Folger Shakespeare Library & Theatre

The world’s largest collection of the bard’s works, including seven First Folios, is housed at the Folger Library: its Great Hall exhibits Shakespearean artifacts and other rare Renaissance manuscripts. Most of the rarities are housed in the library’s reading rooms, closed to all but scholars, except on Shakespeare’s birthday (April 23), but you can peek electronically via the multimedia computers in the Shakespeare Gallery. The gorgeous Elizabethan Theatre replicates a theater of Shakespeare’s time; with its woodcarvings and sky canopy, the castle is an intimate setting for plays, readings and performances, including the stellar annual PEN/Faulkner readings. East of the building is the Elizabethan Garden, full of flowers and herbs that were cultivated during Shakespeare’s time. The Folger building itself is notable for being the most prominent example of the modernist-classical hybrid movement that swept Washington, DC during the Great Depression. Jokingly referred to as ‘Stark Deco, ’ it tends to inspire strong feelings; lovers say it elegantly pays homage to Greek classicism and 20th-century modernism, while haters say it ruins both styles.