There’s a 100-room labyrinth with secret bookcase doors and a very famous ex-resident in Washington, D.C.

It’s D.C.’s Wildest Keep-a-Secret

From the outside, you see a plain row house on a quiet Dupont Circle street. Nothing about it says “look closer.”

But step through the front door and you walk into a 30,000-square-foot maze spread across five connected townhouses, with more than 100 rooms and over 80 secret doors tucked behind bookcases, fireplaces and walls.

Booking.com once named it the coolest place in D.C. The real surprise, though, is who once called it home.

The Capitol’s architect built these row houses in 1892

Edward Clark designed the O Street townhouses as homes for his family.

He served as the Architect of the United States Capitol from 1865 until he died in 1902, and during that stretch, he oversaw the Capitol dome completion, the Library of Congress construction and the Capitol grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

Clark connected the townhouses through their basements and main floors, and he worked leftover Capitol tiles and wood into the interiors.

A craftsman named August Grass handled the detailed woodwork, and you can still find it inside today.

G-men, protesters and a TV studio all shared the address

The Clark family eventually moved on, and by the 1930s, the townhouses had turned into rooming houses for FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s G-men.

Student leaders in the 1960s protest movement lived at 2020 O Street.

Then, from 1977 to 1990, the nationally syndicated TV series “America’s Black Forum” and the radio series “Sounds of the City” recorded their shows inside one of the buildings.

The address kept changing hands until a new chapter started in 1980.

One artist spent 14 years stitching five houses together

On Valentine’s Day 1980, an artist named H.H. Leonards bought the first townhouse at 2020 O Street. She restored it and opened a bed-and-breakfast and private club.

Five years later, she built a five-story annex on a vacant lot next door.

Between 1991 and 1994, she picked up three more row houses and connected all five into one sprawling property.

By 1998, she had opened the O Street Museum inside the Mansion and turned the whole operation into a nonprofit.

Rosa Parks came for a few days and stayed a decade

In 1994, someone attacked and robbed Rosa Parks inside her Detroit home.

A mutual friend, Willis Edwards of the Beverly Hills NAACP, called Leonards and asked if Parks could stay at the Mansion through its Heroes-in-Residence program, which gives free rooms to people who serve others.

Parks arrived frail and in a wheelchair, planning to stay only a few days. She ended up living there on and off until about 2003.

Her third-floor room stands preserved today, with her signed letters and personal artifacts on display.

A plaque now marks it on D.C.’s heritage trail

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a plaque at the Mansion in 2019, adding it to the African American Heritage Trail.

That trail marks more than 200 sites across Washington, D.C., tied to African American history and culture. The Mansion earned its spot for sheltering Rosa Parks during her later years.

You can book a dedicated Rosa Parks tour that walks you through her time there and the friendship she built with Leonards over nearly a decade.

Pick up the art, flip through the books, touch everything

Most museums rope things off. This one hands them to you.

The O Street Museum holds about 15,000 pieces of art and 20,000 books, and you can pick up objects, leaf through manuscripts and run your hands over sculptures.

The walls hold 60 signed Gibson guitars from artists like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and U2.

You can also see letters and drawings by John Lennon, which appeared in Hunter Davies’ book “The John Lennon Letters.” Nearly everything in the place is for sale, and every dollar goes to the nonprofit.

No two ceilings match in the entire building

Every room in the Mansion carries a different theme. The two-story Log Cabin room wraps you in rough-hewn wood like a backcountry retreat.

The Safari Room fills floor to ceiling with African-inspired art and decor.

In the John Lennon Suite, Beatles memorabilia covers every surface, and a Sgt. Pepper’s jukebox sits in the corner.

There is also an Art Deco penthouse with a private elevator, and rooms that range from French Renaissance to vintage Americana.

Most visitors only find 10 to 20 of the 80 doors

Finding the secret doors is the main draw. They hide behind bookcases, inside fireplaces, beneath staircases and within walls that look completely solid. Some you spot in seconds.

Others are so well disguised that hours of searching will not turn them up. The museum runs self-guided tours and treasure hunts that challenge you to find as many as you can.

Most people walk away having cracked 10 to 20, even though more than 80 exist throughout the property.

You can sleep behind a secret door if you stay the night

The Mansion doubles as a boutique hotel. You can book a themed room for the night, and some of those rooms sit behind secret doors.

Overnight guests get extended access to roam the entire property after hours.

The nonprofit also runs an Artists-in-Residence program that gives free living and working space to musicians, writers, filmmakers and other creatives.

The Heroes-in-Residence program that once sheltered Rosa Parks still provides free rooms to soldiers, first responders and people who serve others.

Every ticket and purchase funds over 1,000 free room nights a year

The O Street Museum Foundation operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Every tour ticket, event and purchase feeds directly into its mission to inspire creativity and personal discovery through art, music, science and storytelling.

Most of the artifacts inside came as donations from their original owners, and the museum runs largely on volunteers alongside a small paid staff.

Over four decades, the Mansion has provided more than 1,000 free room nights per year to support its charitable programs.

Wear good shoes because four hours disappear fast here

The Mansion on O Street stays open 365 days a year, just minutes from the White House, Embassy Row and Georgetown. The Smithsonian has rated it among the top five historic venues to explore in the world.

You will want comfortable shoes, because covering 30,000 square feet of themed rooms and secret passages takes two to four hours at a minimum.

The collection rotates constantly, so if you come back six months later, whole rooms will look different.

Explore the Mansion on O Street in Washington, D.C.

You can find the Mansion at 2020 O Street NW in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. The closest Metro stop is Dupont Circle, which puts you a short walk from the front door.

You need advance online reservations for tours, so book before you go. The building is ADA-compliant with elevators throughout.

You can pick from self-guided tours, themed treasure hunts, an American Sign Language tour, or the Rosa Parks tour.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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