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Van Ness–UDC |website=(Official website ) }} Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens is a decorative arts museum in Washington, D.C., USA. The former residence of businesswoman, socialite, philanthropist and collector Marjorie Merriweather Post, Hillwood is known for its large decorative arts collection that focuses heavily on the House of Romanov. Included in the collection are Fabergé eggs and 18th and 19th century French art and one of the country's finest orchid collections. ==History== As she arranged her divorce from her third husband, Joseph E. Davies, Post initiated a search for a new house. She wanted a stately home with fifteen-foot ceilings, sited on a large, thickly wooded spot. After the divorce was final, she bought ''Arbremont'', a Georgian Colonial estate in northwest Washington on the edge of Rock Creek Park, rechristening it ''Hillwood'', a name she had also used for her former property in Brookville, Long Island. ''Arbremont'', with its 36 rooms, had been built in the 1920s by Mrs. Delos A. Blodgett for her daughter, Helen Blodgett Erwin. After Post acquired it from the Erwins, she hired the architect Alexander McIlvaine to gut and rebuild its interior. The renovations, which included moving the library doors to frame a view of the Washington Monument, were completed in 1956. Showcasing her collections including French, Asian and what Hillwood is most known for - Russian art and religious objects. During her marriage with Davies, who served as the second Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the mid-1930s, she acquired a vast collection of objects from the pre-Bolshevik Russia, including a chandelier from the Catherine Palace that hung in her breakfast nook, and Fabergé art works including the Twelve Monograms Easter egg. Post had her first guests to the house in May 1957 and hosted her first big party there on July 7, 1957. ''Hillwood'' quickly gained a reputation as one of Washington's "most extraordinary estates".〔 As a tribute to Post after her 70th birthday, 181 of her friends built "Friendship Walk", a path from ''Hillwoods rose garden to a crest overlooking Rock Creek Park.〔 Concerned with ''Hillwoods fate after her death, Post arranged in 1962 to bequeath the estate, along with a $10 million endowment to maintain it, to the Smithsonian Institution so that it might be maintained as a museum. She made the bequeathal of ''Hillwood'' (as well as most of her other properties) contingent upon its being maintained and used according to her wishes (which included the condition that the estate not be used for dining), and she established the Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation of the District of Columbia to ensure compliance: any property improperly used would revert to the Foundation. Post was residing at ''Hillwood'' when she died on September 12, 1973.〔 The Smithsonian declined to make the changes needed to convert ''Hillwood'' to a museum, and complained that by 1975 the endowment, producing $450,000 annual income, was insufficient to maintain the site. Accordingly, ''Hillwood'' and the majority of the collection was returned to the Post Foundation by April 1976.〔 ''Hillwood'' is now maintained by the Post Foundation as the ''Hillwood Museum and Gardens'', showcasing 18th and 19th century French art and art treasures from Imperial Russia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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