Faculty Favorites: Dining and Places – Bob Healy

July 18, 2007, 6:27 am

We asked our faculty and authors to share with us some of their favorite things about living in our nation’s capital. Their responses are posted in “Faculty Favorites”

Bob Healy (bio), a senior editor at Congressional Quarterly, shares his favorites.

Most interesting places

Hillwood Museum, former home of Marjorie Post, formal gardens and lavish Russian Art. web site, 4155 Linnean Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 202-686-5807
Tudor Place in Georgetown, late 18th century estate with lovely gardens. web site, 1644 31st Street NW, Washington, DC, 202-965-0400
Dumbarton Oaks and Dumbarton House in Georgetown.
- Dumbarton Oaks has some of the most magnificent gardens on the East Coast and a wonderful collection of pre-Columbian art in a jewel box gallery designed by Philip Johnson (now closed for renovation, but will reopen soon), web site, 1703 32nd Street NW, Washington, DC, 202-339-6401
- Dumbarton House is an 18th century mansion now owned by the Colonial Dames. web site, 2715 Q Street NW, Washington, DC, 202-337-2288
Kreeger Museum in Foxhall – personal art collection in another Philip Johnson building. web site, 2401 Foxhall Road NW, Washington, DC, 202-337-3050
Anderson House Museum, home of the Society of the Cincinnati, a grand early 20th century mansion. web site, 2118 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 202-785-2040
You will notice a pattern here – I am very fond of historic houses, to round out the list are the two National Trust houses in DC
- Decatur House is “one of the oldest surviving homes in Washington, DC.” web site, 1610 H Street, NW, Washington, DC, 202-842-0920
- Woodrow Wilson House, web site, 2340 S Street NW, Washington, DC, 202-387-4062

Fun things to do

Walk around looking for unusual carvings on buildings.
- The stone cat atop the roof of the House at Massachusetts and Florida Avenues NW
- The lions on the front of a house on the south side of Massachusetts Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets NW
- The handbells carved into the keystone over the door of a house off Logan Circle
- The turtles supporting a column of a building at the National Zoo (the Zoo also has a large pink granite eagle that was once over the entrance to the now demolished Penn Station in New York – see “Eagle Eye.” ) web site, 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC
Having cocktails in the summer on the roof terrace of the Washington Hotel. web site, 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 202-638-5900
Free outdoor movies at several venues in the summer: (Screen on the Green on the mall; Films on The Vern, movies at Mount Vernon campus of GW (web site); at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda (web site, 10701 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD, WaPo 2007), and elsewhere).
The Capital Fringe Festival in the summer – dozens of live theatrical events all over town. web site
Walking or riding a bike along the C&O Canal towpath (C&O Canal Bicycling Guide) or Rock Creek Park (web site).
Picnic and a show at Wolf Trap. web site, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna, VA, 703-255-1900