Review: The D.C. Museum Where Everything Is for Sale
The Mansion on O Street showcases consumerist artifacts, and none if it is taxpayer-funded like many of the city's other museums.
If you need a break from the "free" (taxpayer-funded), "patriotic" (statist) museums dotting Washington, D.C., check out The Mansion on O Street.
Located in a series of converted row houses in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, the museum is, in both form and function, a glowing tribute to messy consumerist spontaneity. Inside the museum, you'll find not neat, curated exhibits, but a long series of rooms connected via "secret" doors. Each contains an assemblage of "artifacts" ranging from 1980s TV Guides to a cognac made during Louis XIII's reign.
Should you find something you like during your visit, you're welcome to purchase it: Literally everything in the museum is for sale. Unlike in the stodgy Smithsonians, where food and drink can be consumed only in a centralized café, visitors are free to roam the Mansion with an adult beverage in hand.
You might personally find the Mansion a little too wacky. If so, you're free not to spend any money there. One can't say the same for D.C.'s better-known museums, which are supported by all taxpayers, whether they visit or not.