Hillwood Museum & Gardens

Hillwood Museum & Gardens is a decorative arts museum in Washington, D.C., USA. It is the former home and garden of Marjorie Merriweather Post.

As she arranged her divorce from her third husband Joseph E. Davies, Post initiated a search for a new house. She wanted a stately home with fifteen-foot ceilings, sited on a large thickly wooded spot. After the divorce was final, she bought "Arbremont", a Georgian Colonial estate in northwest Washington on the edge of Rock Creek Park, rechristening it "Hillwood", a name she had also used for her former property in Brookville, Long Island.cite book |title= American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post |last= Rubin |first= Nancy |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= 1994|publisher= iUnivers Star, Lincoln, Nebraska (originally published by Villard Books) |location= |isbn= 0-595-30146-0|pages= |url= ]

"Arbremont", with its 36 rooms, had been built in the 1920s by Mrs. Delos A. Blodgett for her daughter. After Post acquired it, she hired the architect Alexander McIlvaine to gut and rebuild its interior. The renovations, which included moving the library doors to frame a view of the Washington Monument, were completed in 1956. Post featured the Russian art she had acquired as the Russian ambassador's wife in the mansion, including a chandelier from the Catherine Palace hung in her breakfast nook, and Fabergé art works including the Twelve Monograms Easter egg. Post had her first guests to the house in May 1957 and hosted her first big party there on July 7, 1957. "Hillwood" quickly gained a reputation as one of Washington's "most extraordinary estates".

As a tribute to Post after her 70th birthday, 181 of her friends built "Friendship Walk", a path from "Hillwood"'s rose garden to a crest overlooking Rock Creek Park.

Concerned with "Hillwood"'s fate after her death, Post arranged in 1962 to bequeath the estate, along with a $10 million endowment to maintain it, to the Smithsonian Institution so that it might maintained as a museum. She made the bequeathal of "Hillwood" (as well as most of her other properties) contingent upon it being maintained and used according to her wishes (which included the condition that the estate not be used for dining), and established the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation of the District of Columbia to ensure compliance: any property improperly used would revert to the Foundation. Post was residing at "Hillwood" when she died on September 12, 1973.

The Smithsonian declined to make the changes needed to convert "Hillwood" to a museum, and complained that by 1975 the endowment, producing $450,000 annual income, was insufficient to maintain the site. Accordingly, "Hillwood" was returned to the Post Foundation by April 1976.

"Hillwood" is now maintained by the Post Foundation as the "Hillwood Museum and Gardens", showcasing 18th and 19th century French art and art treasures from Imperial Russia.

References

External links

* [http://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/ Hillwood Museum & Gardens official website]