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Hay-Adams Hotel
Sweeping arches and elegant columns are trademarks of this awesome Renaissance-revival building. Across from the Decatur Hours the hotel is a DC landmark as far as politicking goes. This is where Henry Kissinger lunched regularly and Oliver North did much of his Iran-Contra fundraising inside its walls. The Clintons stayed the night during Bill's first inauguration.
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Heurich House
Looking very much like a medieval castle, this 31-room mansion was designed by John Granville Myers for local brewer Christian Heurich. The interior is predominantly Renaissance and rococo revival. A period garden park, a refuge for nearby office workers, offers the perfect spot for contemplation or a quiet lunch break.
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Hillwood Museum & Gardens
Housing the biggest collection of Russian imperial art outside of Russia, Hillwood is the former estate of heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post (of Post cereal fame), who was married to the ambassador to the USSR in the 1930s. Post convinced Stalin and the Soviets to sell her lots of Czarist swag, and her collection includes furniture, paintings, exquisite Fabergé eggs and jewelry. A cafe serves Russian treats. Reservations required to visit.
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Hirshhorn Museum
The Smithsonian's cylindrical modern art museum exhibits an impressive array of 19th- and 20th-century sculpture and canvases in chronological fashion, from modernism's early days to the present day. Highlights include sculpture by Rodin, Brancusi, Calder and Moore, plus canvases by Bacon, Miró, O'Keeffe, Warhol, Stella and Kiefer.
The museum gift shop is small, but has an excellent collection of books on modern art.
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Historical Society of Washington, DC
Occupying the building where the now-defunct City Museum of Washington once lived, the Historical Society's museum continues to feature long- and short-term exhibits related to Washington DC's history and culture. It's free to visit, and has a research library (open to the public) attached.
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Howard University
Anchoring the neighborhood is Howard University, founded in 1867. Alumni include the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (who enrolled after he was turned away from the University of Maryland's then all-white law school), Ralph Bunche, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and former New York City mayor David Dinkins. Today it has over 12,000 students in 18 schools. There are campus tours (202-806-2900). The Welcome Center is at 1739 7th St NW.
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International Spy Museum
If you've ever wanted to step into James Bond's shoes and live a glamorous spy life, this is the place to learn the secrets. DC's hottest attraction illustrates high-tech gadgetry, notorious spy cases, secret methods and the not-so-pleasant consequences of being an international person of mystery.
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Islamic Center
The national mosque for American Muslims is a pale limestone building (facing Mecca) topped with a 160ft minaret. It is so delicately inscribed with Koranic verse that it appears to float above Massachusetts Ave. Inside, the mosque glows with bright floral tiling, thick Persian rugs and gilt-trimmed ceilings. You can enter to look around; remove your shoes, and women must bring scarves to cover their hair.
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K Street
What happened? K Street didn't used to be this cool. When this author was growing up, the place had slightly more oomph than a visit to the dentist. But these days, corporate America's district headquarter street is happening. George Clooney chose it as the location for an HBO series by the same name. Once the sole turf of lobbying firms, law firms and consultants, today it has some of DC's costliest restaurants and a thriving nightlife.
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Kahlil Gibran Memorial Garden
In the midst of the wooded ravine known as Normanstone Park, the Kahlil Gibran garden memorializes the arch-deity of soupy spiritual poetry. Its centerpieces are a moody bust of the Lebanese mystic and a star-shaped fountain surrounded by flowers, hedges and limestone benches engraved with various Gibranisms: 'We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.' Trails just north link to both Rock Park and Glover Archbold Park.
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Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
The only national park devoted to water plants is across the Anacostia River from the National Arboretum, in Anacostia Park. The aquatic gardens started as the hobby of a Civil War veteran and operated for 56 years as a commercial water garden until the federal government purchased them in 1938. Highlights include the lovely water lilies, which are the star of an annual festival every July.
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Korean War Veterans Memorial
Dedicated in 1995, this memorial depicts a troop of 19 heavily cloaked soldiers on night patrol in the rice paddies. The larger-than-life-size statues are shown mid-stride, realistically exhausted and anxious. The striking setting is enhanced by a granite wall and Pool of Remembrance along with fiber-optic lighting for night viewing. It's a poignant reminder of America's forgotten war.
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Kreeger Museum
One of DC's more obscure attractions, this little known museum tucked away in the hills northwest of Georgetown houses a fantastic collection of 20th-century modernist art. Monet, Renoir, Picasso and Mark Rothko are all represented on 90-minute, reservation only tours and through Saturday open houses. Owing to ever-rotating exhibits, you're just as likely to get African art and Mayan artifacts as Edvard Munch's dark expressionism.
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Lafayette Square
In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson decided to divide the White House grounds and give half the plot back to the public in the form of a park, now known as Lafayette Sq. A statue of Andrew Jackson astride a horse holds court in the center, while four statues of foreign-born Revolutionary leaders anchor the corners, recalling the non-American freedom fighters who helped ensure George Washington had a presidency to preside over in the first place.
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Lee-Fendall House
Between 1785 and 1903, generations of the Lee family lived in this house. Guided tours show the house as it probably was in the 1850s and 1860s, showcasing Lee family heirlooms and personal effects. The Georgian-style townhouse across the street (607 Oronoco St; ;closed to public) was Robert E Lee's childhood home from 1810.
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Library of Congress
The world's largest library, housed in three different buildings, contains approximately 120 million items, including 22 million books plus manuscripts, maps, photographs, films and prints. But don't expect to see many books: Most are shelved on more than 500 miles of closed library stacks in the three buildings. The Library is nonetheless fascinating; The visitors center, in the Jefferson Building, shows a brief film, and there are guided tours.
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Lincoln Memorial
Here's a local secret: if you're ever stuck in a thunderstorm while wandering around the Mall, make a dash for the Lincoln Memorial. Thunder seems to rumble like clockwork nearly every 4th of July, and everyone in the know takes shelter under the marble dome, crouching near the foot of the enormous chair in which a gigantic Lincoln holds court.
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Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is the lively center of Capitol Hill's east end. Freed black slaves raised the funds to erect the 1876 Emancipation Memorial, which portrays the snapping of slavery's chains as Lincoln proffers the Emancipation Proclamation. The Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial, DC's first statue of a black woman, honors the educator and founder of the National Council of Negro Women.
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Logan Circle
Not so long ago this was seedy, crime-ridden turf of no interest to most residents and visitors. Today, Logan Circle is DC's it multicolor neighborhood, home to the trendiest of yuppies and buppies. Last century's crack houses are today's boutiques and fusion restaurants. Logan Circle is especially fabulous to wander around on an autumn day, when the urban landscape glows yellow with falling leaves and October sunshine.
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Malcolm X Park
Unofficially dedicated to Malcolm X, this park scales a hillside from the Shaw neighborhood to Adams-Morgan's upper reaches, adding much-needed scenery to the area. Constructed when the area was fashionable, it has terraced walkways, a waterfall cascade and an eccentric mix of statuary, from Joan of Arc to Dante, enlivens its contoured lawns. It's lovely in springtime, when the dogwoods and azaleas flower, but it isn't safe to visit after dark.
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Marine Barracks
The 'Eighth and Eye Marines' are on largely ceremonial duty at the nation's oldest Marine Corps post. This post is home to the Marine Corps Band, once headed by John Philip Sousa, king of the military march, who was born nearby at 636 G St SE. On Friday evenings in summer you can watch a two-hour ceremonial drill parade featuring the band, the drum and bugle corps, the silent drill team and the mascot bulldog.
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Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library
DC's main library is in Mies van der Rohe's only Washington building, a low, sleek black-glass structure; peek inside to admire the colorful mural portraying the Civil Rights movement. The MLK Library is an important community and cultural center sponsoring readings, concerts, films and children's activities. You can also access the internet here.
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Mci Center
When the sparkling around US$200 million MCI Center opened in 1997, the area was considered gritty and unsafe for the family. All that changed within a few months as sports bars, shops and restaurants opened nearby. Aging tenements were replaced by luxury lofts and condominiums. The NBA's Washington Wizards and NHL's Capitals both made the center their home; it also hosts major concerts. You can pop in anytime to visit the shops and restaurants.
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Metropolitan Ame Church
Built and paid for in 1886 by former slaves (quite a feat considering its impressive size), the Metropolitan AME Church occupies an imposing red-brick Gothic structure and is one of the city's most handsome, yet striking, churches. Statesman and orator Frederick Douglass often preached here, and his state funeral was held here in February 1895.
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National Academy Of Sciences
The academy advises the government on scientific and technical issues, and also hosts scientific and art exhibitions, concerts and symposiums. Recent exhibits have included Under Antarctic Ice, featuring incredible photographs of this harsh but breathtakingly beautiful environment, and An Intimate View of Flowers (self-explanatory). Concerts are often held on Sunday afternoons.
