In my post last week Share Our World: United States Botanic Garden I mentioned Hillwood. While I was taking picture of a barrel cactus I was talking to a lady and she suggested I visit Hillwood. She had been there recently and told me that everything was blooming and I should go while I was in town.
I love great gardens so I talked to my friend Heather and we went. It was amazing. Yet another place in DC that I had never been to. Granted both the National Arboretum and Hillwood are not metro accessible and most of the time when I'm visit DC I rely on the metro.
The house
Here is a picture of the house from the front entrance.
The side of the house and formal garden
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While we did spend most of our time in the gardens I went inside the house for a quick look. Wow!
First, let's talk about Marjorie Merriweather Post, the owner of the house.
According the pamphlet received at Hillwood,
She is the heir to the Postum Cereal Company, later General Foods. She lived from 1887-1973 and was among the wealthiest women of her time. She was a strong leader of the company, and that was before many women were leading companies. She collected French and Russian art and was a generous philanthropist.
She purchased Hillwood in 1955 (at the age of 68) and spent the falls and springs here entertaining. It also served as a museum for her extraordinary art collection.
These include the blue Imperial Easter egg below, which was made in 1896 and is decorated with diamond studded Cyrillic initials of Alexander III and his wife, Maria Ferorovna. I was wandering through the house and stopped to listen to the docent tell about this stunning blue and silver egg.
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A Boyar Wedding Feast by Konstanitin Makovsky painted in 1883 in Russia.
The rooms were really quite amazing.
The dinning room
The Library
I took my phone out to Marco Polo my family and a guard heard me from another room and was at my side in an instant demanding I delete the video right way. That was the first time that has happened. It was very off-putting.
I would really like to go again when I have more time to enjoy the house and take a tour of it. One of my favorite museums is the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston and this reminds me a lot of that museum as Isabella was a great collector and made her home into a museum.
Share Our World Series
2022
Share Our World: The George Washington University
Share Our World: Washington Monument
Share Our World: The Sonoran Desert
Share Our World: Spring 2022 Round Garden
Share Our World: Winter Wonderland
2021 posts are here 4 Year Hive Birthday (2021)
All the 2020 posts are here 3 year anniversary on HIVE
All the 2019 posts are here My 2019 Steem Journey
All the 2018 posts are here My Year Journey on Steem