Hillwood Estate

While we were at a convention just outside of Washington, D.C., we took a morning to drive over to this house, not only was the home beautiful, so was the collection inside it.

Hillwood Estate was the residence of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the heiress to the Post cereal fortune and one of the wealthiest women in America in the early twentieth century. Rather than simply living grandly, she lived intentionally, shaping her home into a reflection of diplomacy, artistry and preservation.

During her marriage to Joseph Davies, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Post began collecting Russian imperial art. At a time when revolutionary upheaval had displaced treasures from the Romanov era, she acquired extraordinary pieces: Faberge objects, icons, porcelain services, textiles and furnishings once associated with the Russian court. What might have been scattered or lost became, through her foresight, one of the most comprehensive collections of Russian imperial art outside of Russia.

Hillwood is not defined by interiors alone. Marjorie Post insisted that fresh flowers always grace the home. To fulfill that vision, a greenhouse was built on the property, ensuring year-round blooms. Even today, flowers fill the rooms, and the surrounding gardens, from formal to more intimate garden spaces.  

After Post’s death in 1973, she bequeathed the estate and its collections to the public.  

Visiting her home, we could see how she had transformed her private fortune into cultural stewardship.