Dumbarton Oaks Gardens and Museum

Dumbarton Oaks is a historic estate at 1703 32nd Street NW in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, in the United States. The Federal-style mansion was acquired in 1920 by Robert and Mildred Bliss, who gave it to Harvard University in 1940. Today it is a research institution and museum with collections of Byzantine and pre-Columbian art, plus a rare book library. The museum collection is free to visit, and it includes Byzantine mosaics, jewelry and sculpture, while the pre-Columbian galleries, in a modernist pavilion designed by Philip Johnson, display Aztec, Maya and Andean works. The 16-acre gardens, designed by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, are the main draw, with terraced formal gardens, a rose garden, an orangery, fountains, pebble-paved terraces and naturalistic woodland paths. Garden admission costs about $10 USD for adults in season, from mid-March to October, with reduced or free admission in winter, and details should be confirmed at doaks.org. The museum is typically open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:30am to 5:30pm, the gardens are generally open afternoons Tuesday to Sunday, and the property is closed on Mondays. A visit takes 1.5 to 2 hours. The best photo angles are the Beech Terrace, the Pebble Garden and the Wisteria Arbor in spring. April and May bring wisteria, tulips and cherry blossoms, while October offers fall color. Crowds are heaviest on spring weekends; weekday afternoons are calmer. The property is reached by the DC Circulator Georgetown-Union Station route to Wisconsin Avenue and R Street, then a 0.4-mile walk.