Tuesday, January 13, 2015

The Figures and Dolls of The Mansion on O Street

The dining room
The Mansion on O Street is a restaurant/hotel/museum/ antique shop housed in an 1890s-era Washington, DC row house.  My husband and I went there for brunch a couple of weeks ago, and then toured the building, the main selling features of which are the 700 hidden passages, the extensive collection of music memorabilia, and the fact that aside from some of the core music displays, everything in the building is for sale.

Among the antiques, books and guitars, there were a fair number of dolls and figures - ranging from $10 recent action figures to $4800 antique dolls.  I thought it might be fun to share some of the toys from the tour (it's all photos from here):








A figure from the Western-themed room
A doll in the stairwell
Star Wars figures in the Sci-Fi room
A doll from the East Asian-themed room
Fabric dolls guarding the buffet line
A random shelf that included some surprisingly recent action figures
A vintage frog marionette
Superman, from the pop-culture room
A random doll in a random glass
A tourist doll turned Christmas tree ornament
Table top dolls
A giant (human-sized!) bunny
Another table-top doll
Bride dolls in the basement
An action figure from the military-themed room
The wall of broken toys.

18 comments:

  1. How strange! I've heard of this place, but never would have thought to go there for action figures! Thanks for sharing those photos.

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    1. Before visiting, I'd heard about the music collectibles and antiques, but not the toys, so that was a cool surprise. Worth the visit, I thought - it's an interesting place!

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  2. What an interesting place to visit! I like the boy in the stairwell in particular, looks like a doll I'd enjoy having here! Hope the food was good too :)
    Hugs Sharon in Spain x

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    1. The stairwell boy is appealing, isn't he? :)

      And the food was good, if not quite what I'd expected. They have rotating menus, so I'd been expecting tea (or what Canadians call tea at least - lighter food followed by sweets), but it turned out to be a traditional US southern menu, so very heavy food - still good though! and it was an experience, definitely!

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  3. Great photos! Love the a Star Wars guys :). The first photo with all the Christmas lights is so pretty and festive :)

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    1. Thanks!

      They did do a wonderful job of the holiday decorating there! :)

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  4. Oh, nifty! Joan of Arc appears quite annoyed that her teacup is empty.

    I've now added Washington D.C. to my running list of "places I'd go at the right ticket price," with this restaurant top of the to-visit agenda. (It's been years since I've been to DC, and yes, the combo of good restaurant with secret passages and dolls is a bigger driver than another round of the Smithsonian.)

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    1. Well, if you've already done the Smithsonian(s), then that just makes perfect sense! :)

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  5. Looks like an interesting place to explore, great pictures! The giant rabbit and the little doll in ski-outfit are my favorites :-).

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    1. Thanks!

      The giant rabbit is one of my favourites as well. :)

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  6. Hmm. That looks like a great place to set a mystery or horror story. Fun!

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    1. You're right, it would be the perfect place for a horror story! Most of the secret passages are behind mirrors, so you can just image the jump scares there!

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  7. That's a cool looking place! And a really neat idea, too.

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    1. It was definitely a fun place to visit, it's true! :)

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  8. Oh my, I would love to visit a restaurant like that, never mind the food, what fun it would be to poke around in there. Knowing me, I'd probably have bought that life sized bunny though. :)
    Hugs,
    X

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    1. Heh, imagine the reaction you could get from having a giant bunny like that at home! ;)

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  9. So cool! What an awesome place to visit. Thanks for sharing with us.

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed hearing about it - it was a fun place to visit! :)

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