The Mansion On O Street

The Mansion on O Street makes for a great group activity! I went on a tour with three of my friends and we had a blast. You can go at your own pace– spend as much (or as little) time as you please. We went on a weekday afternoon and I think that we were the only ones there. It was awesome to discover all that the mansion has to offer– books, paintings, quirky themed rooms, etc. The staff were very friendly and gave us a thorough history of the building on our arrival.
As mentioned in other reviews, everything in the mansion is for sale. This either adds or detracts from the experience, depending on your perspective. For example, I think a «vintage» Tweety Bird jacket hanging on the back of a door with an index card proclaiming «real leather!» might detract from the romantic atmosphere if you opted to spend the night in the mansion. Also, the Mansion advertises «over 70+ secret doors!» So far as my group could find, there are only 5 – 6 you can go through and the rest are labeled with instructions not to enter.

REALLY COOL. So glad I finally got to check this out. This is a review for the livingsocial champagne tour.
Tip: you can only book this on the O St mansion website 2 weeks in advance. If they don’t have a private event, there are tons of available spots.
So, the champagne tour only comes with one glass of champagne in a really cool glass that you don’t get to keep. If you finish you glass while walking through the house (if you take more than an hour to drink a glass of champagne, there’s an issue somewhere) you need to carry it around it with you (or figure out how to get back to the lobby to return it).
The hotel itself is so cool, and they actually rent out some of the rooms still. Each room is themed differently and you have to find the secret passages throughout.
The secret passages are really awesome if you manage to find ones that aren’t already open.
PSA: close doors/​mirrors/​bookshelves behind you so other people can enjoy too.
It takes about 1.5−2 hours to walk through the house so allow ample time!

They have some great rock and roll memorabilia including some fabulous Beatles stuff. It’s like a mini Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But a $ 30 entry fee is quite expensive. Sure, I guess it’s OK to do it once. But I doubt that I’ll do it again.

We had a fun time recently scouring The Mansion on O Street for hidden doors. In the end, we found six or seven, which is apparently pretty good. I’d love to go back to see if I can find more of them. Really lovely staff and a great history. Also, I one day want to stay over night in the one of the rooms – the bathtubs are incredibly awesome.

Do not stay here. My boyfriend took me on an overnight as a surprise, since we love all things historical. Arriving, Ted, the proprietor’s husband, was very kind. The room we originally requested was no longer available, so he took us on a mini tour of the mansion, offering us 3 rooms to choose from in our price range (extremely overpriced as far as I’m concerned, starting at $ 350). Being that two out of the three rooms smelled like mildew or old books, we settled on the Octagon Room after a lovely tour with Ted. After stashing our bags, this is when our trip started to sour. My boyfriend is an artist and I am a writer, so we thought since the O is all about the arts that we should donate our own books (he has one out with Rizzoli, and I just had an art book published). My boyfriend even brought a painting to give to help support the foundation if anyone bought it. When we went to the lobby area to present our gifts/​strike up some conversation with the owner HH, she told us «oh. put them over there» then immediately got on the phone. This was a serious WTF moment… at least pretend to be appreciative of a gift? ask what it is? something? My boyfriend ended up going back and taking his painting back because of the rudeness, but we left the books simply because they were heavy and we didn’t feel like lugging them back. It put a damper on the night/​experience for sure, especially because he paid so much to essentially sleep in a thrift store.
I won’t say too much about the mansion because many of these reviews have it spot on– HH is clearly a hoarder. The place has a weird 80s flea market vibe. Some of the items are cool, but many are just dirty unwanted thrift store finds, covered in signs that say «Don’t try this on unless you intend to buy it» (uhhh). Our room itself was not great. First, it was FREEZING. Yea, I know its February, but it was snowing outside, there is no way to turn up the heat in the room, and the door to the balcony was ill fitting so we were blasted with cold air all night. There were THREE TVs the room, albeit mostly 80s ones, but the flatscreen stopped working. This was especially unfortunate when I was unable to sleep because I was so cold, and so just stared at the dirty stuffed animals lining the shelves looking down at me all night. The room was so dry my mouth tasted like paste. Luckily there were $ 5 bottles of water all around the room (I think I drank $ 20 worth just to keep from being ill)…The jacuzzi however was excellent.
In the morning, we came down to get our car from the valet. HH told us that no one would get the car for us. Snow had turned to rain and the outdoors was slick ice. She told us we had to walk with our luggage through the pool area in the rain, and down an alley (and through the ankle deep puddles) to find our car. Seriously??? Then she asked where we were going, we said another (cheaper/​cleaner) hotel nearby. She said they overcharge for parking and we could leave the car there and walk to the hotel… then she said «and you can pay us instead» yea lady, we are going to walk to another hotel, on ice, in the rain, carrying all of our luggage, and pay YOU because YOU don’t want to go get our car. Because that is what valet service is.
This place is interesting. Go on the self guided tour, find some secret doors, laugh at all of the 80s fixtures. But leave before the rudeness of the proprietor sours your experience.

This is an unusual place indeed. I would recommend you try it at least once for the experience. I showed up with a friend for the Champagne Tour and we parked valet. My Jeep disappeared to an unknown location offsite. I won’t get heavy into the mansion itself since other Unilocalers have already provided pretty good descriptions of the atmosphere. However, as said, most of the items in the rooms are for sale, with the exception of the signed guitars or anything of actual value. The mansion has some cool music posters and rock memorabilia (such as Beatles items), but most of the items remind me of stuff you would find at a large garage-​sale. I couldn’t imagine actually staying in one of the guests rooms since they were loaded with crap, smelled like an old book store, and I assumed the rooms to be quite dusty… I did not see housekeeping that’s for sure! Maybe they were also using the secret doors along with the cooks? The bathrooms had pretty impressive tubs and shower heads, for the most part. Some of the rooms had cool looking unmanned bars. As for the secret rooms, we found two that were not already open; I think I got kind of bored by the end of our tour, because the secret rooms seemed awfully «secretive?» I don’t know, it seemed like no one could find a secret door anywhere, not just us. We paid through LivingSocial, and I hear the tickets were discounted. Looking online, I would never pay the full value of $ 35 per person for the Champagne Tour, unless it came with a full bottle of high grade vodka instead. Just saying. I would come back with friends just to show them that this place truly exists. My recommendation, cheapen the tour and offer more liquor. Man those bars you have in the rooms? That would be cool. Don’t go if you are allergic to dust or have a visual disability. Not wheelchair accessible either.

My husband and I went for Thanksgiving! The food was delicious and plentiful! We really enjoyed the atmosphere and the staff was very friendly! We did the treasure hunt (which was kind of hard) and had a great time exploring all the rooms and secret doorways! It’s definitely a fun place you need to experience at least once.

The Mansion on O Street is the perfect venue to bring your VERY adventurous, playful date! :)
If you are determined to do something different than the typical dinner-​and-​a-​movie date, then you’ve settled on the right place. I took a girl I REALLY like on a second date to the Mansion in mid-​November around 1:30pm (by reservation) to (1) see the amazing quirkiness that the Mansion has to offer, (2) find the Mansion’s numerous secret doors and passageways, and (3) explore a part of DC together that I never knew existed. It was SO magical that we ended up staying until the museum closed (and skipping out on ice skating on the Mall)!
Just a few things to keep in mind:
~You DO need to make a reservation in advance (go to the Mansion’s website).
~You DO need to pay for entry into the museum. There are many types of tours, varying in price and substance. The «Self-​Guided Tour» was plenty adequate in my opinion, provided privacy, and only cost $ 15/​person.
~You DO want to learn about the history of the museum to tell your date! From my rough understanding, the Mansion is made up of 3 – 4 adjacent row houses. Back in the day, politicians and other famous people would go to the Mansion to escape the public eye and commit debauchery — when the police came to inspect one row house, they would secretly exit out of a different row house. Finally, the police got smart and obtained a search warrant for the entire block. After discovery, the Mansion became a hotel-​restaurant (available today), in which all overnight guests continue to leave something during their stay to add to the museum’s diverse, expanding collection.
~You DO want to bring cash in case you want to buy something you see — EVERYTHING in the museum is for sale. Some items have prices listed on them, but most do not and you can choose to donate whatever amount you deem fair. My date and I bought a CD that we randomly played in one of the bedrooms and loved for $ 5.
~You DO want to be ready for a fun photo opportunity as the main floor of the Mansion has a photo booth! What an elegant way to capture the memories made.
Honestly, I can’t think of a single con. I will be going back to try to find more secret doors, and I hope to stay as an actual guest in the future!

This is a wonderful place for an event. Check out the web site and see if it is «calling» to you. It probably will!

I’m not entirely sure how to recommend this place after only one visit. There’s much to explore, and I don’t think I made my way into all five buildings. I found 6 Secret Doors… out of 70. I think. There are no maps. The place is huge and many of the stairwells have no railings. Pictures hang everywhere; not a place to let wild children roam. The rooms, which you can rent as a hotel, are sumptuous and history-​laden.
I’d like to come back in a group to have a meal and sample their wine cellar, or be in a docent tour.
It’s tempting to compare The Mansion on O Street in DC to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose or the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. All three have unique properties that make them fun to wander through. Unlike the other two, however, in this Mansion, everything’s for sale. Books, paintings, sofas, the whole shebang. You want a Beatles Jukebox? Go for it. You want a guitar signed by Bob Dylan? Well, it says it’s not for sale, but you might as well make an offer.

I knew that my girlfriend would love the Mansion, and she had never been, though I told her about it late last year — after I had gone there for an office function (ok…Party)
I booked us a room for a Saturday night, specifically so we could do the brunch/​tour the next AM. (also to celebrate our anniversary!) We also invited two of our friends to join us for the brunch, knowing that they would totally get off on it… and the Mansion.
My girlfriend and I wandered down to the dining area little early on Sunday AM in search of coffee. Instead of handing us a couple Styrofoam cups and shooing us away like they do at the Hyatt… we were welcomed to sit at our table and wait for our friends… while our wait person, Patricia, got us coffee and juice and educated us even more about the Mansion itself.
The brunch buffet turned out to be huge, and additionally the chef was cooking up eggs and omelets, and had more stuff available to put in eggs and omelets than you would ever imagine could even go into eggs and omelets! And Waffles!
Our friends, even though they lived on Kalorama… and had walked past the Mansion before… had no idea what a great place it was. Nathan even plans to bring Michael back to do some last minute Christmas shopping! (yah, everything’s for sale) Do the Brunch. Spend a night at the Mansion. Take my advice, you can thank me later. Rob

This email is for H, Tom, Sally, and everyone else who helped to make our wedding last weekend so amazing — Thank you!
My wife and I had an amazing night and our guests cannot stop raving about what fun they had and about how beautiful and incredible a place the Mansion is. You all did an amazing job setting up the space just as we wanted it, the food was plentiful and delicious, the bar was well stocked and your bartender a super nice guy, the staff was gracious and patient with our (by the end of the evening!) inebriated guests… In sum, we could not have asked for a more special evening.
Also, you were all so accommodating with allowing us to spill into the entire first floor, I know the kids loved the extra space to run around in, and also with allowing us to drop our flowers off at the Mansion and assemble our centerpieces there. Thank you again.
Thank you so much for making our wedding so memorable and stress free! We hope to be back soon!
(I wrote this email to the Mansion after my wedding and stand by every word. The only thing I want to add is that my wife and I did end up paying more than we first thought. We don’t regret a single penny spent, but be sure to look at their website closely and ask lots of questions about what is included and what will cost extra so you can properly budget.)

A great place to explore a lot of rock n roll history went into it. Its the epicenter of interesting fun stuff. The rooms are very comfortable and it has a salt water pool. Always wanted to go to a house with secret doors so that was a cool aspect to it. Me and my buddy had a blast! Lots of good resteraunts near by…

What a fun tour to take when in the city!!! This place has so many interesting rooms! I wish we would’ve found more secret doors – next time!

We had a great time last night at the Drag Show, very entertaining. I am so glad that we arrived early, we were able to wander the mansion and look for the secret doors. We only managed to find 7, but at least we found the wine cellar! I love this place there’s so much sensory overload and so quirky. If you go make sure you have plenty of time because this place has lots to see, and almost everything is for sale. The staff at the Mansion were very friendly and helpful, except when it came to finding the secret doors. That is the fun part, my friend and I get excited every time we found another door. We will definitely be back, we have 57 more secret doors to find!

We really loved our visit! We spent almost 2 hours and found 16* secret doors (although several are small access panels, and 3 of them had signs saying they were secret doors but not to open them). The wine cellar is definitely amazing. The rooms are incredibly dense with all sorts of knick knacks, we were so focused on the secret doors we missed much of this, but look forward to a future visit. We found most of the items on the treasure hunt but there were a few that eluded us.
To people who have complained the secret doors are impossible to find: we found three «secret doors» with signs on them saying that they are secret doors but not to open them, so those should be easy! For the rest, the majority have clear «tells» or clues that can be seen from across a room. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but think about how you can identify a door other than a doorknob and many of them have the same basic elements.
The only downside was that my wife’s allergies /​asthma got really bad here, after she left to walk around outside she felt a lot better while I continued looking for doors.
*UPDATE ⁷⁄₁₂: We thought we found 14 doors on our first visit, but on a second visit we found out that there were two panels we hadn’t counted that officially are secret doors, so we got 16. We were also able to access many rooms closed off for a wedding on our first visit and got 8 additional doors for 24 total. There are a few more panels we found but didn’t count which apparently are also included in the total they advertise so we’ll have to track more carefully next time.
Of the 24 doors we have found roughly half can be walked through (passages to other parts of the house accessible without the passage, doors to secret rooms you can’t access otherwise, and closets), and the other half are storage spaces you can reach into but to small to enter. There is one prominent well-​used secret door that was closed for a private party on both visits, we’ll have to keep trying!
As a final note, after I’d already submitted this review (as well as the feedback form you get after buying tickets online) I got an offer for a $ 25 gift certificate for providing a review. I will take advantage of this, and think it should be disclosed, but it did not affect my review. I will definitely be back!

This place is a haven in DC for its uniqueness and diversity.
Every room is lined with incredible art, you could spends weeks just looking at everything in there.
I’ve gone multiple times and it never gets old because there is constantly new items coming and going and different art exhibits up. There are some amazing works by Gerald Johnson in various rooms.
One of my favorites is the Beatles themed roomed where you can play pool, listen to some good music, and on an off day maybe even have on of the staff make you popcorn out of the old machine!
Also there is a beautifully designed log cabin room (which you can also stay in as a guest if you want)
There are plenty of fun secret doors to be found, and keep in mind that not all doors are what you might consider «doors»

We had our salon’s holiday party here… Well, brunch on a Sunday. It’s a really cute little place. The food was delicious, and very fresh. Mimosas are always a plus.
After brunch we took a tour of the mansion. My group found 7 of the over 70 secret doors and passage ways. We were aiming for 10.
I don’t think I would ever stay here though, because it’s way to much going on. But, this would be a place to go for brunch again.

I got a living social deal for the self guided champagne tour and was pretty excited to see the place. The website makes it seem intriguing and magical so our group couldn’t wait to discover all the secret rooms. We arrived a little later than our time but we’re still welcomed and got our tour started right away. Now to the facts:
The good parts:
The champagne, everything is better with champs!
The staff were nice and informative
There were a lot of nice little quirks found throughout — for example I’m a native Cleveland-​er so it was nice to come across the Indians memorabilia
The not so great parts:
I wish they would have laid out the guide to the mansion at the beginning of the tour. We saw a sign part of the way through with some great tips on how to discover all there was to discover.
The instructions on where to get started were not clear and we just kinda fumbled around until we found it.
It would have been nice if the secret doors were able to be opened. There were plenty of signs that said «this is a secret door, please don’t enter». I get that this place is a hotel also but it’s a little weird that now I’ve paid for an experience that I don’t fully get because it’s so occupied on large tour days.
It would have been nice to have staff more identified throughout so we knew who they were as we came across them.
The champagne was a nice feature but once I was done with it there was no where to put my glass :(

A decent value at $ 15 for champagne and a self-​guided tour. Would not be happy had I paid $ 30.
My girlfriend got a LivingSocial deal and excitedly took my «Mansion on O Street» virginity. I appreciated the eclectic architecture and decorations, and was excited at the thought of exploring a mansion for hidden passages.
One of the things I immediately noticed is that all mansion volunteers are trained to be coy about the «secrets» of the mansion. Part of this is marketing, I’m sure. It’s supposed to be a mysterious place for visitors to explore. (As an aside, this place would make for an awesome haunted mansion… wonder if they do anything like that?)
The flip-​side to their coyness, though, is that it’s hard to pin them down for information regarding what can be done and seen in the mansion on any given day, and the mansion is just too labyrinthine to confirm for yourself. For instance, they’ll tell you at least X number of rooms are available (i.e., not reserved by hotel guests or groups) and X number of hidden passages accessible, but quite frankly, it’s virtually impossible to know for sure.
For instance, my girlfriend and I passed through every room (that we found) no less than three (3) times searching for passages. We discovered about 3 (maybe 3.5) total that were accessible. And we were really looking… like pulling on things that we knew didn’t really make sense, such as door frames attached to brick. It was frustrating, to say the least. The uniqueness of the place wears thin after several passes.
Notice that I mentioned the word «accessible.» Very often, passages leading to what were likely large areas (for instance, to a stairwell leading up and down) had signs saying they were reserved and therefore off limits. This was particularly aggravating when I mentioned to the hostess our frustration, and she eyeballed a hidden passage near the front entrance, giving us a hint (admittedly, the girlfriend and I had not spent a lot of time in this room near the foyer). We excitedly opened the door, which would have led directly into the next row house, but when we did, we were greeted with a sign stating that we couldn’t go in because the area was reserved that day.
This leads to other questions: what qualifies as a room or a hidden passage? Did the hostess really not know that the entire room next door was off limits, or does the simple act of finding a passage qualify as it being accessible, even though we cannot pass through? In the loft area of the log cabin room, I found some book shelves that open up, leading to… pink wall insulation. No doubt, this counts in their book toward that mythical «at least 70 hidden passages» number.
In sum, the Mansion on O Street is worth seeing at the right price (i.e., not face value). With regard to their claims of accessible rooms and hidden passages, I see a parallel to the religious tenets upon which the mansion was apparently founded: the founder would have us «take it on faith» that what they tell us is the truth. In spite of this, my girlfriend and I remain dubious.

Awesome experience, and totally worth the $ 15 spent on LivingSocial.
The woman who greets you is very passionate about the mansion, and it’s history — Hard not to be when there is so much of it! There is a Lennon Suite, a Log Cabin room, a billiards room, and a Rosa Parks room — just to name a few! Upwards of 100 rooms and 35 restrooms that you can explore — with 70 secret passages — we only found 6, which is apparently on the high end of the average.
If you have an hour or so to walk around a very old mansion in Dupont, I’d say it’s worth the trip. Everything inside is for sale, since 90% of everything you see is donated (the woman happily haggled on a book I wanted.)
May check this place out for Halloween next year — I could see how it would be a great spooky place for a night!

This review is for the self-​guided tour only. I didn’t eat here, and I didn’t spend the night here, nor would I.
So about that self-​guided tour, what’s it like? OK, imagine your local thrift store, except there’s absolutely nothing there you would like to buy or own, the stuff isn’t really that old, mostly kitsch and «gift shoppe,» the art on the walls isn’t that interesting to look at, and one more thing – they charge you $ 10 just to enter the store and look around. That’s what the self-​guided tour is like.
They say all proceeds support a foundation for artists in residence and so forth. Commendable in the extreme.
Bottom line, this place is great for kids. There are plenty of toys, plastic soldiers, dolls, board games, Beatles memorabilia, a pool table and the like scattered about. For adults, not so much. D.C. is full of world class attractions. I would recommend them instead.

This venue just wasn’t for me.
I went recently to celebrate a friend’s birthday by having the prix fixe brunch. At $ 75, I was expecting pretty amazing food and a great environment.
While the buildings are beautiful historic landmarks, they don’t really seem to have the whole «restaurant workflow» thing down. The chairs we sat in were they gold-​painted cheap bamboo chairs that all wobbled and seemed only fit for someone 100 lbs or less. I tried a few once I sat down, and they ALL wobbled. At $ 75 for brunch, you kind of should expect to sit in a comfortable chair that won’t break down as you eat!
The table for four was TINY –too small to comfortably bring a few dishes back from the buffet.
The omelette station. Granted we went up during what seemed to be a little «rush», but the poor guy who was in charge was working as fast as he could, and I still stood in line for about 25 minutes until I got my omelette.
It just seems like they could focus more on streamlining the dining experience and less on the kitsch factor. Everything on our table had a price tag, and it seems like everything in the place is for sale. Sort of off-​putting for me! But I could actually buy and be the proud owner of a baseball cap that says «Mansion Security» for $ 22 (!!!).
We did a tour after brunch, and it was just strange. Lots of hotel rooms that had been used the night before (as evidenced by the unmade beds) that didn’t have signs up to not enter. There is hardly room to walk around in the halls because of all the antiques and memorabilia. It really reminded me of a huge antique warehouse in downtown DC that is passing itself off also as a restaurant and hotel.
That said, there are definitely people out there who love this kind of vibe, but by the time our tour was over, we all felt claustrophobic and wanted to get out into the fresh air!

It’s hard to give the Mansion on O an objective rating because some will think this is the coolest thing ever while others will think it is completely disgusting. The 5 interconnected rowhouses make up a mega mansion of nearly 100 rooms, secret passages and complete visual overload. Each room has a specific and very literal theme so over the top it feels like an amusement park that someone is living in. For example, there is a hunting-​lodge theme room with wood walls and tons of stuffed animals. The whole place is covered head to toe in STUFF whether its legitimately nice prints, bizarre hats, figurines, old useless CDs or records, books, junk, treasures, etc. Words can’t give justice to the experience of seeing all of this STUFF in one place. Being inside gives you a distinctly CREEPY feeling, which can be unsettling to some (myself) or thrilling to others.
I do NOT recommend this to anyone who dislikes clutter. For me this amount of stuff and clutter really overwhelmed me and slightly disgusted me. I just wanted to EDIT, EDIT, EDIT, because who really needs 1,000 mismatched apertif glasses? I couldn’t help but think but how clean can they keep it with this many piles of random figurines, books, etc? However, if you have a passion for «the hunt», flea markets, antiquing, or general memorabilia this might just be a great place to check out. It’s maximum tacky!
Specifically, my friends and I went to the Mustache Mondays advertised on LivingSocial. Organization, like in the entirety of this experience was lacking. They didn’t have mustaches to use and we had to show the deal itself to prove we should get a drink included. The best thing they could do to improve the experience would be to give out informational cards or a intro video on the house and major artifacts in the house similar to a museum. I would have loved to know who owned the houses, why they decided to combine them and more about the most important artifacts. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to donate the thousands of books and CDs to the DC Public Library.