Washington, DC's best park you've never heard of: Dumbarton Oaks
 

Technically speaking Dumbarton Oaks is a private garden not a city park. You have to pay to enter. But it is fantastic, and is well worth the price of admission. It's a formal garden in the European Romantic tradition. I went on Sunday and took some pictures. Hope you enjoy.

The garden is in Georgetown, by the way.

Here is a map of the grounds. The garden is really a collection of several small outdoor rooms, each with its own character.

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Entry gate:


The gardens are on the grounds of an old mansion, which has since been turned into a museum showcasing the owner's private collection of ancient Mesoamerican and Byzantine artifacts.



The rose garden is excellent:









Leaving the rose garden...



A small pool and amphitheater:



There's a more formal pool closer to the mansion (this picture, as well as one or two others in the thread, are from a set I took in March, 2008):



Statues and ornate vases are throughout.





I was trying to get a picture of a chipmonk in this frame. I failed (mostly - you can just barely see him sticking his nose out), but thought the picture turned out nice anyway sans chipmonk:



Another one of the "rooms":



Each of the rooms are separated by a wall somehow. Sometimes hedges, other times brick or stone.



The trellis from the background of the previous picture:



More rooms:











(Sorry for the blur.)













Dumbarton Oaks is one of the places locals go to see cherry blossoms (late March - early April) and avoid the throngs of tourists on the National Mall.





The back of the mansion:

Panorama of the rose garden: ------------------------------>

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Very cool; will have to make it a point to check this place out when I return to DC.

Beautiful place!

Beautiful place, I will make sure I visit it next time I'm in DC.

I was just in DC for the weekend, I'll have to check this out next time I head out there. Nice shots.

I'm speechless! This is positively beautiful, I'm surprised that I've never heard of it.

Truly beautiful. I hate myself for never visiting in all the years I lived in DC. And passed it a million times:rolleyes:. Thanks for showing us.

Gorgeous park. I have the vague memory that they didn't used to charge admission (thirty years ago). There is one reflecting pool with a river stone mosaic pattern on the bottom that is just spectacular.

Another favorite park, little visited, is Meridian Hill Park on 16th St. You could almost imagine yourself in Italy.

I wouldn't call Meridian Hill "little visited". Tourists rarely see it, but it's in the heart of the city's densest neighborhoods; locals go there all the time.

Anyway, I posted a thread on Meridian Hill Park last year.

This is a lovely little patch of green in the middle of DC. It reminds me a bit of the New Jersey botanical gardens.

Meridian Hill is also a fantastic park.