Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

Hillwood is Washington's most glamorous half day and one of the city's best-kept secrets. It was the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune and one of the great collectors and hostesses of the twentieth century, who bought the estate in the 1950s and arranged it from the start to become a museum after her death. The mansion is a Georgian-style house set above Rock Creek Park, and inside it is filled with what she loved most: the most comprehensive collection of Russian imperial art outside Russia, built partly while she lived in Moscow in the 1930s as the wife of the American ambassador. That means icons, chalices, porcelain and, most famously, Fabergé, including imperial Easter eggs made for the Romanov family. The other half of her taste was French, so the rooms also hold Sèvres porcelain, tapestries and fine eighteenth-century furniture, and the dining room and drawing rooms are set as if she might return for dinner. The gardens are the second reason to come: about thirteen acres of themed spaces, including a Japanese-style garden with waterfalls and koi, a French parterre, a rose garden, a cutting garden, a Russian dacha and a greenhouse full of orchids. Admission works by suggested donation, the estate is open Tuesday through Sunday, and it closes on Mondays, most national holidays and for several weeks each January for annual cleaning. The honest drawback is location: it is in a residential neighborhood a good walk from the Metro, so plan a rideshare or a bus. Fit: couples, garden lovers, history buffs drawn to the Romanovs, and anyone who has done the Mall and wants something entirely different.

Post herself is half the story. She inherited the cereal business young, built it into a major food company, married four times, owned the largest private yacht of her day, and entertained presidents and diplomats. Her years in Moscow came as the Soviet government was selling off imperial treasures, and she bought with an expert eye; later she kept collecting, and Hillwood was designed as a showcase of that life. Rooms such as the icon room, the Russian porcelain room and her own bedroom suite are kept close to how she lived, which makes the house feel lived-in rather than curated. Special exhibitions in the separate exhibition building rotate through fashion, jewelry and decorative arts from her world. Her clothing and jewelry, which she wore to the grand parties she threw here, are a recurring theme and often the most popular shows. The grounds also include a pet cemetery, a putting green and the small Adirondack-style building, details that make the estate read as a real home rather than a showroom. As a privately run museum, Hillwood keeps its own calendar and is unaffected by federal closures.

Visit craft: check the site for current hours and reserve a time online when available, especially on spring and early summer weekends when the gardens peak. Start with the short orientation film, tour the mansion while you are fresh, then take the gardens slowly: the Japanese-style garden is the favorite, and the rose garden and the view down the lunar lawn are the classic photographs. The Merriweather Café serves lunch and an afternoon tea that suits the setting, and reserving ahead is wise. Spring brings azaleas and the summer brings the roses; fall color is lovely against the formal lines; and holiday seasons bring decorated rooms.

Practicals: 4155 Linnean Avenue NW, near Van Ness in Upper Northwest. The walk from the Red Line takes about twenty minutes, and the estate has its own parking. The house has stairs, but access options are available. Budget three hours with lunch. Pair it with the National Cathedral for an Upper Northwest day, or with a Rock Creek Park walk if the weather is good.