Home Sweet Home

When working and living in DC it’s easy to become confined to places that only your feet and the Metro can take you. By the time mid-July rolled around I happily welcomed my parents as visitors to the District for the simple fact that they had a car (well, that, and the prospect of a free meal). After weeks of frequenting the Mall, DuPont and Union Pub, I was itching for them to take me to sites off the beaten path. Coincidentally, after learning about Marjorie Merriweather Post in seminar a week before, my family and I decided to spend the day visiting her home, Hillwood Estate & Gardens. While there I didn’t feel like I was in Washington, DC. In fact, it felt as if I were visiting a house tucked away in nature somewhere.

The estate, surrounded by Japanese, French and Russian-style gardens, reminded me of the stories I've read about Marie Antoinette--her lavish lifestyle, taste for expensive furnishings, and demand for foliage in every room of her French palaces. I was amazed to learn that, unlike the former queen's residence, Hillwood was built in the 1920s. Marjorie purchased the home sometimes in the early 50s and added several features to the home, including a movie theater, greenhouse, and fully-stocked bunker that could withstand the threat of nuclear war, among other amenities.Though members of the Post family were extremely wealthy, many of the items in Marjorie's home were collected by her and her various husbands over a number of years. In her collections are a number of Russian relics, jewels and china, which she obtained for free by climbing through mounds of Soviet riches that were tossed aside in churches and government buildings.

One of the reasons I was surprised to learn that Hillwood was built in the 1920s is because much of the home's interior and the estate's featured exhibit did not match the styles of the early 20th century. The Pret-a-Papier exhibit, which draws just as many people to the home as the estate does itself, highlighted women's fashion throughout the last few centuries. The only catch: all dresses in the exhibit are made out of paper! In fact, one of the artworks models a dress worn by Marie Antoinette.

The home, gardens, pet cemetary, greenhouse, and Pret-a-Papier exhibit seemed never-ending. It was one unexpected room, china dish, hidden closet, after another. I'm glad I escaped the city for a day to try something new. Hillwood Estate & Gardens was a pleasant surprise--I'm just mad I didn't grow up there!

Carolyn Behmer