Festive Family-Friendly Fun in the DMV

Tudor Place Honors Dr. Sachiko Kuno

The Georgetowner

June 9, 2022

Tudor Place’s 30th Annual Spring Garden Party honored Dr. Sachiko Kuno, “committed scientist, philanthropist, entrepreneur and visionary,” as Executive Director Mark Hudson and President of the Board Mary Moffett Keaney introduced her May 25 to the applauding crowd, which enjoyed wine, cocktails and a buffet on the south lawn — a Georgetown tradition, co-chaired this year by Autumn Allen and Amy Porter Stroh. 

To read the full article, click here.

Among the Roses for Tudor Place’s 30th Annual Garden Party

New York Social Diary

June 2, 2022

While selecting a theme for Tudor Place’s thirtieth annual garden party, the hosts didn’t look very far for inspiration-their own backyard provided more than enough.

To read the full article, click here.

Tudor Place Honors Dr. Sachiko Kuno at Spring Garden Party

The Georgetown Dish

The 30th Annual Tudor Place Spring Garden Party on March 25, 2022 recognized Dr. Sachiko Kuno for her critical role in the community, inspiring others to engage with and support historic preservation.

To read the full article, click here.

Tudor Place Spring Garden Party Honoring Dr. Sachiko Kuno

The Georgetown Dish

Join Tudor Place for the 30th Annual Spring Garden Party on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

The Spring Garden Party has become the last party of Washington’s spring season and a sell out event for Tudor Place’s most generous friends – it is the organization’s most important fundraiser of the year.  Proceeds support conservation of thousands of objects in the Tudor Place Collection & Archive, preservation of the 5 1/2 acre estate and dynamic educational programming for all ages.

To read the full article, click here.

Wreath Workshop: Historic Greenery

Don’t leave your front door empty this Christmas season! Join us at Tudor Place for a wreath making workshop with all the trimmings. Craft your wreath from historic Tudor Place garden materials including holly, cedar, and magnolia leaves to create that perfect wintery touch for any holiday celebration. Leave your wreath green or add bows, bells, and berries to capture the Christmas spirit.

Note:  Capacity is limited and pre-registration is required. This is an in-person program. Please review the Tudor Place Health and Safety Guidelines before registering and attending.

 

$45 for members | $55 for nonmembers

1st Annual Tree Fest Celebrates the Tudor Place Canopy

 

Tulip poplar in fall

March 29, 2014 | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Register Now

The shelter and dignity of the property’s historic trees — and the risks they face from the violent weather of recent years — have inspired a new event at Tudor Place: a Tree Fest, free and open to the public. Our local environment and the canopy of heritage trees are the focus, and there will be something for everyone!

  • An artisanal Market Fair offering sustainable merchandise and information from people and organizations working on behalf of the environment and landscape.
  • For families, puppet shows at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and games and crafts all day.
  • A 1 p.m. guided walk with tree expert Melanie Choukas-Bradley, author of City of Trees, will help you learn to understand and identify local species.
  • A chance to say “hello” to the newly planted white oak tree! It replaces the two-century-old specimen lost last year to age and storm damage and represents Tudor Place’s ongoing investment in the tall trees of tomorrow.

NOTE: Public transportation recommended. Tudor Place is easily reached by bus, Metro and a short walk, and bicycle (including Bike Share).

Vendor Information

Now taking vendor registrations for October! The Tree Fest is fully subscribed, but we are taking registrations from vendors and organizations now for the October 18 Fall Harvest Fest, also free and open to the public. Are you a talented regional artisan or food purveyor? Do you have crafts, merchandise, creative eats, and/or useful information to offer? Please contact us today!

Seasonal Themes and Installations

 

Something for every taste and season!

Schedule your visit around these special installations! Tudor Place tours offer immediacy and authenticity. Now, there’s more! Don’t miss these seasonal displays, included at no extra charge in every tour, of rare Collections objects, each with a story of its own. And any time we’re open, come to the Visitor Center at no charge to see a display of photographs of Tudor Place in the snow, 1910-1913, taken and printed in silver-nitrate format by the estate’s last owner while he was a teenager.

 

FDR White House Invitation

A Visit With the Presidents

FEBRUARY + MARCH

Requesting the pleasure of your company…  From documents like the Franklin Roosevelt White House invitation at left, to porcelain that graced the very first Presidential table, Tudor Place is filled with ties to the highest office in the land. Rare artifacts and little known stories are part of this two-month tour component. Admission half-price throughout February!

 

Floral plate, 19th century
Gardens In & Out

APRIL – AUGUST

Through six generations, the Peters of Tudor Place turned their focus beyond the 1816 mansion to their multi-acred landscape. This fresh and fascinating tour installation reveals how the family drew inspiration for their indoor lives from the lush “rooms,” heritage trees, and garden beds they cultivated outdoors. Drawing from the museum’s voluminous Collection and Archive, the tour highlights botanical images and ideas found in books, cards, magazines, textiles, and china.

 

smokehouse door

 

Eating Local — Feeding the Urban Estate

SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER

Harvest and the Smokehouse are the focus for fall across the 1816 Landmark site, from the newly restored ca. 1795 smokehouse to the historic kitchen and 5½-acre gardens that once helped sustain owners and workers on this iconic urban estate. Agricultural implements will be on view, along with the kitchen preparations and table setting for a fine 1830s family dinner featuring the best of the smokehouse’s yield, ham and sausages. Also view related collections items including ceramics, housewares, diaries, receipts, and recipes, all chronicling domestic life in the city since the days when hay grew on the South Lawn. Learn about early “locavorism” on all regular tours (offered hourly), at special events, and when you visit the garden and newly opened Smokehouse. What better way to understand how land, labor, and urban larders have evolved since our city’s earliest days?

 

Dining table holiday centerpiece
Red, Green & Gold: the New and the Old
   Tudor Place Sparkles for Christmas

THANKSGIVING – DECEMBER 31

Experience the best of tradition and 21st-century flair over the holidays in the National Historic Landmark mansion. This seasonal installation in their onetime home imagines how the Peters would have decorated for a modern Christmas, blending heirloom spaces and collections with modern style in winter greenery, ribbons and bows, and the sparkle of lights and color.

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Ribbons, Roses and Wine in the Garden: Box Knot Rededicated

 

Tudor Place Trustee Bruce Whelihan, here flanked by
wife Alice (RIGHT) and Executive Director Leslie Buhler,
was celebrated for helping to secure funding for the
project from The Ruth S. Willoughby Foundation.
Celebration came to these historic gardens this month when Tudor Place Trustees and staff gathered with neighbors and other supporters to “cut the ribbon” on the newly restored Box Knot Garden. This formal layout of heirloom roses in geometric beds defined by boxwood hedges dates to the home’s earliest days. Its renewal and restoration for centuries to come, completed in November 2011, signals the commitment to the preservation of the entirety of historic assets stewarded by Tudor Place Foundation for the public good.
The North Garden donned its best spring colors for the evening reception, which featured wine, canapes, and heartfelt remarks on the historic estate’s past, present, and bright future. Once the ribbon was released, guests trod lightly among the flower beds where Tudor Place founder Martha Custis Peter herself once tended beloved roses. During the Civil War, the garden fell into disrepair and its original layout was lost. It was recovered in the 1926 from a garden design book showing Avenel, in Virginia, where the Knot had been copied, and a restoration was completed in 1933 based on the Avenel drawing.

The sundial that centers the geometric layout came from CrossBasket Castle in Lanarkshire, Scotland, the childhood home of Robert Peter, tobacco merchant and first mayor of Georgetown. His son Thomas bought the land on which Tudor Place sits with his wife, the former Martha Custis, in 1805. They funded the eight-acre purchase with a legacy from George Washington of $8,000 (some $11 million in today’s dollars).
Trustee Dan Dowd came prepared for rain, but none fell.
Instead, a gray twilight lent its glow to the spring blossoms.

 

Curator of Collections Erin Kuykendall (RIGHT) shared stories with
Collections Committee member Elizabeth Edgeworth.

 

Director of Gardens & Grounds Suzanne Bouchard, who shepherded the project from vision to completion, discusses its contours with Board Vice President Geoffrey Baker and Trustee Margaret Jones Steuart.

 

Guests were invited to take home cuttings from the
estate’s historic boxwood.

 

The Circle Garden, with the aroma of mock
oranges floating in from its perimeter, made a
perfect setting for cocktails.

 

As a token of appreciation, Mr. Baker presented Mr.
Whelihan a painting of the restored garden, commissioned
for the occasion from Tudor Place Artist-in-Residence Peter Waddell.

 

Director Leslie Buhler exchanges a word with Trustee
C. Jackson Ritchie, cradling his boxwood seedling.

 

A new leaf, literal and figurative, for a landscape nearly spanning our country’s history — truly something to celebrate!

 

A Day to Celebrate Washington and Experience Life Before Electricity

By Haylee Wilson, Tudor Place Communications Intern

Stepping into George Washington’s shoes, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and other young people experienced life without apps, engines and appliances on Presidents’ Day. They joined more than 100 visitors of all ages in “Celebrating George” and his influence at Tudor Place, along with the chance to see Washington items of special significance on view just this one day each year. (The wider “Window on Washington”  featuring displays of many Washington artifacts remains on view through March.)

The event provided a rare occasion to snack on period treats, try one’s hand at early American artwork, and stroll freely through the mansion with expert staff and docents on hand to highlight the Washingtons’ legacy here. During Presidents’ Day only, visitors could examine one of three surviving letters from George Washington to his wife, in which he bade her a fond farewell as he took up his Continental Army commission. Mrs. Washington’s handcrafted needlework was also on display for one day only, as was a famed miniature portrait of the first President, an engagement gift from him to his step-granddaughter, Martha Custis Peter — founding mistress of Tudor Place. — and one of the few portraits for which he personally sat.
Guests were met in the Conservatory with colorful baked goods made from period recipes, including Codling Apple Tarts, Hyson’s Green Tea, and Martha Washington’s own Great Cake (recipe follows this post).

Every child was invited to complete a scavenger hunt through the grounds, and its completion earned them small prizes. Our camera followed one set of scouts and families who, clipboards in hand, headed off after treats were finished for a little adventure.

 

Natural sunlight beaming through the windows lighted their way throughout the house as they searched for clues. First, they were introduced to appliances that residents used before the conveniences of electricity.  They considered the absence of microwaves and freezers in the Peter family’s 1914 kitchen.

Scavenger hunters learned how, even in the absence of motorized tools, domestic workers pulled off elaborate dinners for the estate’s constant stream of guests and residents. In the absence of modern appliances, they recognized pots and pans and stoves, considering the different ways they were used before electricity changed household routines.
Moving into other areas of the house, boys and girls alike were fascinated with the network of bells and wires throughout the house that used to summon servants.  As they explored the house, they searched for the cords in each room.

Traversing a gravel path through the North Garden, they next visited the Dower Townhouse, our administration building, for hands-on learning about the art of silhouette-making, a popular medium for early American portraits. Inspired by the images of America and Columbia Peter that flank the main house Drawing Room, and using a three-dimensional bust of our first President, Artist-in-Residence Peter Waddell demonstrated how to first sketch a profile.
Students drew and discussed the visual angles in various works of art before drawing profiles of George Washington, which they then cut out and placed on elegant white backgrounds. To further adorn their images, Peter taught them about differences in fonts, uses of capital letters, and the origin of serif lettering.

 

Crossing back through the garden, the Pierce-Arrow Garage came next, where guests learned from “Martha Washington” herself how to have still more fun without electricity.  She began with a lesson in dancing, explaining that Georgian-era style valued balance and symmetry. 

       Mrs. Washington also introduced period games requiring no fancy boards, batteries, or sound effects.  Building houses of cards, playing card games, and dominoes were among entertainments our guests had heard of.

 

    Much of what children and families learned on Presidents’ Day encourages a commitment to sustainability. The Girl Scouts will use their new understanding on March 31, when they participate in Earth Hour, a World Wildlife Fund initiative that creates awareness about climate change by asking participants to turn off the lights an hour. Families can also connect with nature and sustainability, in one of the city’s greenest spots during the popular annual Earth Day at Tudor Place, Sunday, April 22. From 1 to 3 p.m., enjoy games, a themed scavenger hunt, and planting seeds from the historic garden in pots you decorate yourself.
Tudor Place offers additional  events for visitors of all ages throughout the year, including educational programs for scouts, school groups, and homeschoolers. Visit us soon!
For still more photos from Presidents’ Day, and to add your comments on the day, see the Facebook album. Good luck with the recipe below, and let us know how it turns out!

Martha Washington’s Great Cake
tweaked for the modern kitchen by curators at Mount Vernon

original
Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth. Then work 4 pounds of butter to a cream and put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work’d. Then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the Yolks of eggs and 5 pounds of flour and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it. Add to it half an ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint of wine and some fresh brandy.

modern adaptationsIn making Martha Washington’s famed cake, Mount Vernon’s curatorial staff followed Mrs. Washington’s recipe almost exactly. Where the recipe called for 5 pounds of fruit, without specifying which ones, 2 pounds of raisins, 1 pound of currants, and 2 pounds of apples were used. The wine used was cream sherry. Since no one pan would hold so much batter, it was divided into two 14-inch layers, which were then stacked. (The cake in its original form would have been a single tall layer). These layers were baked in a 350-degree oven for 1.5 hours and iced with a very stiff egg-white-based icing flavored with rosewater or orange-flower water.