The Hermitage is a 42-room Arts and Crafts mansion constructed between 1908 and 1936. The property covers twelve acres on the bank of the Lafayette River, of semi-formal gardens, forest and wetlands. From the start The Hermitage was designed to serve as both Mrs. Florence K. Sloane's home and as a public museum.
The Sloane collection is numbers more than 5,000 objects of fine and decorative art that spans 5,000 years of art history and represents over 30 countries. Notable is the Asian art collection that Mrs. Sloane amassed, working with curators from the Metropolitan Museum and the Freer Gallery, and prominent Asian art dealers. Also, from early Coptic tapestries to 20th century Spanish lace, textiles comprise a large portion of the Sloane Collection.