Dumbarton Oaks is a Harvard-owned research institute in Georgetown with a museum of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art and one of the finest formal gardens in the eastern United States. The estate was purchased by Robert and Mildred Bliss in 1920 and donated to Harvard in 1940 along with their extraordinary collections.
The 16 acres of terraced gardens, designed largely by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, are the main draw in spring and summer — a sequence of formal garden rooms descending the Georgetown hillside, with a wisteria-covered pergola, rose garden, and swimming pool surrounded by elliptical box hedges. Admission to the gardens is free October through March and charged in the warmer months. The museum of Byzantine art (mosaics, jewellery, ivory carvings) and Pre-Columbian gold is small but outstanding.