Iron gates mark the entrance to Hillwood Museum & Gardens in Forest Hills, the 25-acre estate of Washington socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal empire.

     Sought-after Forest Hills is one of those DC neighborhoods that everyone is familiar with but few are sure as to what it is called. 
     Indeed, most people incorrectly refer to the area as "Van Ness," the name of the nearest Metro Station and an important cross-town street in the community. (Van Ness Street was so named to honor John Peter Van Ness, who served as the 9th mayor of DC and a member of the U.S. Congress in the early 19th Century.)
     Part of the difficulty in describing Forest Hills is that it is an expansive geographic area comprised of a wide range of properties -- condominiums, cooperatives, detached and semi-detached single family homes, extravagant estates, and numerous embassies. 
     Tucked between Rock Creek Park and Connecticut Avenue, Forest Hills stretches from just above Porter Street (and Cleveland Park) at its southern end all the way up to Broad Branch Road (the southern boundary of the Chevy Chase neighborhood).
     Connecticut Avenue separates Forest Hills from the neighborhood known as Wakefield. 
     Most of the condos and co-ops in Forest Hills are located along the east side of Connecticut Avenue, "the" commercial corridor of the neighborhood; others are just a stone's throw away, such as Van Ness Centre.
     Van Ness Centre is a complex of four high-rise buildings constructed in the mid-to-late 1960s.  Originally rental properties, two of the buildings have since been converted to privately owned properties. One of those, Van Ness East, is a condo. The other, Van Ness North, is a co-op. Van Ness South is the only building of the three to remain a rental property. The fourth building is commercial and houses a Giant grocery, a CVS pharmacy and many other shops and offices.
     In addition to the condos and co-ops lining the east side of Connecticut Avenue, Forest Hills lays claim to some architecturally striking multi-million dollar properties -- most of which are off the beaten path, nestled into Rock Creek Park. 
      One such property is the Hillwood Museum & Gardens, the 25-acre estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the C.W. Post-Toasties fortune and long-time grande-dame in  Washington's elite social circles. Post's 40-room mansion and extensive gardens are sited at the edge of Rock Creek Park.
    To learn more about Forest Hills, click here.

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