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DC Alley Museum

4.8 (10 reviews)
Open • Open 24 hours

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Ashley D.

Whenever I visit other cities, I tend to search for murals. I had dc alley museum on my list. I love to look at the art people created. It's nice that the cities allow the buildings to have art added to them and give some stories behind them.

DC Alley Museum in Blagden Alley
Karen V.

I wouldn't have known about this open air museum if it wasn't for my Yelp friend, Josh B. It's in a historic alley and district that I would never have explored had it not been for his review. It's most definitely a hidden local gem. You won't see it from the corner of 9th and M St. What you will see is a street sign for Blagden Alley NW. Just walk through what looks like a dead alley. It was a weekday, and there were only a few people walking around the businesses inside. We passed by many murals on walls, garage doors, wooden sidings, and in all different art mediums. Our first encounter was a mural of large carrots along the privacy fence of Calico. We could hear people having a good time inside the bar's outdoor patio. That was the only group we encountered when continuing on our journey to find more art. After that, it was pretty desolate. We came across many cool murals. The "Love" mural by Lisa Marie Thalhammer is at the center of it all. There is one by Miss Chelove who has many beautiful murals throughout the DC area. The one that stood out to me the most was "Let Go" by Rose Jaffe. We were fortunate that the garage door was down for us to see it. I think it was the vibrant colors that caught my eye. It's definitely an interesting and obscure place that has sparked a movement of creativity. I don't really know the true history behind it all. Just that it's part of a historic district that comes with strict development guidelines that are in place to preserve the Victorian buildings and alleyways. There are some very unique restaurants and bars in and around Blagden Alley in Shaw. We walked through the alley after a great meal at the Unconventional Diner. It was cool to see some public art along the way. Just one thing to note. Don't expect this alley to be well-kept and beautiful. I think it's still a work in progress (or that was my impression of it). At the end of the day, it's a working alley with garbage cans, private parking spaces, and delivery trucks. You will see gardens in front of the restored row houses surrounding this unique alley destination. There are even a couple of Michelin star restaurants at Blagden Alley. It's just cool for what it is.

Karyn M.

Blagden Alley in DC I've wanted to visit for the last two years and finally had some time to stop by! Yes you really can drive down Blagden Alley. We stopped to take some pictures of the Love Mural (Lisa Marie Thalhammer) and it's gorgeous and what it symbolizes. Did not know that there was a La Colombe coffee shop there.

Josh B.

I love finding street art and murals and graffiti when I visit cities when I travel and I did a quick search before I got on the plane to visit DC of murals and luckily Yelp had a few images and a general vicinity to search. Honestly art is all around us so we just have to learn to keep our eyes open or look up from our mobile devices to see the creations we usually just pass by. This alley museum has such a blend of different types of images and genres. Some vibrant with colors, some political, some media/entertainment, and even some a bit obscure or scary. I just love that artists take the time to plot out how an image is supposed to look and somehow are able to showcase the end result of probably countless hours of planning and sweat and challenges with the environmental elements to the views of passersby. It's also nice that there is a lot of art in one location instead of being spread out whereas you'd have to do a scavenger hunt to find it. That would still be pretty cool to search out. This art alleyway is free of course just do your best to credit the artists if you post on social media since they obviously deserve to be recognized for all their hard work. If you get hungry, there are even a few eateries nearby to grab a bit and go or even sit down and socialize. Parking can be iffy around the area but when isn't parking in DC iffy. If you see a spot, don't drive by it. Just take the spot and make your car fit and enjoy your walk around the DC Alleyway Museum.

Austin G.

Don't expect to find a door or a gallery inside; this museum is entirely outdoors making it a 24/7 museum. Within the historic alley of Blagden Alley are several murals from local artists painted on the alley's buildings. The most photographed is Lisa Marie Thalhammer's "Love" mural. Nearby are murals by Miss Chelove and other beloved local artists. If you go and post about them on Instagram, don't forget to tag the artist and the D.C. Alley Museum on Instagram.

Raghavi A.

I highly recommend popping over to the DC Alley Museum for a stroll, a chat, and/or some excellent photo opportunities! My friend and I were hopping around DC for the day and decided to check out this area. There are a lot of murals in this alley, all of which are really cool! Of course, I'll talk about the eternal struggle: parking. Little did I know that cars can drive through this alley so drivers and pedestrians, be alert! There is parking along the side streets surrounding this Alley Museum. I found free street parking a few blocks down and walked over. Be careful which day you pick to visit this museum as there is no shade. If you were like my friend and I, we chose one of the hottest, most humid days, and a day that offered no cloud cover. Bring some sunscreen and sunglasses, and a shinin smile!

DC Alley

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Review Highlights - DC Alley Museum

“Blagden Alley in DC I've wanted to visit for the last two years and finally had some time to stop by!”

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Planet Word Museum - Magical library - super cool!

Planet Word Museum

4.8(226 reviews)
0.4 mi•Downtown

I really enjoyed the overall concept and creative vision of this museum. It has a lot going in its…read morefavor. It has a prime location within easy walking distance of Metro center, in the beautiful old Franklin building. The staff are friendly and helpful. There is no charge for entry although donations are very welcome. One could almost go exclusively to visit the gift shop and the museum cafe as they are both so nice and full of fun things to feast the senses on. But for now I will stick to the museum. You start on the third floor and work your way down. There are displays for all ages and levels of interest, from very technical linguistics to basic "repeat after me". There's karaoke for the brave, joke telling for the dads, a Photo Booth for the tweens and an absolutely epic library in which fairy tales come to life. There's also a section on advertising and it's lures. The café is really fabulous and delicious and gives you a true taste of the global plate that America thankfully has adopted. I thoroughly enjoyed my West African chicken and shrimp curry. I was only sad that it was too early in the day on a weekday and with kids to enjoy one of their dozens of fantabulous looking cocktails! I'll have to go back for that!

We went here with some friend while visiting the DC. area. It was very fun and interesting I wish I…read moretook more pictures. They had a room with a digital globe in it where you learned about different languages. Another room talked about telling jokes and you would sit and tell jokes to one another. There was a karaoke room where you learned about how music is constructed. There was a library which is like a Harry Potter room with a hidden door to a poetry nook. I would definitely recommend this place for $15.

Photos
Planet Word Museum - Word wall!

Word wall!

Planet Word Museum - Lexicon lane

Lexicon lane

Planet Word Museum - VERY COOL  INTERACTIVE LIBRARY!!

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VERY COOL INTERACTIVE LIBRARY!!

Georgetown Glow Outdoor Light Exhibition - 2018- Run Beyond

Georgetown Glow Outdoor Light Exhibition

4.0(12 reviews)
2.0 mi•Georgetown

4 stars for a fun Georgetown holiday tradition…read more One of the nice things about living in Georgetown the last few years is getting to see the fun traditions. One of the better traditions is Georgetown Glow, the yearly holiday light exhibit festival. The way it works is you drive and/or walk around the Georgetown area looking at light exhibits that artists put together. Some of those exhibits are very artistic, like the 2019 light swing that changes colors as you swing or the 2018 Love You exhibit near Washington Harbor. Others are more traditional, like lighted snowflakes as you drive through Cady Alley or the 2019 light in a window display (not all of them are meant to blow you away). The way you find the exhibits is with a map that you can get online or find in paper form for some of the exhibits. The exhibits run for about a month through December and January. At the end of the timeframe, some exhibits will give away parts to the public. In 2018, an exhibit with a bunch of small pop culture lanterns was given away and made for a very fun momento. Overall, Georgetown Glow is a great Georgetown tradition that shows off local artists and helps get people into the holiday spirit. While I know some Washingtonians don't like making the trek over to Georgetown, it is worth making the trip each year.

Georgetown Glow is free public art with elements to captivate all ages & demographics. It can be…read morepaired with some history or can be enjoyed to captivate your Instagram followers. It is currently in it's fifth year, running from early December to early January. It looks like the installations change every year so there is something new to explore and enjoy. I won't go through every installation that I saw for this reason. There are some really instagramable moments, my favorite in 2018 was definitely Prismatic, but I have a big soft spot for Run Beyond as well. You should definitely plan to get out and explore a lot of the installations, just walking or driving by won't give you the full effect of some of them. Some of them also can't be seen from your vehicle, bundle up and explore! There are also a few that incorporate motion & sound. Here is the biggest "well duh" moment- see these installations after dark. Not during sunset, not at dusk- make sure it is really dark for the full effect. I mean- they are light installations, so maybe that shouldn't even be mentioned. I opted to see Georgetown Glow as part of a tour group (Free Tours by Foot DC) and our tour started almost an hour before sunset so I made a point to revisit the installations we saw early on during the tour- it was definitely worth the trip back to see the earlier installations. I thought taking the walking tour was a great way to see some of the installations and learn more about the history of Georgetown. Our tour guide was excellent, but was definitely a better Georgetown guide vs a Glow guide. She had great historical stories to connect to the themes of the art installations as we walked through Georgetown. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see all of the artwork during this foot tour, but we had plenty of time to explore the ones we did encounter on our tour. I would recommend doing Georgetown Glow both ways, take a tour if that's your thing, but really for the art itself I think you can easily enjoy every installation without the tour aspect and just read the information provided on the website to learn more. It is an outdoor, free, public display so expect that a few of the installations may have technical difficulties. I visited on the second night of the displays and noticed some light vandalism, most likely caused by careless spectators. It didn't take away from the overall effect though. One thing I appreciated is even though this is a December outdoor light exhibit, it wasn't Christmas themed. There is definitely plenty of holiday cheer to enjoy as you explore the city between installations. The art itself focuses on different themes giving you a brief mental break from the holidays.

Photos
Georgetown Glow Outdoor Light Exhibition - 2018 - artistic lighting

2018 - artistic lighting

Georgetown Glow Outdoor Light Exhibition - Lightbattle 2019

Lightbattle 2019

Georgetown Glow Outdoor Light Exhibition - 2018 - artistic lighting

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2018 - artistic lighting

The Mansion On O Street

The Mansion On O Street

3.8(452 reviews)
1.1 mi•Dupont Circle, Downtown
•$$

Someone at the hotel we were staying at recommended we checked this place out and we were so glad…read moreshe did. What a unique place! The mansion was actually a combination of multiple houses put together and in doing so, over 80 secret rooms are hidden throughout the museum. Everything in the museum is for sale. If something is too big to carry, you can take a picture and show it to a staff member for assistance. The rooms were all themed too, everything from old school toys and cartoons to the Beatles to horror icons like chucky and Michael Meyers! It was pretty crazy walking through and going through these hidden doors to either a secret room or a secret pathway. We only found 15 of the 80 doors! Crazy! Overall it's a really cool way to spend a couple hours.

So much history here - so be sure to embrace that part of the mansion!…read more Otherwise, I've always just approached the mansion as a cool, quirky, fun house of stimulation. Every inch and every corner is pretty much covered with something interesting to look at. In terms of a fun house vibe, you can definitely get lost and explore the mansion for hours. But at some point, I usually adjust my lens a bit a realize that it's just a really extension collection of flea market and estate sale items that have been arranged in an way to make it interesting (it even smells like it, in a moth ball-like way!) Either way, I would recommend everyone to experience it at least once if you have a free afternoon and time to kill. It's definitely a one of a kind experience!

Photos
The Mansion On O Street - Hotel bedroom

Hotel bedroom

The Mansion On O Street - Rosa Park Room

Rosa Park Room

The Mansion On O Street - Rosa Parks room.

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Rosa Parks room.

Ford's Theatre - Ford's Theatre.

Ford's Theatre

4.4(605 reviews)
0.7 mi

Dear reader, Ford's…read moreTheatre is such a special place to see a show, and Come From Away was absolutely wonderful. We sat in Row B of the Left Balcony in seats marked as having an "obstructed view," but the obstruction was incredibly minor. For the price, the seats were an absolute bargain and gave us a fantastic view of the performance. The theatre itself is beautiful, historic, and clearly very well cared for. The staff were universally kind, helpful, and genuinely passionate about the space and its history, which adds enormously to the experience. One of the best bonuses is the museum included with your theatre ticket. Definitely arrive early enough to explore before the show rather than racing straight to your seat. The seats themselves are admittedly on the smaller side and can feel a bit cramped, but one rather accepts that as part of the historic theatre experience. Beautiful venue, excellent value, fascinating history, and a phenomenal production. Ford's Theatre remains one of DC's most memorable places for a night out.

I'm surprised not to see any other reviews for Come From Away yet! It was wonderful!…read more The theater itself is a place where the past and present mingle. The chairs are ornate and historical (albeit missing modern day plushness). The bunting in the balcony above indicates where Lincoln was sitting during the attack. Yet, the stage and quality of the audio and visual effects clearly root you in the 21st century. We swept into our seats a mere 5 minutes before the production began, so unfortunately didn't have time to explore the museum. I've heard great things, though! Ushers were friendly and efficient. The actors did an amazing job, but my favorites were the musicians. It was such a nice touch to bring them onstage during the pub scene. The themes of this show are heavy, and the mention of the Pentagon crash pulled a few shudders from the local audience. The play walks the line between tragedy and hopefulness really beautifully; more emphasis is placed on the unity that was found than the darkness that wrought it. Would recommend, especially given the historical significance of the place! Very meaningful to have an American disaster staged within the building that witnessed another dark day for the country over 150 years ago. Very walkable to metro stops, too!

Photos
Ford's Theatre - The booth where Lincoln was sitting.

The booth where Lincoln was sitting.

Ford's Theatre - Outside entrance

Outside entrance

Ford's Theatre

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DC Alley Museum - publicart - Updated October 2026

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