Dumbarton Oaks

In the leafy heights of the old neighbourhood, behind walls, lies a historic estate of a fine mansion, world-class gardens, and a museum of rare art. This is Dumbarton Oaks, one of the most rewarding and least crowded places in the quarter, equal parts garden, gallery, and place of scholarship.

The estate centres on a grand old house, its rooms now a museum and a research institute, set in extensive grounds on the high ground above the river. It was given to a university to hold its collections and gardens for the public and for scholars.

The museum is small but exquisite, known above all for its collections of Byzantine art and of the art of the ancient Americas, displayed in elegant galleries, including a famous modern wing of glass-walled circular rooms among the trees.

The gardens are the great draw: a series of formal terraces, pools, fountains, and tree-lined walks descending the hillside, designed in the early twentieth century and considered among the finest in the country.

Laid out as a sequence of garden rooms, each with its own character, the grounds reward a slow wander, with surprises around each hedge, and they change beautifully through the seasons, from spring blossom to autumn colour.

The house has a place in world history: in the closing years of the Second World War, diplomats met here at a conference that drew up key foundations for what became the United Nations, so the quiet estate helped shape the post-war world.

The combination of art, gardens, and history in one calm, walled estate makes it unlike anything else in the neighbourhood, a retreat from the busy streets just beyond the gates.

Because it is a little hidden, up the hill from the main shopping streets, it is usually peaceful, so it rewards visitors willing to seek it out with quiet and space.

The museum and the gardens are visited separately, sometimes with separate tickets and seasons, so it is worth checking opening times, especially for the gardens, which keep seasonal hours.

It sits at the top of the historic quarter, so a visit can combine the estate with a walk down through the old streets to the shops and the canal below.

Wander the terraced gardens, step into the jewel-box galleries, and stand in the room where the post-war order was sketched, and the many layers of Dumbarton Oaks come together. When you walk back down the hill into the busy streets, the calm of the estate stays with you.