Abraham Lincoln had two homes while in office: the White House and this 34-room “cottage” — the word refers to the style, not size — on the grounds of the Soldiers’ ...

The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop, in business from 1792 to 1933, was a charming mix of general store and (legal) opiate dispensary. It sold paint, shoe polish, candy, ci...

Cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who owned Hillwood from 1955 until her death in 1973, amassed imperial Russian art and 18th-century French decorative items. Her “...

The Folger, a little pocket of Elizabethan England on Capitol Hill, is both respite from the D.C. tourist circuit’s unbridled patriotism and a chance to experience Shakespea...

How does a nouveau riche Scottish immigrant in Colonial Alexandria tell the world he’s arrived? By building a giant stone house when everyone else is still using wood or bri...

A branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Renwick is devoted to crafts and decorative arts objects — stuff that’s theoretically useful and made of fiber, wood, ...

This is neither a scary place nor a sad one. Dogs frolic. Sun shines. All tour options — self-guided, cellphone and docent-led — introduce death-defying personalities: mad...

This tavern, built around 1785, was a gathering place for dudes who wanted to smoke, debate and occasionally brawl, then cram eight to a room upstairs, where they shared mattr...

What you won’t see: books. At least, not many. What you will see is an explosion of classical and Renaissance decor glorifying all things knowledge-related: Greek and Roman ...

Imagine church bells played as nimbly as handbells and with as much nuance as a piano. That’s the sound of a carillon, an instrument made of 50 bells connected to a clavier ...

Here at their headquarters, the Daughters of the American Revolution express their love of the USA in the language of home decor. Galleries of artifacts donated by members and...

It’s been fewer than 100 years since American women gained the right to vote. That’s what the National Woman’s Party, headquartered here since 1929, wants you to remembe...

A not-sad consequence of modern medicine is that there are fewer disease-mangled tissue samples for pathologists to study. That’s one reason this museum’s collection is so...

Brewery owner Christian Heurich liked his beer warm and his buildings fireproof. He was a pragmatic businessman who kept his company afloat through Prohibition by making and s...