4 Fantastic Washington, D.C. Museums You’ve Never Seen

Washington, D.C., draws 24.6 million visitors a year. While you might expect many of these individuals to be there for business, most visit purely for leisure. The area is well-known for its many museums. In fact, D.C. has such a plethora of tourist attractions that it’s impossible to see it all during the average 2.8-night stay for domestic travelers. If you want to seek out some of the lesser-known delights in the area, here are our suggestions.

The Spy Museum

The Spy Museum delivers an intriguing experience through interactive displays and challenges. It features a fascinating range of exhibits that explore past spymasters, engineers, and gadget makers. You’ll explore time-tested techniques for influencing events and see how spies have covertly shaped the world from the American Revolution until today. Not all adventures see success, however, as you’ll discover when exploring some of the failures of spy society.

In The Spy Museum’s Undercover Mission, you’ll encounter 17 stations where you’ll test your skills at cracking codes, crawling through air ducts, and remembering your undercover identity. At the end of the challenge, you’ll discover your top skills and what kind of spy you would make.

This fascinating museum experience lets you test your skills in a way that few other attractions provide. You can experience Red Teaming, a tactic that the CIA used to hunt for Osama Bin Laden, test your strength hanging from a bar for a full minute, crack secret messages, and even build gadgets. Along the way, you’ll learn fascinating stories about George Washington as the nation’s first spymaster, WWII Operation Gunnerside, the failed CIA Bay of Pigs operation, and more. You may never see the world in the same way again.

Location: 700 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Dumbarton Oaks

Dumbarton Oaks sits on a gorgeous estate in Washington, D.C.’s historic Georgetown neighborhood. The museum features a stunning collection of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art assembled by the founders and original collectors Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss. Mildred began collecting rare books, watercolors, textiles, and prints as a teenager. After her marriage, Mildred continued to acquire pieces alongside her husband, Robert. The collection soon expanded to include 17th and 18th-century furnishings, Western medieval tapestries, and French Gothic sculptures. 

The couple purchased Dumbarton Oaks in 1920 and immediately began planning for the Music Room that would house a large part of their collection. The Blisses’ wanted each aspect of the space, featuring original floors and ceilings, to reflect inspiration from Baroque and Renaissance influences. Visitors can experience the immersive Renaissance character of the Music Room to this day. 

The museum also features eight galleries, including the Rare Book Gallery and Reading Room. Beyond the museum’s walls, you can explore the meticulously landscaped gardens designed by Mildred and landscape gardener Beatrix Jones Farrand. You can stroll the terrace Green Garden, greenhouse Orangery, lush Rose Garden, shady Arbor Terrace, elegant Fountain Terrace, elaborate Pebble Garden, shady Beech Terrace, ivied Urn Terrace, and much more. This immersive retreat is often overlooked amid D.C.’s better-known museums, but it deserves a long afternoon. 

Location: 1703 32nd St. NW, Washington, D.C.

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday.

National Bonsai and Penjing Museum

A bonsai is a distinctive ornamental tree or shrub kept in a pot that purposely dwarfs its growth. Penjing is the Chinese art of artistically forming miniature trees, plants, and landscapes. The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum celebrates this unique botanical art form. Housed on the grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum, it might be easy to overlook this museum, but its beauty will inevitably enchant you when you visit.

The first bonsai museum in the world, this destination strives to highlight the many faces of these fascinating plants. The museum includes the Japanese, Chinese, North American, and Viewing Stones collections. It also encompasses several pavilions, courtyards, and gardens that beg you to unwind and leisurely enjoy a stroll. The Japanese and North American collections each feature 63 trees. In the Chinese collection, you’ll find an additional 36 trees.

The Viewing Stones Collection highlights a distinct form of natural art. The stones represent different forms of nature, so you can picture an entire landscape when looking over several stones artfully arranged together. This peaceful and inspiring museum draws admiring adults and children alike.

Location: 3501 New York Ave. NE, Washington, D.C.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

National Building Museum

The National Building Museum is housed within a fascinating structure with a rich history all its own. The building originally served as the Pension Bureau, where 1,500 clerks would sort through the pension claims from the Union Army after the Civil War. The structure was intended not only as a functional workspace but also as a hall of records and a memorial structure. Its 75-foot columns, 1,200-foot terra cotta frieze, and Italian Renaissance Revival architecture create an imposing presence.

The building has special accommodations suited to its purposes, such as sloping steps to help disabled veterans navigate the space and a system of rails to move baskets of documents from one part of the building to another.

Today, you can still view many of these elements in what has become the National Building Museum. Current exhibitions explore Notre Dame de Paris, the towers of the World Trade Center, photographer Alan Karchmer, and more. The Play Work Build exhibit even draws children in to experience the world of architecture through interactive activities and imaginative play.

Location: 401 F St. NW, Washington, D.C.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday to Monday.

Are you ready to take a road trip and explore these museums yourself? Do you know of other lesser-known destinations we should include on our list? Contact our team at Koons Woodbridge Buick GMC and let us know. We love having the area’s best recommendations for customers as they drive off the lot.

Image by Yohan Marion is licensed with Unsplash License

Tags: Museums, Washington DC
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