Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, Houston

A very beautiful and Romantic home with exquisite Art from many places & cultures. I'm told its over 4000 items of are there (I didn't keep count). The acreage is so very beautiful with very artistic landscaping. It's dreamland with education included.

The home was very interesting with the "Holiday Heroine" collection. I was disappointed that there weren't more Christmas decorations inside the home as well as outside. Our docent was very knowledgeable but seemed to be in a hurry - reminding us that she was "five minutes behind schedule" and we ended the tour in just a bit over an hour. (The tour schedule said that they last for 1.5 hrs! We felt gipped out of time in the house and questions that we would've asked).

This is without doubt one of the finest collections of American Decorative Arts ever assembled. Each room is decorated for a period between 1640 and 1870. Furniture by the finest craftsmen. Paintings by the best colonial-era artists. Twenty-seven rooms as authentic as they can be. Tours are conducted by volunteer docents who train for a full year and know everything to make a tour interesting and entertaining. The grounds consist of eight gardens on fourteen acres in the exclusive River Oaks section of Houston, very near downtown. Hundreds of volunteers and a distinguished staff manage the estate. It is a history lesson to remember and I will be there every time I have a chance. Look at the website.

Absolutely gorgeous! One of Houston's best kept secrets. I was born here and took a wrong turn one day and there I was. I will go back myself and also take out of town visitors.