# Offbeat places to visit in DC **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386 "2011-08-28T15:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/1 "2011-08-28T15:27:34Z")
I have been to all the major sites more than a few times. Any offbeat places to visit such as museums , galleries or historic sites? ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/2 "2011-08-28T20:05:03Z")
Ford’s Theater has a museum on Lincoln’s assassination. Could be interesting, depending on what interests you. They have on display some of the items he was carrying and wearing when he was killed. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/3 "2011-08-28T20:17:42Z")
Try the Spy Museum. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/4 "2011-08-28T22:27:20Z")
What about Anacostia? The crime rate has fallen after the crack epidemic died down. Frederick Douglass’s home is there and the Smithsonian has a museum over there. Did you go to Georgetown and see the canal? I think that there may be an old one-room schoolhouse tucked away somewhere in DC, but I don’t know if it’s open for tours. Are you open to stuff in Alexandria or environs (not technically DC since the mid-1800’s)? There are some great things to see down there, including the old slave trading office and George Washington’s home church (still open for services, you can just stop on by). ---
**Author:** ![Oldeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oldeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oldeb)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/5 "2011-08-28T22:40:50Z")
Have you been to the Postal Museum? I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It also suprised me by having a section dedicated to the Japanese-American Internment. It’s a part of American history that really doesn’t seem to get acknowledged much. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/6 "2011-08-29T01:36:10Z")
The DEA Museum, near the Pentagon, features a replica crack house. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/7 "2011-08-29T02:36:24Z")
The [National Cryptologic Museum](http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/museum/). It’s off the beaten path. You get to play with the enigma machine. What could be more fun? Or go to DC in the spring when the embassies have open house and drink their wine and taste their food for a minimal amount of $$. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/8 "2011-08-29T02:37:11Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Try the Spy Museum. Sucks. > [@robert\_columbia](#): > > I think that there may be an old one-room schoolhouse tucked away somewhere in DC, but I don’t know if it’s open for tours. It too is in Georgetown, on M Street before you get to Wisconsin (if you’re traveling out from downtown). Have you been to the Phillips Collection in Dupont? I wouldn’t call it out of the way, but it’s never the first museum someone goes to as it costs money. But it’s worth the price. I believe Kandinsky’s Painting With White Border is still there (but not much longer), and it’s the permanent home of Renoir’s _Luncheon of the Boating Party_. There are various Civil War forts that are supposed to be worth the trip, although I’ve never been myself. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/9 "2011-08-29T02:37:47Z")
Oh and go to the Library of Congress and get on a tour, it’s totally awesome. But then again, I love books. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/10 "2011-08-29T09:45:07Z")
Doesn’t the US Military maintain a museum of funerary customs near Arlington National Cemetery? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/11 "2011-08-29T11:34:35Z")
The [National Museum of Health and Medicine](http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/) is currently closed for relocation, but should reopen this fall. I would expect that some of the exhibits might change, but they have interesting displays on Civil War medicine and battlefield surgery, some Lincoln stuff (including the bullet that killed him), and the spookiest display for formaldehyde-and-body-part-filled bottles you’ve ever seen ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/12 "2011-08-29T11:56:10Z")
There is the Lincoln Cottage in Petworth on the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home. It is where he spent about a quarter of his presidency; across the street is the Rock Creek Church Cemetry where Alice Roosevelt, Tim Russert, Upton Sinclair, and many others are buried. Henry Adams’ grave is probably the most well know, it is commonly called Grief after a comment Mark Twain made after seeing the site; it is also where Eleanor Roosevelt used to come to sit and think. ETA: there is also the Big Chair in Anacostia. It is exactly what it sounds like. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/13 "2011-08-29T11:57:07Z")
The Spy Museum has already been mentioned (I like it, for what it’s worth). There’s also the **Folger Shakespeare Library** , with its facade of scenes from the great plays and its full-size replica Globe Theater. DC abounds in art museums. Besides the National Gallery there’s the **Sackler Gallery** and the **Corcoran** **Anderson House** is the home of the _Society of the Cincinnati_, and houses its library. Lots of the Founding Fathers were members: [http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/lib.htm](http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/lib.htm) some museums are only open by appintment, and you may have to arrange in advance ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/14 "2011-08-29T12:27:04Z")
Also, as a Russian studies major, I am legally required to recomend the Hillwood museum’s Russian collection [http://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/](http://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/). ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/15 "2011-08-29T15:27:00Z")
[Dumbarton Oaks Gardens](http://www.doaks.org/) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/16 "2011-08-29T16:28:31Z")
[The Exorcist Stairs](http://www.hoyasaxa.com/sports/stairs.htm) You can see the [Darth Vadaer](http://www.nationalcathedral.org/about/darthVader.shtml) grotesque at the national cathedral ---
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/17 "2011-08-29T16:31:38Z")
Pick a few countries you like, look up their embassy and see if they do tours. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/18 "2011-08-29T17:07:59Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Did you go to Georgetown and see the canal? A tourist thing to do is to take a canal boat ride through one of the locks (if that’s still an option). There used to be free “concerts on the canal” during the summer, which were fun. Go to a concert at Wolf Trap and sit on a blanket on the lawn with your picnic lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/19 "2011-08-29T17:47:51Z")
Theodore Roosevelt Island is a really nice little park, with a fitting monument to our most outdoorsy president. It’s not really accessible by public transport though. > **[Theodore Roosevelt Island (U.S. National Park Service)](https://www.nps.gov/this/index.htm)** ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386/20 "2011-08-29T18:02:22Z")
Tour [Arlington Manor](http://www.nps.gov/arho/index.htm). The [Wakefield Chapel](http://activerain.com/blogsview/349946/virginia-historic-churches-wakefield-chapel-in-annandale-virginia)in Annandale (Across to the graveyard and two houses to the left is where I grew up.) [Sully Plantation and Colvin Run Mill](http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/history.htm) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/offbeat-places-to-visit-in-dc/594386.md?page=2)