51 Best Sights in New York, USA

The birthplace and home of the country's 32nd president, Springwood is just as it was when the Roosevelts lived here. It contains family furnishings and keepsakes, and Franklin, Eleanor, and their beloved dog Fala are buried in the wonderful rose garden. At the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, photographs, letters, speeches, and memorabilia document FDR's life; a multimedia exhibit examines World War II. The first of the presidential libraries, the building was designed by Roosevelt himself.

On a hill surrounded by gardens, stone terraces, and fountains sits the stunning classical-revival mansion that was home to four generations of Rockefellers, one of America's most famous families. From its regal position, Kykuit (pronounced "kie-cut"), which means "lookout" in Dutch, has breathtaking views of the Hudson River. Antiques, ceramics, and famous artworks fill the house, which was finished in 1913; sculptures by Alexander Calder, Constantin Brancusi, Louise Nevelson, and Pablo Picasso adorn the grounds, which encompass 87 acres. You must take a tour to see the estate, which is accessible only by shuttle bus from the visitor center at Philipsburg Manor.

Six huge Ionic columns front this restored 1839 Greek Revival mansion overlooking Seneca Lake. The 21 rooms open to the public include servants' quarters, the children's playroom, the kitchen, dining room, and parlors. Some rooms are outfitted with the Empire-style furnishings that were used from 1850 to 1890 by the prosperous farm family that lived here. Guided tours of the house begin with an introductory film and are given on the hour weekdays and on the half hour weekends. The grounds include boxwood gardens.

The well-known architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White was responsible for the beaux arts style of this grand 65-room mansion fronted with mammoth columns. Formerly known as Mills Mansion, the Hudson River estate was a family home of financier Ogden Mills and his wife, Ruth Livingston Mills, in the late 1800s to early 1900s. You may see the mansion's lavish interior by guided tour only. The estate, one of the most beautiful properties in the Hudson Valley, has hiking and cross-country-skiing trails, and a huge hill for sledding in winter.

The imposing 1898 McKim, Mead, and White mansion, built for Cornelius Vanderbilt's grandson Fredrick, makes a striking contrast with its Roosevelt neighbor, Springwood. A fine example of life in the Gilded Age, the house is lavishly furnished and full of paintings. It conveys the wealth and privilege of one of the state's most prominent families. The grounds offer excellent views of the Hudson River and encompass lovely Italian gardens.

Rising real-estate prices inspired the construction of New York City's narrowest house—just 9½ feet wide and 32 feet deep—in 1873. Built on a lot that was originally a carriage entrance of the Isaacs-Hendricks House next door, this sliver of a building has illustrious past residents including actor John Barrymore and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.

The estate includes the Widow Jane Mine, cement kilns, and parts of the D&H Canal. A museum concentrates on the local cement industry and showcases antique sleighs and carriages. It's about 3 miles east of High Falls.

High-style period furniture and collections of crystal, silver, and porcelain fill this restored 1808 mansion, now a museum of Federal-period decorative arts. Built by States Morris Dyckman, a descendant of one of New Amsterdam's early Dutch families, the house originally stood in Montrose, some 15 miles south. It's open by tour only, but the grounds are reason enough to visit.

The house, built between 1783 and 1790, contains the Hurley Heritage Society Museum. It includes a good collection of Revolutionary War materials, and has changing exhibits about local history. Walking- and driving-tour brochures are available in its front lobby.

Although American author and poet Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, his final home was a cottage in the village of Fordham—now a neighborhood of the Bronx—where he lived with his young wife Virginia and her mother Maria Clemm. The 19th-century cottage has since been moved to a small green space now known as Poe Park, where it was restored and opened to the public in 2011 for literary and history buffs. You can learn all about the macabre writer who popularized the word "nevermore" with an audio tour by the Bronx County Historical Society.

An unpretentious cottage, Val-Kill was first a retreat and later the full-time residence for Eleanor Roosevelt. A biographical film, First Lady of the World, is shown at the site. The property encompasses 180 acres of trails and gardens. It's also the location of Val-Kill Industries, Eleanor's attempt to prevent farm workers from relocating to the city for employment; reproductions of early American furniture, pewter, and weavings were produced here.

The meticulously restored Elizabeth Cady Stanton House is where one of American feminism's most important leaders shaped social reform as she raised seven children. Stanton's feminist colleague, Susan B. Anthony of Rochester, was a guest in the house. A tour helps you to understand Stanton's charisma and power. The house, a mile east of the Declaration Park and visitor center (across the canal), is open early March through mid-December, with tours daily at 11:15 and 2:15 and more frequently in summer.

The General Philip Schuyler House was the general's country home before its destruction by the British in 1777. Schuyler and his soldiers rebuilt it in 29 days. The house includes some original furnishings. It's open from late May through Labor Day, Wednesday through Friday 9:30–4:30; tours are given every half hour.

One of Bay Shore's oldest houses and home to the historical society, this restored 1820s tradesman's house is authentically furnished and has on its property a Victorian herb garden, a chicken coop, and a two-seater outhouse. The research library in the basement contains antique postcards, old newspapers, maps, and books about the Bay Shore/Brightwaters area. Temporary exhibits display memorabilia and artifacts related to topics ranging from the world wars to crafts and sports.

Built as a country retreat by Scottish-born shipping magnate Archibald Gracie in 1799, when New York City ended much farther downtown, Gracie Mansion was made the official residence of the city's mayors in 1942. The first mayoral resident, Fiorello LaGuardia, dubbed it the "Little White House." More recently, former mayor Michael Bloomberg stayed in his own town house nearby while pouring millions into renovating the house and turning the first floor into a museum reflecting the city's history and diversity. Some mayors were hesitant about moving into Gracie Mansion; Eric Adams, the current mayor, has publicly said that the mansion is haunted, but he has been focusing on making "the People's House" more experiential to visitors. Public tours of the building are offered on Monday at 10:30 am, noon, and 1:30 pm and to private and school groups on Wednesday. Reservations must be made online; plan at least a month in advance, if possible.

Catching Hamilton on Broadway isn't the only way to learn about the famed Founding Father. Alexander Hamilton and his wife raised eight kids in this Federal-style country home, which he called his "sweet project." Once located on Hamilton's 32 acres, the Grange, named after his father's childhood home in Scotland, has moved three times since it was built in 1802. It now stands in St. Nicholas Park and gives a lesson in Hamilton's life, from his birth in the West Indies and his appointment as the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury to his authorship of The Federalist Papers and his death following a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. The house's ground floor, formerly servants' quarters, hosts an interactive exhibit that includes a short film on Hamilton's life. Tours include views of the parlor, study, dining room, and two guest rooms. Note the beautiful piano, which belonged to his daughter, Angelica.

Now part of the National Park Service's Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, the property's simple white clapboard house is where, beginning in 1890, Harriet Tubman tended to elderly African-Americans; the adjacent brick house served as her primary residence. Before Emancipation, Tubman led more than 300 slaves to freedom in the North. At the encouragement of William Seward, an abolitionist who served in two presidential cabinets, she settled in Auburn in the late 1850s. Seward and his family lived on the same road, a mile closer to town. The grounds are open for self-guided tours; house tours are given twice-daily (reservations are not required but are encouraged).

You can stroll the gardens, attend a multimedia show, and tour the restored Georgian-style mansion that was home to Revolutionary War general Nicholas Herkimer. Costumed historical interpreters inform you about the history, crafts, and lifestyle of the 18th century. Picnicking is encouraged.

The 1787 Georgian house was the home of Philip Van Rensselaer, one of the region's original Dutch settlers. Guided tours focus on Catherine Putnam, Rensselaer's niece, who lived in the house during the Civil War and World Wars I and II. The collection of family memorabilia encompasses more than 20,000 objects, including furniture, artworks, kitchen items, and pottery pieces; 3,000 photographs; and extensive documents and records. To visit the house you must take the tour, which lasts about an hour and starts on the hour. Note that Cherry Hill is closed currently for restoration.

A five-story cast-iron building from 1870, 101 Spring Street was the New York home and studio of minimalist artist Donald Judd. Although SoHo used to be home to many single-use cast-iron buildings, this designated historic building is one of the few that remain. Judd bought it in 1968, and today, guided 75-minute tours (book online, as early as possible, since tours sell out weeks in advance) explore his living and working spaces, offset with art installations arranged prior to his death in 1994. Note that climbing five flights of stairs is required and photos aren’t allowed.

The stone house, parts of which date from the 1720s, serves as the home of the Saugerties Historical Society and a museum. Inside you can see original architectural details, including wide-plank floors and fireplace mantels. The front lawn is the site of summertime concerts, periodic colonial reenactments, and other special events.

John Lansing, who served in the New York State Assembly (1780–88) and as mayor of Albany (1786–90), built this Federal-style manor in 1819 for his daughter Frances and son-in-law, the Honorable Jacob Sutherland, so that they could collect rent from his tenant farmers. After the Sutherlands sold the manor, it passed to the Rosseter, Spring, and Mattice families before the New York Power Authority bought it in 1972. The manor, a window onto the 19th century, is filled with period antiques, some of which belonged to the resident families. In the ladies' reception area you can see where a young member of the Rosseter clan and his friend scratched their names into the window with a diamond. Tours take place each half hour.

After Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, bought this circa-1830 house, he remodeled it into a Tuscan-style villa. It still contains the possessions and keepsakes of the family that lived here after him. The Morse Gallery, inside the visitor center, has exhibits of telegraph equipment and paintings by Morse. The grounds include gardens and hiking trails.

Josiah Hasbrouck—a lieutenant in the American Revolution and U.S. congressman during the presidential terms of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe—built the 1814 Federal-style mansion, which has an impressive three-story central hall. The house and its original furniture and paintings remained in the family until Hasbrouck's great-great-granddaughter opened it to the public in 1959. Tours are available by appointment.

For the last 28 years of his life, the famed jazz musician lived in this modest three-story house with his wife, Lucille. Take a 40-minute guided tour (reservations required in advance; departs on the hour, last tour at 3 pm), which are limited to 10 guests per tour. Note the difference between the rooms vividly decorated by Lucille in charming mid-century style and Louis's dark den, cluttered with phonographs and reel-to-reel tape recorders.

The 1737 restored Dutch farmhouse is especially noted for its collection of Hudson Valley paintings. The grounds include the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse that was actually used until the 1940s. It takes its name from the character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving. Irving, who tutored at Lindenwald, purportedly modeled the character after a schoolmaster who taught in the area.

Noted architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed this magnificent marble mansion overlooking the Hudson River. Built in 1838, Lyndhurst is widely considered the premier Gothic Revival home in the United States. You may tour the mansion's elaborate interior and stroll the 67 landscaped acres, which include a conservatory and a rose garden. The estate also includes a turn-of-the-20th-century bowling alley and an original child's playhouse. Kids can walk outside the perimeter of the playhouse and admire it, but are not allowed to enter it. During summer weekends, visitors can pay $5 to roam around the grounds, and then apply that fee to the guided tour price if they wish to learn more about the house.