Day Trip: Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Garden + Shamshiry

In the suburbs of Washington D.C. lies the Hillwood Estate and Museum, a hidden local gem.

When my sister suggested the Hillwood Estate to visit one Sunday, no one in my family had ever heard of this property.

Located in the suburbs of Washington D.C., this was once owned by the socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was an avid collector of Russian art (which, fun fact, was taken from the murdered Romanov family members during the Russian Revolution and then sold by the Soviet government) and left a $10 million USD endowment to the Smithsonian to maintain it as a museum.

If you’re familiar with the Merriweather name, which is a major concert avenue in Columbia, Maryland, it was named after this spectacular woman.

Sculptures found throughout the property.

It is only about an hour drive from Baltimore, and so we planned a day trip from the county. There was a parking lot, which was a blessing considering parking in Washington D.C. can be a nightmare on the weekends. There were a ton of nice houses in the neighborhood that it is in, and, if you’re driving in from the north, you’ll get to see a bunch of the embassies in the way in. The actual estate is located right next to the Dutch embassy.

This is both a museum and a garden. We went on a Sunday, and this was the strategy that worked for us. We arrived exactly at 10:01, when the museum opens, and there was almost no one there.

This was ideal, as we got parking in the top spot and the exhibits (e.g. there was a special exhibit for 1920s fashion) weren’t too crowded. As the day went on, however, it got really hot and crowded.

The entrance of the mansion.

Our strategy was to go through all of the gardens before the mansion, as we arrived early when it was cooler, and it ended up working perfectly. On this June day it ended up being 94 degrees, and with the shade offered by the gardens, we were ready for the air conditioning after the hour it took to go through all of the gardens.

There’s a pet cemetery where all the dogs are buried, the greenhouses with orchids, a French garden, a rose garden where Post is actually buried, a Japanese garden, and a bunch of little areas in between (such as the 1920s fashion exhibit, which featured Post’s clothing).

All in all, this was a really fascinating trip. Post was a really rich woman and you can tell by the mansion; there’s so much rare art and artifacts crammed into that little mansion. If I’m ever in Palm Beach, I want to go to her mansion down there too just to see if it’s anything like the D.C. one.

The Japanese Garden.

The estate also provides picnic blankets if you want to bring your own food or buy it from the food joint nearby. We didn’t end up eating at the estate; we instead drove into Virginia and ate at the Iranian restaurant Shamshiry.

My father had been obsessed with the restaurant for months, and was saying that the food was just like back in Iran. And so we drove there, approximately an hour and a half to two hours with traffic from Baltimore, since we were closer to it from the estate rather than at home.

The soltani kabob at Shamshiry.

10/10. Shamshiry has the best Iranian food that we’ve ever had in this area. My father, a native Iranian who grew up on this food, swore on that fact. It probably rivals the quality you’ll find in Southern California.

They served fresh lavash, which was straight out of the oven, in these little cones usually reserved for french fries, and I ordered the Shiraz salad as an appetizer. The vegetables in it were so fresh! We all then got some variations of kabobs; I got the soltani, which is a koobideh beef kabob and a jujeh chicken kabob. And y’all that meat was so tender! If you’re into Iranian food or meat-based dishes, Shamshiry is worth visiting.

All in all, the mansion was nice to visit. I wouldn’t go there often—it isn’t free, unlike the Smithsonian—but it was indeed nice to see!

The tiger lilies.