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.
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.
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.
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.
. Thanks for showing us.
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