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826 DC: The Museum of Unnatural History
Categories: Education Tutoring Centers Local Services Community Service/Non-Profit Tutoring Centers, Community Service/Non-Profit [Edit]
3233 14th St NWWashington, DC 20010
Neighborhood: Columbia Heights
- Nearest Transit:
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Columbia Heights Metro Station (Green, Yellow)
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
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9 reviews for 826 DC: The Museum of Unnatural History
9 reviews in English
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Review from Jenna M.
3/5/2012
I'm a big fan of the 826 program and was really excited to spot 826 DC's Museum of Unnatural History while en route to brunch at Sticky Fingers [http://www.yelp.com/bi... just around the corner. After stuffing our faces with baked goods, we stopped by the Museum to poke around and were really glad we did. The front of the building houses a quirky museum and gift shop featuring exhibits like testimonials from "Planets Kicked Out of the Solar System" and "Extinction Rematch" play sets, featuring two plastic dinosaurs and a plastic meteor. I laughed aloud more than a few times while browsing the gallery, and I hoped the rest of the museums we were planning to visit in D.C. would be half as fun as this.
The best part about 826 DC is that the Museum supports the tutoring and writing programs housed in the back of the building. Local students can take writing classes and get help with their homework here, funded by sales of items in the front of the house. So if you're in the area, stop by and pick up some Unicorn Tears for a good cause. You won't be disappointed! -
Review from Paul M.
12/30/2011
This place is the literal and figurative opposite of a mullet for two reasons:
1. It is super hip, cool, funny.
2. It's party in the front and business in the back.
An after school mentoring program for local kids is run in the back of the house. The front of the house is a store, where they sell a range of fun items - like unicorn tears - to raise money.
The whole theme is exploration / natural history, they sell everything a possible explorer could want - like FORMALdehyde to preserve your specimens. They also sell the under appreciated Business Casual DeHyde.
Place is hilarious - Soccerballgirl and I were there for a good hour yesterday, I was laughing at all the books and exhibits, and she was having a lot of fun digging in a treasure case of sand.
Really a top spot. -
Review from Christian C.
Reston, VA
Stumbled upon this place completely accidentally while strolling around Columbia Heights. It's got a quirky little gift shop in front and a tutoring center in the back. I seriously had a great time just looking at all the displays and silly items for sale like unicorn tears which raise money for the mentoring program. Wish I were enrolled in a place like this as a kid!
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Review from mike j.
Cheviot Hills, CA
3/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
This place was a BLAST. There were some awesome things to buy inside. Oh, yeah, and I guess tutoring kids is pretty cool too.
I literally bought unicorn tears. That's after I considered buying THE missing link.
Nuff said. -
Review from D R.
South Pasadena, CA
Waldorf schools require that its teachers harbor a legitimate belief in wood gnomes. Think of this place as a sidelong vamp on that notion.
Dave Eggers cofounded 826 National and apparently writes copy for some of the exhibits. The vast majority, however, are created in-house, and are unique to this location. (Check out my pics for examples of the quirkiness. I scored an awesome T-shirt made by Neko Case, and was all "my word, that's cool" when they swiped my cc via a http://squareup.com iPad reader.)
The volunteers and interns that staff the place are fantastic, both in that they delight in the museum and in the work they do with kids.
Yelp categorizes this place as several things, but because of 826 stores they'll have to invent two more: Roadside America and Freaking Awesome. I'll definitely be returning for gifts, and maybe even to explore volunteering. -
Review from J M.
San Diego, CA
1/16/2011
My favorite item in this store is the mega sand: a jar of very pretty pebbles. From the review the giant left, it feels just like regular sand if you're really big. I'm thinking, soon, though -- I'll get some unicorn tears from the unicorn kept out back that they read sad stories to all day. Or a t-shirt.
Anyway, I'll leave out the background because the others have mentioned this place is really a non-profit writing and tutoring center (part of the 826 family across the country), but check out the store and make a purchase. It goes to a good cause.
Oh, and if you're not into unicorn tears or even the koala containment unit (which looks a little small), they've got a good selection of Dave Egger's books and others' from McSweeny's, some posters that are pretty fun and a variety of t-shirts.
Take your kids. -
Review from CB B.
Washington, DC
11/14/2011
This just in - 826DC is now renting out it's excellent space after-hours and on weekends for events. $165 per hour with plenty of discounts available. Seems like a cool place to have party, unique wedding, holiday parties,board meeting, etc...e-mail joec@826dc.org if you are interested.
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Review from David C.
Washington, DC
11/7/2010
Background: 826 is a national non-profit dedicated to improving creative writing skills. Dave Eggers founded it, and he's a creative writer if there ever was one (some would call him a 'defining voice of our generation,' if those some were in the 20-30's heavily self-aware post-ironic set). Each 826 center is fronted by a themed store, generally selling things that are not real but are quite clever to raise money for the org. In NYC, they've got the superhero supply store, in LA, it's the Time Travel Mart. In DC, amongst the gentrifying monoliths of Target, Best Buy, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, lies the Museum of Unnatural History.
Foreground: The mission is to make kids fall in love with creating. One to one tutoring, homework help, and intelligent grown-ups showing that they value the work created by young minds accomplish this. The workshop is well-furnished; as far from a classroom as one can get without losing the basic elements of education (tables, chairs, lights, etc). The frontispiece is the aforementioned museum and the only way I can describe it is this: imagine combining the creative capacity of a late-20's-year-old with the topical immersion of a five year old (remember when the living room floor really was lava?). Give this hybrid infinitely witty/infinitely imaginative mind a theme - riffing on natural history museums - and let loose. There's formal-dehyde, there's semi-formal-dehyde, there's business-casual-dehyde. Unicorn tears. Bizarre cross-pollinated animals (an owliphant, e.g.). Unnaturalist journals. Surrealist dioramas. Skunk-butt evolutionary supplements. A cave (currently under excavation). Open your mind, walk in, and you will find yourself returned to the (literally) marvelous perspective of childhood.
Or, if you've got kids, get them signed up ASAP. I'm not telling you how to be a parent, but it seems like a good idea.
Moral: Creation is beautiful, especially for its own sake, but it's better when it's for the kids. -
Review from Rachel P.
Washington, DC
11/29/2010
I almost couldn't believe it when I heard: DC was getting an 826, and right in my neighborhood! I like their mission but I must confess I go for the storefronts (and I can feel good that buying stuff goes to a good cause). This one is most excellent, right up there with the pirate store in San Francisco! I highly encourage you to go and check it out, especially if you like laughing. Someday soon I will buy a t-shirt.
