Tudor Place Historic House and Garden050

Tudor Place Historic House and Garden, completed in 1816 by Thomas Peter and his wife Martha Custis Peter, granddaughter of Martha Washington, was designed by Dr. William Thornton, the first architect of the US Capitol. The elegant neoclassical house was the home of six generations of the Peter family and is now a National Historic Landmark located in the heart of Georgetown's Historic District. The house museum and historic garden are open to the public under the stewardship of the Tudor Place Foundation.

Tudor Place house tours are available (usually hourly, call first to confirm) Sunday afternoons and all day Tuesday through Saturday. House tours are docent-led and last approximately 45 minutes. Visitors can see vestiges of daily family life at Tudor Place in the form of furniture, silver, ceramics and glass, jewelry, textiles, painting and drawings, sculpture, portraits and photographs, books and manuscripts. Visitors also go behind the scenes with a look at the kitchen and refrigeration room to get a sense of the lives of people who worked as enslaved and free domestic servants over a course of 180 years.

The Tudor Place gardens are open Mon-Sat 10am-4pm and Sun 12n-4pm. A self-guided garden tour is available for $2 per person. (Docent-led garden tours are available by appointment.) The Federal period gardens of Tudor Place retain the original expanse of green lawns and plantings developed by the Peter family including a unique boxwood ellipse and original boxwood from Mount Vernon. The 5 1/2-acre garden reflects each generation's contribution to this distinctly Southern landscape. In the more formally conceived North Garden, English Boxwood shade the axial paths and form the intricate geometric Flower Knot. A large collection of period flowers and shrubs, including the old roses, are meticulously tended. Family tradition maintains that Martha Peter planted the ever-blooming China rose, "Old Blush," along the south facade of the house.

Tudor Place offers Youth Education Programs for school groups and Girl Scout groups, as well as occasional public programs for children of all ages and summer camps.

The Tudor Place museum shop features many unique gift ideas including books, stationery, and other gifts related to the art collections and gardens.