Frederick Douglass rarely lacked for visitors at his estate in Anacostia [Washington, DC]. All sorts of people, including many of his 21 grandchildren, were often about, and the abolitionist writer saw to it that his home was equal to his hospitality.

For the past three years, preservationists have been working to keep it that way. And now the first major restoration project in more than three decades is complete, nearly 130 years after Douglass paid $6,700 for the hilltop mansion and the surrounding nine acres, which he would come to call Cedar Hill.

The National Park Service began showing off the finished product in mid-February with the reopening of the mansion for public tours that are booked into next month, the Park Service said.