We apologize for the inconvenience. Tours will resume on Wednesday, May 25.

News
HILL-STEAD WILL BE CLOSED FOR PUBLIC TOURS FROM THURSDAY, MAY 19 – SUNDAY, MAY 22, FOR A PRIVATE EVENT
HILL-STEAD WILL CLOSE AT NOON ON SATURDAY, MARCH 12
We look forward to resuming tours on Sunday, March 13.
“The Tub” Featured in The Washington Post
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

Photo by Anne Day
Read the article in the Washington Post
Great Works in Focus, Sebastian Smee (Washington Post, November 17, 2021)
100 Great Works, In Focus, Sebastian Smee (Washington Post, February 22, 2022)
Visit Our Collection to learn more about Hill-Stead’s exceptional collection, including Impressionist masterpieces by Monet, Degas, Manet, Whistler & Cassatt; Japanese woodblock prints; and decorative arts that reflect the Pope family’s travels
Hill-Stead Weekday Hours
Visit Hill-Stead!
- New members receive 20% off through July 31. Join now.
- Daily House Tours are available Wednesday through Sunday.
- Hill-Stead also offers Exclusive Private Tours on select Saturdays and Self-Guided Tours on the first Sunday of the month.
- Hill-Stead’s grounds are open every day and leashed dogs are welcome.
- Our brand-new Museum Shop is now open.
- Take a sneak peek at our transformative renovation project!
Visit Hill-Stead!
Daily Tours
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- 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 also offers Exclusive Private Tours on select Saturdays.
- Hill-Stead’s grounds are open to the public daily from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. 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 reservation. For more information, see Group Tours.
- Hill-Stead now offers both in-person and online field trips BOOK NOW
- Please review our reopening plan
Admission
To keep our museum accessible to all, Hill-Stead participates in the Blue Star Museums, Museums for All, AAA and Connecticut Art Trail programs.
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
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
Our top priority is the health and well-being of our team, visitors, and community. Hill-Stead reserves the right to require masks regardless of vaccination status. Daily House Tours are available Wednesday through Sunday. Hill-Stead offers Self-Guided Tours on the first Sunday of the month and Exclusive Private Tours on select Saturdays. Hill-Stead’s grounds are open every day and leashed dogs are welcome. Our brand-new Museum Shop is now open.
National Historic Landmark Designation
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.
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.
Construction update – December 1, 2020
Inside, outside, everywhere you look
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.
In Honor of Veteran’s Day
We salute those who served!
We invite our Veterans to join us for a complimentary House Tour this weekend.
Please inform us upon arrival. See additional tour information and hours below.
Additional Tour Information
Celebrate the season at Hill-Stead with The Nutcracker Reimagined brought to us by Ballet Theatre Company. Enjoy a costume exhibition, dance performances, and special events.
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
Our Public Tours and Exclusive Private Tours continue at other times.
Daily Tours
- House tours take place Thursdays through Sundays from 10 am to 4 pm Learn more
- Hill-Stead Guides lead tours on the hour—the last tour begins at 3 pm
- Tours are offered on a first-come, first-serve basis
- There may be no more than 10 people per tour
- Tickets should be purchased upon arrival
- Hill-Stead also offers Exclusive Private Tours with our curator by appointment
- Hill-Stead’s gorgeous grounds and garden remain open to the public daily from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm
- Hill-Stead is also hosting From the Porch, a performing arts series; and an afterschool workshop series—all of which are open to the public
- 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
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
Please note:
- There are no self-paced tours at this time.
- There are no school group visits at this time.
Enjoy The Nutcracker Reimagined brought to us by Ballet Theatre Company including a costume exhibition, dance performances and special events.
Public tours and Exclusive Private Tours continue. Please review Hill-Stead’s extensive measures to keep its visitors safe via the reopening plan reopening plan
Construction update – November 10, 2020
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.)
Celebrate the Season at Hill-Stead!
We are thrilled to open our doors once again for the public.
Celebrate the season at Hill-Stead with Through the Tulle a special costume exhibition brought to us by Ballet Theatre Company, during out Daily House Tours through January 10
Daily Tours
- Visits to the house are by guided tour only and take place Thursdays through Sundays from 10 am to 4 pm Learn more
- Hill-Stead Guides lead tours on the hour—the last tour begins 3 pm
- Tours are offered on a first-come, first-serve basis
- There may be no more than 16 people per tour
- Tickets should be purchased upon arrival
- Hill-Stead also offers Exclusive Private Tours with our curator by appointment
- 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
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
Please note:
- There are no self-paced tours at this time.
- There are no school group visits at this time.
- The Museum Shop is closed.