One Hawk from the English Department recently went on a recreational trip to Washington, D.C for her birthday with some friends and found a historical hidden gem, The Mansion on O Street.
This place is a well-known museum inside a mansion that housed many famous historical figures like Rosa Parks, Elvis Presley, Paul Williams, Chelsea Clinton and many more.
The house not only has a very rich history with celebrities and government workers, but the architectural history is definitely abnormal. It was at first 3 connected townhouses that later got renovated to span 5 town-homes wide. The mansion now has over 100 rooms and around 80 secret doors. When people visit they not only get to learn a deep historical background about the house and the area but also, they get to try and participate in a maze of sorts, trying to find all the hidden doors.
Bethany Birchfield, a ninth and twelfth grade English teacher visited the museum. She commented, “The tour guides said that usually on average people find around 10 doors the first time that you go but we found 17 which I am pretty proud of.”
They have all kinds of hidden doors she says “they have small compartments that open which count as small doors, and big ones that lead into other rooms. Some of them are disguised as mirrors or refrigerators and all kinds of stuff.”
“Everything in all of the connected houses is for sale,” Birchfield said. “There was a man who gave a presentation about the house and joked if you wanted to buy the remote that you could and all of the rooms had a theme.”
Birchfield said there were many memorable rooms. “There was a Five Nights at Freddy’s themed room, where it was dark and things popped out at you which was creepy. They had a Rosa Parks room, John Lennon, Elvis Presley and a lot more.”
The NH teacher said the reason she was at the museum was as part of a surprise a friend had for Birchfield’s birthday. “She wanted me to guess what we were doing. I had no idea how to dress or act. When we got there I knew I never would have been able to guess that but it was a lot of fun.”
