Historic Homes Tour
While in D.C you and your group should definitely save a little extra time to see any of the many historic homes dotting the city, several of them providing additional cultural, ecological, or architectural knowledge as well. There are so many throughout, it may be hard to choose just a few or know where to start, which is why we suggest either a guided Historic Home Off the Beaten Path Tour or the following 3 specifically listed historic homes around Georgetown.
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- Hillwood Estate - Marjorie Post, a previous owner of General Foods and once one of the richest women in the United States, bought this gorgeous Georgian style mansion and estate in 1955, then known as one of the most beautiful homes in the area. Marjorie quickly turned this home into a sort of museum in honor of her personal reverie for French and Russian culture, so today a walkthrough will show you imperial art, Faberge eggs, and 25 additional acres full of Japanese gardens, French Parterres, and Russian Dachas. Culture and history all in one!
- Dumbarton Oaks - Another great historic home your group should check out is the Byzantine artifact-filled, Harvard owned, 1920 estate known as Dumbarton Oaks. Original owners Robert and Mildred Bliss created this, ‘one of the best Byzantine study institutions in the world’, in Georgetown in the early 1900’s, a truly vibrant, serene, and beautiful estate created to show the ‘illusion of country life’, complete with 53 acres full of ponds, wildflowers, and trees.
- Tudor Place - Last but most certainly not least we have Tudor Place, Martha Custis Peter, and her husband’s family built the home, the acreage bought with her step-grandfather, George Washington’s, family money after his death in 1799. Designed by the same architect as the Capitol Building, Tudor Place serves as one of the last u.S estates still intact from the urban Federal era. See the tennis lawn, tea house, and Box Knot Garden before you go!
