Degas’ pastel The Tub is included in “Great Works, In Focus,” a series in the Washington Post featuring art critic Sebastian Smee’s favorite works in permanent collections around the United States
[The Tub] by Edgar Degas in the collection of the Hill-Stead Museum, a little-known museum in Farmington, Conn., is one of my favorite works in any American collection. At the most basic level, it is just a wonder to me that one human would respond to another by making something like this.Sebastian Smee
The 1901 Pope Riddle house and its period rooms are open for guided tours only.
Guided tours of the Pope Riddle House are offered Wednesday through Sunday, every hour on the hour from 10 am to 4 pm with the last tour at 3 pm; closed major holidays (Easter Sunday, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day).
Tickets may be purchased at the museum on a first-come, first-serve basis; no more than 16 people per tour.
Hill-Stead’s grounds are open to the public daily from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. for group of eight or more please contact Karen Hudkins to make an advance reservation. Dogs are welcome at Hill-Stead. Please note: They must wear a leash and stay under their owner’s control at all times.
To keep our Museum accessible to all, Hill-Stead Museum offers AAA, Blue Star Museums, Museums for All, and Connecticut Art Trail Benefits.
Museum members are always free Not a member? Join now.
Hill-Stead welcomes groups of 10 or more with advance reservations. For more information, see Group Tours.
Hill-Stead now offers both in-person and online field trips. BOOK NOW
Visitors will be required to lock their bags and personal belongings in the lockers located in the visitor center, or alternatively, to store them in their car during the visit/tour of the historic house and/or art gallery.
To keep our museum accessible to all, Hill-Stead participates in the Blue Star Museums, Museums for All, AAA and Connecticut Art Trail programs.
Museum Members are always free. Not a Member? JOIN NOW
Members | FREE Adults | $18 AAA & Seniors (62+) | $16 Students | $12 Children 6-12 | $10 Children under 6 | FREE
Museum Members are always FREE! Not a Member? JOIN NOW
Special Admission Programs
As a Blue Star Museum, Hill-Stead offers active-duty military families FREE admission from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and museums across America.
Hill-Stead is a part of the Museums for All program and offers FREE admission for up to four people to with the presentation of a SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. Museums for All is a cooperative initiative between Association of Children’s Museums and Institute of Museum and Library Services to offer a program that encourages families of all backgrounds to visit museums regularly and build lifelong museum habits.
Hill-Stead is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail. Discover Connecticut’s artistic treasures with the Connecticut Art Trail Art Passport. The $25 Art Passport includes one admission to each of the 20 member museums per year. Explore diverse, quality collections rich in history and heritage, including European masterpieces, American Impressionism, ancient art and contemporary culture.
The safety of staff and visitors is our highest priority.
To ensure a safe, inspiring experience for all, we’ve adopted new health and safety protocols. You’ll find everything you need to know about your next visit below.
Social distancing best practices are in place. All persons entering the building will be required to wear a face mask covering at all times.
Always wear a facemask and make sure it fits over your nose and mouth
Practice safe social distancing. Please keep six feet between yourself and others (outside your party)
Please wash/sanitize your hands at our sanitizing stations
A limited number of visitors will be permitted at one time
A one-way flow of traffic will be required in the House
Contactless payment is available and encouraged
Please let us know if you or another member of your party have traveled outside of Connecticut in the past 14 days or experiencing fever, chills, cough, or any other symptoms
Hill-Stead Receives Site-Wide National Historic Landmark Designation
Hill-Stead Museum and its entire 152-acre campus, encompassing nine built structures and landscape features, was approved by the Secretary of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark on January 13, 2021. The Museum’s 1901 historic house has held the distinction since 1991.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, Hill-Stead, best known for its world-class art and architecture, was among ten sites across the country added to the list. All received recognition as “historic properties of exceptional value to the nation.”
To be listed in the register, a property has to be at least 50 years old and meet at least one of the following criteria: significance in architecture; association with a person of importance; archaeological potential; or significant events in its history. History is a broad area of significance with many categories, including education and conservation.
“Hill-Stead is humbled and honored to be among these ten designated landmarks. Each reveals significant stories of our nation’s diverse heritage through art, architecture, and community,” says Dr. Anna Swinbourne, Hill-Stead’s Executive Director and CEO.
Video courtesy of Lev Verbitsky
One of the nation’s few remaining representations of early-20th-century country estates, Hill-Stead was the first architectural project of founder Theodate Pope Riddle (1867–1946), one of the first licensed female architects in the U.S., and an early proponent of historic preservation. She designed it for her parents, and the Colonial Revival mansion welcomed members of the Roosevelt Family, Mary Cassatt, and Henry James, who wrote in his 1907 book The American Scene that it was: “…. a great new house on a hilltop that overlooked the most composed of communities; a house apparently conceived—and with great felicity—on the lines of a magnified Mount Vernon.” She went on to design Westover School and Avon Old Farms School and rehabilitate Theodore Roosevelt’s Gramercy Park birthplace.
A lover of the natural world, Theodate Pope Riddle’s project started with the land, resulting in an 1898 farm complex inspired by her early experiences traveling with her parents on a Grand Tour of Europe from 1888-1889. During this time, she developed a deep empathy for animals, and a mere decade later, she would fulfill her dreams of creating an innovative working farm at Hill-Stead.
Today, Hill-Stead has brought together a community of over a million visitors since opening to the public in 1947. It continues to innovate as a beacon of creativity with live outdoor art performances, educational offerings, and public and private events.
The beloved house on the hill provides a rare opportunity to be surrounded by world-renowned art while enjoying the expansive estate—an outdoor masterpiece itself. Unique features include a Beatrix Farrand-designed sunken garden, stunning vistas, walking trails, woodlands, and meadows with sheep.
More inviting and intimate than the typical Museum, Hill-Stead gives its visitors a close-up, personal view of renowned masterpieces, textiles, and decorative arts in situ. The impressive artworks live in an intimate domestic setting, as intended by Impressionist artists of the period, who created works to be lived with, and that would enliven any interior. A treasure trove for Impressionist lovers, Hill-Stead’s holdings include paintings by Manet, Monet, Degas, Whistler, and Cassatt that rival artwork found in the world’s major art institutions. One of three museums in the nation with two examples of Monet’s Haystacks, Hill-Stead’s collection includes the artist’s stunning seascapes, an early scene of northern France, and an arresting Mediterranean view.<
The 1901 house and its period rooms are open for guided tours only Thursday through Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm. The grounds are open to the public daily from 7:30 am–5:30 pm.
The holidays aren’t slowing down our construction project at Hill-Stead—the past two weeks have been busy, noisy, dusty, and at times, a little smelly!
Woodworkers and painters are repairing the siding and trim along large swaths of the exterior. At the same time, the infrastructure and piping for sufficient basement drainage are being laid underneath the area known as the kitchen garden.
What is less visible to our visitors is the interior work, including the new, upgraded, and ADA-compliant restrooms. (We are very proud that our plans include more than double the number of bathrooms required by code.) For a central bank – of men, women, and family rooms – in the structure’s northwest corner, the new walls and plumbing have been put in place, and the ductwork is currently being installed.
Special Holiday Tours of Through the Tulle will take place on Saturdays & Sundays from 1 to 5 pm, between November 28 – December 20. Tickets for these tours must be purchased in advance.Learn more
Members | FREE Adults | $18 AAA & Seniors (62+) | $16 Students | $12 Children 6-12 | $10 Children under 6 | FREE
Museum Members are always FREE! Not a Member? JOIN NOW
We recommend that all visitors make reservations in advance RESERVE TICKETS
Special Admission Programs
As a Blue Star Museum, Hill-Stead offers active-duty military families FREE admission from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and museums across America.
Hill-Stead is a part of the Museums for All program and offers FREE admission for up to four people to with the presentation of a SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. Museums for All is a cooperative initiative between Association of Children’s Museums and Institute of Museum and Library Services to offer a signature access program that encourages families of all backgrounds to visit museums regularly and build lifelong museum habits.
Hill-Stead is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail. Discover Connecticut’s artistic treasures with the Connecticut Art Trail Art Passport. The $25 Art Passport includes one admission to each of the 20 member museums per year. Explore diverse, quality collections rich in history and heritage, including European masterpieces, American Impressionism, ancient art and contemporary culture.
Please note:
There are no self-paced tours at this time.
There are no school group visits at this time.
The safety of staff and visitors is our highest priority.
To ensure a safe, inspiring experience for all, we’ve adopted new health and safety protocols. You’ll find everything you need to know about your next visit below.
Social distancing best practices are in place. All persons entering the building will be required to wear a face mask covering at all times.
Always wear a facemask and make sure it fits over your nose and mouth
Practice safe social distancing. Please keep six feet between yourself and others (outside your party)
Please wash/sanitize your hands at our sanitizing stations
A limited number of visitors will be permitted at one time
A one-way flow of traffic will be required in the House
Contactless payment is available and encouraged
Please let us know if you or another member of your party have traveled outside of Connecticut in the past 14 days or experiencing fever, chills, cough, or any other symptoms
Watching the progress on our construction this past week was nothing short of amazing! The symbiosis of destruction and creation continues to work its magic.
Down came the kitchen and the interior modifications made years ago, namely to install visitor bathrooms near the Makeshift Theater, which resulted in a massive pile of rubble, seen in this photograph below. (From this pile, we extracted and saved beams of the original wooden structure, which we plan to cut and craft into souvenirs for faithful donors and supporters.)
Hill-Stead’s gorgeous grounds and garden remain open to the public daily from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm
Hill-Stead is now open for both in-person and online field trips. Book yours now!
Please review Hill-Stead’s extensive safety measures to keep its visitors safe via the reopening plan
Admission
Members | FREE Adults | $18 AAA & Seniors (62+) | $16 Students | $12 Children 6-12 | $10 Children under 6 | FREE
Museum Members are always FREE! Not a Member? JOIN NOW
We recommend that all visitors make reservations in advance RESERVE TICKETS
Special Admission Programs
As a Blue Star Museum, Hill-Stead offers active-duty military families FREE admission from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and museums across America.
Hill-Stead is a part of the Museums for All program and offers FREE admission for up to four people to with the presentation of a SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. Museums for All is a cooperative initiative between Association of Children’s Museums and Institute of Museum and Library Services to offer a signature access program that encourages families of all backgrounds to visit museums regularly and build lifelong museum habits.
Hill-Stead is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail. Discover Connecticut’s artistic treasures with the Connecticut Art Trail Art Passport. The $25 Art Passport includes one admission to each of the 20 member museums per year. Explore diverse, quality collections rich in history and heritage, including European masterpieces, American Impressionism, ancient art and contemporary culture.
Please note:
There are no self-paced tours at this time.
There are no school group visits at this time.
Due to construction, we only have portable bathrooms available to the public onsite.
The safety of staff and visitors is our highest priority.
To ensure a safe, inspiring experience for all, we’ve adopted new health and safety protocols. You’ll find everything you need to know about your next visit below.
Social distancing best practices are in place. All persons entering the building will be required to wear a face mask covering at all times.
Always wear a facemask and make sure it fits over your nose and mouth
Practice safe social distancing. Please keep six feet between yourself and others (outside your party)
Please wash/sanitize your hands at our sanitizing stations
A limited number of visitors will be permitted at one time
A one-way flow of traffic will be required in the House
Contactless payment is available and encouraged
Please let us know if you or another member of your party have traveled outside of Connecticut in the past 14 days or experiencing fever, chills, cough, or any other symptoms
Members | FREE Adults | $18 AAA & Seniors (62+) | $16 Students | $12 Children 6-12 | $10 Children under 6 | FREE
Museum Members are always FREE! Not a Member? JOIN NOW
We recommend that all visitors make reservations in advance RESERVE TICKETS
Special Admission Programs
As a Blue Star Museum, Hill-Stead offers active-duty military families FREE admission from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and museums across America.
Hill-Stead is a part of the Museums for All program and offers FREE admission for up to four people to with the presentation of a SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. Museums for All is a cooperative initiative between Association of Children’s Museums and Institute of Museum and Library Services to offer a signature access program that encourages families of all backgrounds to visit museums regularly and build lifelong museum habits.
Hill-Stead is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail. Discover Connecticut’s artistic treasures with the Connecticut Art Trail Art Passport. The $25 Art Passport includes one admission to each of the 20 member museums per year. Explore diverse, quality collections rich in history and heritage, including European masterpieces, American Impressionism, ancient art and contemporary culture.
Please note:
There are no self-paced tours at this time.
There are no school group visits at this time.
The safety of staff and visitors is our highest priority.
To ensure a safe, inspiring experience for all, we’ve adopted new health and safety protocols. You’ll find everything you need to know about your next visit below.
Social distancing best practices are in place. All persons entering the building will be required to wear a face mask covering at all times.
Always wear a facemask and make sure it fits over your nose and mouth
Practice safe social distancing. Please keep six feet between yourself and others (outside your party)
Please wash/sanitize your hands at our sanitizing stations
A limited number of visitors will be permitted at one time
A one-way flow of traffic will be required in the House
Contactless payment is available and encouraged
Please let us know if you or another member of your party have traveled outside of Connecticut in the past 14 days or experiencing fever, chills, cough, or any other symptoms
As we all know, sometimes one has to take things apart to create something new and beautiful!
We are delighted to share that we are now at that exciting stage at Hill-Stead. The exterior fencing—in our favorite shade of green—has gone up and been decorated with colorful renditions of the renovated spaces to come. And, the interior demolition has begun. In these photographs, you can see the transition that is occurring in the museum’s entryway. The paneling on the north wall has come down, revealing a first look at the ticket desk and gift shop! For the moment, the shop serves as central command for our site supervisor, Carl (pictured above in red coat here). Continue reading →
Hill-Stead is a member of the 
A lover of the natural world, Theodate Pope Riddle’s project started with the land, resulting in an 1898 farm complex inspired by her early experiences traveling with her parents on a Grand Tour of Europe from 1888-1889. During this time, she developed a deep empathy for animals, and a mere decade later, she would fulfill her dreams of creating an innovative working farm at Hill-Stead.
