490 Best Sights in USA

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.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poet whose stirring tales of the village blacksmith, Evangeline, Hiawatha, and Paul Revere's midnight ride thrilled 19th-century America, once lived in this elegant Georgian mansion. One of several original Tory Row homes on Brattle Street, the house was built in 1759 by John Vassall Jr., and George Washington lived (and slept!) here during the Siege of Boston from July 1775 to April 1776. Longfellow first boarded here in 1837 and later received the house as a gift from his father-in-law on his marriage to Frances Appleton, who burned to death here in an accident in 1861. For 45 years Longfellow wrote his famous verses here and filled the house with the exuberant spirit of his literary circle, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Charles Sumner, an abolitionist senator. Longfellow died in 1882, but his presence in the house lives on—from the Longfellow family furniture to the wallpaper to the books on the shelves (many the poet's own).

The home, preserved and run by the National Park Service, hosts free guided tours Memorial Day through October. The formal garden is the perfect place to relax; the grounds are open year-round. Longfellow Park, across the street, is the place to stand to take photos of the house. The park was created to preserve the view immortalized in the poet's "To the River Charles." 

Shaded by giant live oaks draped with Spanish moss, this 157-acre park has picnic tables and pavilions and early Acadian structures. The on-site museum traces the history of the Acadians and their settlement along the Bayou Teche in the early 1800s. The modest bright-yellow house was built in 1815 of handmade bricks, and it contains Louisiana antiques. An hour-long tour includes many interesting details about life on the plantation.

As a 16-year-old immigrant working in the New Orleans shipyards, Henry Lonsdale noticed how many damaged goods were arriving from upriver. Spotting a need for more-protective shipping materials, he developed the burlap sack and made a fortune, only to lose it all in the 1837 depression. Lonsdale turned to coffee importing, and in order to stretch his supply, he thought to cut the coffee grounds with chicory, a bitter root—and New Orleanians have been drinking the blend ever since. This house includes intricate cast-iron work and a carved marble entrance hall. The statue of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in the front yard is a remnant of the house's more than 70 years as an active Catholic chapel.

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 dark brown exterior of Louisa May Alcott's family home sharply contrasts with the light, wit, and energy so much in evidence within. Named for the apple orchard that once surrounded it, Orchard House was the Alcott family home from 1857 to 1877. Here Louisa wrote Little Women, based in part on her life with her three sisters; and her father, Bronson, founded the Concord School of Philosophy—the building remains behind the house. Because Orchard House had just one owner after the Alcotts left, and because it became a museum in 1911, more than 80% of the original furnishings remain, including the semicircular shelf-desk where Louisa wrote Little Women. The only way to visit the house is by guided tour; reservations are recommended.

One of the restored 18th-century houses in this lovely court was once home to Benjamin Loxley, a carpenter who worked on Independence Hall. The court's claim to fame, according to its residents, is as the spot where Benjamin Franklin flew his kite in his experiment with lightning; the key tied to it was the key to Loxley's front door. Peer through the icon gates to see the home, as it is private and can be admired only from the outside.

Samuel Insull, partner of Thomas Edison and founder of Commonwealth Edison, built this mansion as a country home in 1916. After Insull lost his fortune, John Cuneo Sr., the printing-press magnate, bought the estate and fashioned it to suit his own taste. The skylighted great hall in the main house resembles the open central courtyard of an Italian palazzo, the private family chapel has stained-glass windows, and a gilded grand piano graces the ballroom.

Also called the "Jockey's Mansion," this massive, three-story Italianate mansion is a neighborhood landmark (and now a popular setting for Hollywood film crews). Designed by the prominent New Orleans architect James Gallier Jr., it was built in 1865 for Florence A. Luling, whose family had made a fortune selling turpentine to Union soldiers when they occupied New Orleans during the Civil War. When the Louisiana Jockey Club took over the Creole Race Course (now the Fair Grounds) in 1871, they purchased the mansion and used it as a clubhouse for the next 20-odd years. It is not open to the public.

Charles Fletcher Lummis was an American journalist and civil rights activist who advocated for indigenous people’s rights and historic preservation. After dropping out of Harvard, he set out to walk from Ohio to Los Angeles, where he ultimately resettled after spending several decades throughout California and the Southwest as a journalist. The Lummis House, or El Alisal, was hand-built by Lummis over the course of 14 years. Visitors come in awe of the exterior of the house, which is built of river rock, concrete flooring, and shelving that was set into the walls so that the entirety of the house could be cleaned with a garden hose. Today El Alisal is a state historical monument owned by the Los Angeles City Parks and Recreation Department.

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.

From 1904 to 1934, this restored 28-room brick building was the home of a pioneering African-American businesswoman and educator whose endeavors included banking, insurance, and establishing a newspaper called The St. Luke Herald. Visitors can take a 45-minute tour of the house and watch a movie about her accomplishments.

The kids will have a blast at this hyper-interactive children's museum. Highlights include a hair-raising static ball, a photo-sensitive wall that captures visitors' silhouettes, and other hands-on exhibits. The museum is in a restored Victorian house in Kirkwood, which is just as interesting as the museum.

This cottage and outdoor museum was the home of Celia Mann, one of only 200 free African Americans in Columbia in the mid-1800s. Tours are available as part of Historic Columbia's self-guided Journey to Freedom tour, which includes access to the nearby Modjeska Monteith Simkins House. Buy tickets at the Robert Mills House.

The summer home of Levi Manning, onetime Tucson mayor, was a popular gathering spot for the city's elite in the early 1900s. The cabin can be reached only on foot or horseback via one of several challenging high-country trails: Douglas Spring Trail to Cow Head Saddle Trail (12 miles), Turkey Creek Trail (7.5 miles), or Tanque Verde Ridge Trail (15.4 miles). The cabin itself is not open for viewing.

The three-story brick house and its 34 acres were the home of the 19th-century utopian Oneida Community, founded in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes. The sect believed that the second coming of Christ had already occurred and that a new Eden could be achieved on Earth. Followers considered themselves sinless and believed in the sharing of property and spouses. The group, which supported itself by making silk thread, animal traps, canned foods, and silverware, eventually led to the formation of tableware manufacturer Oneida Ltd. The mansion, a 93,000-square-foot National Historic Landmark with beautiful mansard roofs, was constructed in stages between 1861 and 1914 and contains 35 apartments (some occupied by descendants of the original community members), a large hall, a dining room, and a museum. Guided tours are the only way to see the interior.

This is D.C.’s funkiest museum. A reimagining of your grandma’s attic by surreal filmmaker Federico Fellini, it has dozens of secret doors and passageways, as well as rooms overflowing with antiques, pictures, figures of medieval angels, and memorabilia, including 60 signed Gibson guitars, stuffed animals, chandeliers, and books. The museum, housed in five interconnecting town houses, also doubles as an inn, where rooms pay homage to notables such as John Lennon, Winston Churchill, and Rosa Parks, once a frequent visitor. You can get a peek at the themed rooms when they're not occupied by rock stars or CEOs, who value the mansion’s privacy and security.

One of America's most cherished authors found inspiration in this out-of-the-way hamlet about 20 miles outside of Gainesville. The 90-acre park, set amid aromatic citrus groves, has a playground for kids and short hiking trails, where you might see owls, deer, or Rawlings' beloved "red birds." But the main attraction is the restored Florida Cracker–style home, where Rawlings wrote classics such as The Yearling and Cross Creek and entertained the likes of poet Robert Frost, author Thornton Wilder, and actor Gregory Peck. The house is guarded closely by spirited roosters, and access to its interior is only available by guided tours.

Vermont's only national park is the nation's first to focus on conserving natural resources. The pristine 555-acre spread includes the mansion, gardens, and carriage roads of Frederick H. Billings (1823–90), a financier and the president of the Northern Pacific Railway. The entire property was the gift of Laurance S. Rockefeller (1910–2004) and his wife, Mary French Rockefeller (Billings' granddaughter, 1910–97). You can learn more at the visitor center, tour the residential complex with a guide every hour on the hour, and explore the 20 miles of trails and old carriage roads that climb Mt. Tom.

San Diego pioneer and philanthropist George W. Marston (1850–1946) who financed the architectural landscaping of Balboa Park—among his myriad other San Diego civic projects—lived in this 16-room home at the northwest edge of the park. Designed in 1905 by San Diego architects Irving Gill and William Hebbard, it's a classic example of the American Arts and Crafts style, which emphasizes simplicity and functionality of form. On the 5-acre grounds is a lovely, romantic English garden, as interpreted in California. The house may only be visited by guided tour Friday through Sunday; tours are offered every hour and last 40–45 minutes and the last tour is 4 pm. Call for information about specialty tours of the gardens, historic 7th Avenue, and the Bankers Hill neighborhood.

The site of the first headquarters for the National Council of Negro Women, the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House celebrates the life and legacy of Bethune, who founded the council and also served as president of the National Association of Colored Women. It was the council’s headquarters from 1943 to 1966, and Bethune herself lived here from 1943 to 1949. The archives of the history of African American women in the United States and Bethune’s legacy are housed here as well. After a lengthy construction project to update the archival research areas and to stabilize the physical foundations, the site reopened to the public in 2018.

This two-story Georgian house, built from 1803 to 1806, was originally an inn. Abraham Lincoln courted Mary Todd, who lived here with her parents, when he came to visit Kentucky friends. This was the first historic site to be restored in honor of a First Lady.

George purchased a three-room cottage for his mother in 1772 for £225, renovated it, and more than doubled its size with additions. She spent the last 17 years of her life here, tending the garden where her original boxwoods still flourish today, and where many a bride and groom now exchange their vows. The home has been a museum since 1930. Inside, displays include Mrs. Washington's "best dressing glass," a silver-over-tin mirror in a Chippendale frame; her teapot; Washington family dinnerware; and period furniture. The kitchen, in a rather lopsided wooden house surrounded by the gardens, and its spit, are still the original structures. Tours begin on the back porch with a history of the house.

On the University of Tennessee campus, this museum has diverse collections of dinosaur fossils and exhibits on geology, archaeology of native peoples, the Civil War, and fine arts. Of special note is a room devoted to ancient Egyptian artifacts.

The handsome 14-room Federal-style mansion on the Westfield village green was built in 1820. The Chautauqua County Historical Society runs the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is decorated in high Victorian style. Displays include Civil War documents and American Indian and military artifacts.

The opulent Meadow Brook Hall was built in the late 1920s for Matilda Dodge, widow of auto pioneer John Dodge. The 110-room, 88,000-square-foot, Tudor-revival style mansion includes a two-story ballroom, original art and furnishings, and formal gardens.

Augusta's oldest residence, built around 1791, Meadow Garden was the home of George Walton, one of Georgia's three signers of the Declaration of Independence. At age 26, he was its youngest signer. Owned and operated by the Daughters of the American Revolution since 1900, it is one of the oldest house museums in the state of Georgia.

Built in 1832, this redbrick house, combining Federal and Greek Revival styles, provides a glimpse into the domestic life of the period 30 years before the Civil War. Retired merchant Seabury Tredwell and his descendants lived here from 1835 until 1933. The home became a museum in 1936, with the original furnishings and architectural features preserved; family memorabilia are on display. The fourth-floor servants' bedroom, where the family's staff slept and did some of their work, offers a look at the lives of Irish domestics in the mid-1800s. Guided tours are at noon, cover all five floors and the rear garden, and last about 75 minutes.