2:30PM-3:30PM

Price

Suggested donation: $12, $7 student, $5 child

Website

hillwoodmuseum.org (opens in a new tab)