Built in 1832, the Merchant’s House is New York City’s only 19th-century home preserved virtually intact with the family’s original furnishings and personal belongings. Located just steps from Washington Square in the fashionable Bond Street area, this elegant red-brick and white-marble row house on East Fourth Street shows how a prosperous merchant family and their four Irish servants lived from 1835 to 1865.

Hillwood, Estate, Museum and Gardens, the 25 acre grand estate of Post Cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, is located in a lovely, residential neighborhood in northwest DC. Only 5 miles from the White House, Hillwood is home to the largest collection of imperial Russian treasures outside of Russia and an impressive collection of 18th century French furniture, decorative arts, tapestries and porcelain. Surrounded by 13 acres of fabulous formal gardens including an orchid-filled greenhouse, rose garden and Japanese–style garden, this estate provides both respite and exudes elegance. Hillwood is open to the public from February through December. Hillwood. Where Fabulous Lives. 4155 Linnean Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. 202.686.5807. Marjorie Merriweather Post was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1887, the only child of Ella Merriweather and Charles William Post. Post, known best as the inventor of the coffee substitute Postum, Grape-Nuts and Post Toasties, founded Postum Cereal Company and generated one of the largest fortunes in the early twentieth century.