Overlooked Treasures in Nation’s Capital

In the spring, when a traveler’s fancy turns to thoughts of cherry blossoms, our capital city becomes the tourist capital of the world. The White House, the Capitol, the National Zoo and the Smithsonian’s 14 museums lure visitors here by the thousands.

But what about other, lesser-known attractions?

There are dozens of often overlooked special places for specialized tastes.

Among them are these five, off the worn tourist path and well worth tracking. They hold a hodgepodge of disparate treasures, from Sevres porcelain to a B-29 Superfortress.

Two have scheduled special springtime celebrations, and you can reach them all by bus or Metrorail.

The Washington Navy Yard, the nation’s oldest naval facility (George Washington set aside the land), captivates kids and nautical fans of all ages. Stop at the Visitor Center and pick up a map of the yard.

Self-Guided Tours

There are self-guided tours of the destroyer Barry at Pier 2, plus visits to a submarine museum and the Marine Corps Museum’s historical collection.

The yard’s primary attraction, the Naval Memorial Museum, is a showcase for everything from military medals and awards to a re-created, fully rigged top deck from the frigate Constitution.

Also displayed is the six-ton starboard anchor from the aircraft carrier Coral Sea.

Inside, kids scramble over ship’s cannons and anti-aircraft guns, play U-boat captain with submarine periscopes and crawl in and out of diving bells.

Dozens of other displays feature everything from chronometers and ship models to Vietnam memorabilia.

The Navy Yard, 9th and M streets S.E., is open weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (to 5 p.m. in summer), weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission free. Telephone (202) 433-3017.

Another place to visit is the mansion once occupied by Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress of the Post cereal fortune.

Russian Collection

The 40-room Georgian mansion, Hillwood, holds an extraordinary collection of 18th- and 19th-Century Russian and French artworks, primarily porcelain, glass and jeweled objects.

Post began her Russian collection--said to be the largest outside the Soviet Union--in Moscow in the late 1930s as the wife of U.S. Ambassador Joseph E. Davies.

Rooms at Hillwood dazzle visitors with such treasures as the imperial family’s Faberge jeweled Easter eggs, a dinner service of Catherine the Great, a roll-top desk of Marie Antoinette’s and a china service of Queen Elizabeth I.

The Icon Room was designed to accommodate headstones, icons and bejeweled gold and silver chalices dating to 1666. They include the Russian imperial diamond wedding crown worn by the brides of Nicholas II and Alexander III, and 90 exquisite pieces by Carl Faberge, jeweler to the imperial court, as well as clocks, candlesticks, rare tapestries, music boxes, silver drinking vessels and metallic brocade altar cloths.

Other buildings on the 25 acres of landscaped grounds include a one-room replica of a Russian country dacha that houses collections of Russian art and American Indian artifacts.

The elaborately landscaped grounds, which include a rose garden, a formal French parterre and a traditional Japanese garden, are open for self-guided tours. This spring Hillwood will take part in commemorating the millenium of the founding of Russian Orthodoxy with special tours and lectures.

The Hillwood mansion, 4155 Linnean Ave. N.W., is open for guided tours (about two hours) at 9 and 10:30 a.m., noon and 1:30 p.m. daily, except Tuesday and Sunday. Admission is $7. The mansion is closed during February. Reservations are necessary. The garden is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $2. Call (202) 686-5807.

A Decided Contrast

After opulent Hillwood, it’s a decided contrast to step into the J. Edgar Hoover Building for the FBI’s rigid one-hour guided tour. While narrating the agency’s history, the guides take visitors through an assortment of exhibits.

The “Gangster Era,” with pictures and commentary of Ma Barker, Al Capone, John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, is a popular stop.

A display of the 10 most-wanted fugitives lines one wall (two on the list have been identified by people taking the FBI tour--and subsequently captured).

Weapons Are Displayed

The tour includes exhibitions about white-collar crime, espionage, kidnaping, bank robbery and organized crime. More than 4,000 weapons are displayed, and the fingerprint section--with 170 million fingerprint cards--is the world’s largest.

The tour ends when an agent demonstrates a revolver and submachine gun with great accuracy.

Tours of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, E Street between 9th and 10th streets, are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Admission free. Call (202) 324-3447.

The Frederick Douglass Home, where the famous abolitionist lived for 18 years until his death in 1895, is high on a hill in the Anacostia district of Washington. Douglass had bought the property, then known as Cedar Hill, in 1877 while serving as U.S. marshal for the District of Columbia.

His widow worked to preserve the house and adjoining nine acres as a “Mount Vernon to the black community.” It was entrusted to the National Park Service in 1962.

The 21-room Victorian house is crammed with furnishings and personal effects of Douglass, including gifts from Abraham Lincoln, with whom the former slave had discussions.

Douglass’ library holds more than 2,000 books, a collection of walking canes and his clothing.

Guided one-hour tours of the Frederick Douglass Home, 1411 W St. S.E., begin at 10:30 a.m. and continue on the half-hour until 4:30 p.m. Admission free. A 30-minute movie about Douglass’ life is shown every hour on the hour, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the visitor center.

Airplane buffs, after visiting the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, should head for the Paul E. Garber Facility on the outskirts of the capital in Suitland, Md. This no-frills museum complex, the Air and Space Museum’s storage and restoration center, is considered the best in the world.

Early Days to Jet Age

Five huge buildings crammed with aircraft from the early days of flight to the jet age are open to visitors. At other buildings on the 21-acre site, master craftsmen are involved in airplane restoration.

About 150 aircraft (half of the museum’s collection) are stored here, including such classics as a World War I Spad XIII, a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, a disassembled Swoose, the only surviving Boeing B-17D and President Kennedy’s Convair, the Caroline.

One building houses aircraft undergoing restoration. Its most famous resident is the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The restoration is scheduled to be completed in 1991.

Free tours of the Paul E. Garber Facility, Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Md.--by appointment only--are scheduled on weekdays at 10 a.m., weekends at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Reservations are required. Write to Tour Scheduler, Education Division, National Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560, or call (202) 357-1400.

For more information on travel to the Washington, D.C., area, contact the Washington Convention and Visitors Assn., 1575 Eye St. N.W., Suite 250, Washington, D.C. 20005, (202) 789-7000.