Dumbarton Oaks
The Georgetown estate where diplomats drafted the framework for the United Nations in 1944.
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Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss gave their home and grounds to Harvard in 1940; four years later it hosted the conference that produced the plans for the UN. Harvard's research institute now opens the house's Byzantine and Pre-Columbian collections and the landscaped gardens to the public, alongside a concert series and lectures.
What to look for
- The Colonial Revival house reshaped by architect Frederick H. Brooke in 1921–1923 from an earlier Italianate structure
- Museum galleries holding Byzantine and Pre-Columbian collections assembled by the Blisses
- The landscaped gardens, part of which passed to the National Park Service as Dumbarton Oaks Park
Located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.; garden and museum collections are open to the public.
Dumbarton Oaks is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Washington, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Washington pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Washington
- White HouseBritish forces torched it in 1814. It has been the U.S. president's home and office ever since.
- The PentagonDesigned and built in 16 months during World War II — 17.5 miles of corridors, a five-acre central courtyard, and a 9/11 memorial at the exact point of impact.
- United States CapitolEvery street address in Washington DC radiates outward from this building — it is literally the zero point of the city.
- Washington MonumentThe faint color seam partway up the shaft marks where construction stopped for 23 years.
- Smithsonian InstitutionBritish scientist James Smithson left a bequest that became 157 million objects, 21 museums, and a zoo — almost all free to walk into.
- Arlington National CemeteryThe ground holding 400,000 graves was seized from Robert E. Lee's own family over an unpaid tax bill in 1864.