Hillwood Estate

Recently Ward and I got a chance to visit Hillwood Estate and Museum in Washington, DC. The visit had been on our list of things to do for over a year now, and we finally made it.

Hillwood Estate was home to Marjorie Merriweather Post in her later years (1955-1973). Besides living in the mansion, Post used it to display much the art that she collected over the years. She was the richest woman in the United States at one time thanks to owning General Foods. That afforded her enough money to follow her passion of art collection. French and Russian were her favorites. After her death, Hillwood was opened as a museum for the public.

We visited on a warm afternoon, and we weren't the only ones who thought it was a good day to go. It was crowded, but we were able to work our way through the crowds to see what we wanted. Besides the seeing richly furnished bedrooms and kitchens, we saw many built-in display cases scattered throughout the house. These held much of her collection. Porcelain was a favorite of Post, so we saw numerous sets of dishes among other things. The thing that impressed me the most was the opulence of what we saw. Intricate details, fine painting, and gold everywhere. Amazing. It was almost more than my eyes could comprehend.

Next we wandered through the gardens around the house. We visited the greenhouse that was full of orchids. The color, beauty, and variety of them was like the plant version of what we saw inside. Opulent and amazing.  Then we ventured through the rest of the gardens. It was early in the season, so there was very little in bloom. We found a crocus here or a daffodil there. And while I appreciated what I had seen thus far, it was this part of the visit I liked best.

 Here are few pictures from our afternoon.

Library

Adam Bedroom Suite

Russian porcelain and English painted enamels

Orchids

 

Path to Japanese Garden

Crocus outside of Dacha