490 Best Sights in USA

This grand 1838 Greek Revival mansion became Sherman's headquarters during the war. His soldiers are said to have tossed government documents out the windows and fueled their fires with Confederate money. Home to eight Georgian governors, and the founding building of Georgia College and State University, the mansion underwent a painstaking $10 million restoration in the early 2000s. Guided tours of the building are given daily on the hour. Specialty tours can be arranged in advance for an additional fee.

Washington's oldest surviving building, this fieldstone house in the heart of Georgetown, was built in 1765 by a cabinetmaker named Christopher Layman. A succession of occupants used the house as a residence and business place until 1953 when the National Park Service purchased it. Over the next seven years, it underwent an extensive restoration that has preserved the building's Revolutionary War–era architecture and design. The furnishings of several of the rooms reflect the times, with the simple, sturdy artifacts—plain tables, spinning wheels, and so forth—of 18th-century middle-class life. You can take a self-guided tour of the house and its lovely English-style gardens.

is one of the few former Long Island estates still intact, and today the grounds and 1906 Gold Coast mansion built by financier-sportsman John S. Phipps are open to the public. The mansion showcases the home's original furniture and the family's art and belongings; the beautiful 160-acre property includes formal gardens, fountains, woodlands, and lakes.

The stately Federal-style manor in Bowdoin Square was designed by Charles Bulfinch for former Boston mayor and lawyer Harrison Gray Otis. Today, the National Historic Landmark serves as the headquarters for the heritage organization Historic New England, and visitors can stop in for guided tours that offer insight into wealthy domestic life during the early 1800s. Due to its age, this building is not ADA accessible.

Completed in 1892 for beer baron Captain Frederick Pabst, this is one of Milwaukee's treasured landmarks. The 37-room Flemish Renaissance–style mansion, designed by the architectural firm Ferry & Clas, has a tan pressed-brick exterior with carved-stone and terra-cotta ornamentation. Inside, no surface is left undecorated. Walls are swathed in elaborately textured and painted coverings, every window has multiple swags and shades, and stained-glass windows bear sayings (in German) exhorting servants to work hard. In the adjacent gift shop, pick up the ultimate Milwaukee souvenir: an amber glass beer stein Christmas tree ornament with glittery foam.

Houses in 19th-century South Florida were often built of tabby mortar, a concrete-like material made of sand and seashells. For a fine example of such construction, stop by Palm Cottage, built in 1895 and one of the Lower Gulf Coast's few surviving tabby homes. The historically accurate interior contains simple furnishings typical of the period. Next door to the cottage, Norris Gardens was designed to reflect turn-of-the-last-century garden trends. Docent tours of the home are included with admission; for an extra $10, join the two-hour walking tour of the garden and historic district held on Wednesday morning (reservations required).

The architecturally significant Park-McCullough House is a 35-room classic French Empire–style mansion, built in 1865 and furnished with period pieces. Several restored flower gardens grace the landscaped grounds, and a barn holds some antique carriages. Docent-led tours may be available for an added cost while the house is open. The grounds are open daily year-round.

2025 marks the 250th anniversaries surrounding Paul Revere's Midnight Ride and the start of the American Revolution. Special programming related to the anniversaries is offered all year long throughout the city, including at the Paul Revere House. Originally on the site was the parsonage of the Second Church of Boston, home to the Rev. Increase Mather, the Second Church's minister. Mather's house burned in the great fire of 1676, and the house that Revere was to occupy was built on its location about four years later, nearly 100 years before Revere's 1775 midnight ride through Middlesex County. Revere owned the house from 1770 until 1800, although he lived there for only 10 years and rented it out for the next two decades. Pre-1900 photographs show it as a shabby warren of storefronts and apartments. The clapboard sheathing is a replacement, but 90% of the framework is original; note the Elizabethan-style overhang and leaded windowpanes. A few Revere furnishings are on display here, and just gazing at his silverwork—much more of which is displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts—brings the man alive. Special events are scheduled throughout the year, many designed with children in mind, such as role-play by characters dressed in period costume serving apple-cider cake and other Colonial-era goodies, a silversmith practicing his trade, a dulcimer player entertaining a crowd, or a military-reenactment group in full period regalia.

The immediate neighborhood also has Revere associations. The little cobblestone park in North Square is named after Rachel Revere, his second wife, and the adjacent brick Pierce-Hichborn House once belonged to relatives of Revere. The garden connecting the Revere House and the Pierce-Hichborn House is planted with flowers and medicinal herbs favored in Revere's day. This is Freedom Trail stop 12.

Writer Pearl S. Buck, best known for her novel The Good Earth, lived at Green Hills Farm, a country house not too far from Doylestown. Here she wrote nearly 1,000 novels, children's books, and works of nonfiction while raising seven adopted children and caring for many others. The house, now a National Historic Landmark, still bears the imprint of the girl who grew up in China and became the first American woman to win both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes. The house also contains the writer's collection of Asian and American antiques and personal belongings.

On a gentle rise 150 yards from the Delaware River, Pennsbury Manor is a 1939 reconstruction of the Georgian-style mansion William Penn built in the 1680s. Living-history demonstrations on 43 of the estate's original 8,400 acres provide a glimpse of everyday life in 17th-century America. The property, including formal gardens, an icehouse, a smokehouse, and a bake-and-brew house, helps paint a picture of the life of an English gentleman 300 years ago. The plantation also shows that although history portrays Penn as a dour Quaker, as governor of the colony he enjoyed the good life by importing the finest provisions and keeping a vast retinue of servants. These extravagances led to financial difficulties that resulted in Penn's spending nine months in a debtor's prison. Though you can wander about the grounds on your own, the house can be seen only on a tour. On Sundays from April to October there are special programs, including those devoted to historic trades, living history theater and open-hearth cooking, to name a few. To get here, follow the blue-and-yellow historical markers.

This was the home of a prominent colonist and revolutionary who served as attorney general under the British, then as Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and later as president of the first and second Continental Congresses. The oak-paneled bedroom and Randolph family silver are remarkable.

On the bank of the Pocantico River sits this 18th-century farm and provisioning plant owned by Frederick Philipse III, whose Dutch family owned most of the land in the region. Guides in period costume conduct tours of the Dutch stone house filled with 17th- and 18th-century antiques. The museum focuses, however, on the lives and stories of the 23 enslaved Africans who lived here and on slavery in the colonial north. Check out the water-powered gristmill, 18th-century New World Dutch barn, slave garden, and reconstructed tenant house.

The largest scouting venue in the world, 137,000-acre Philmont Scout Ranch has hosted nearly 1 million Boy Scouts throughout its history—about 21,000 currently visit every summer, and on any given day about 3,000 of them are out plying the property's miles of rugged trails. Phillips Petroleum magnate and Boy Scouts of American benefactor Waite Phillips established the mountainous ranch. The museums of the Philmont Scout Ranch include Villa Philmonte, the restored 1927 Spanish-Mediterranean summer home of Waite Phillips, furnished with European and Southwestern antiques and Native American and Southwestern art. Tours of the mansion are conducted in July and August. Scouting cofounder Ernest Thompson Seton donated most of the holdings of the Philmont Museum & Seton Memorial Library, among them New Mexican art and artifacts, Native American rugs and pottery, and books on natural history and the history of the Southwest.

Franklin Pierce lived in this Greek Revival home, which overlooks a scenic bend in the Merrimack River at the north edge of downtown. He moved to Washington to become the 14th U.S. president—although in the eyes of many historians, one of the least effective and admired. A guided tour covers his life in mid-19th-century historical context.

Fans of presidential history might want to make the half-hour drive west to Hillsborough's Franklin Pierce Homestead. Tours of his stately 1804 childhood home are offered late May–mid-October.

One of the few surviving houses that lined the bayou in the late 1700s, and the only Creole colonial–style country house in the city open to the public, Pitot House is named for James Pitot, who bought the property in 1810 as a country home for his family. In addition to being one of the city's most prosperous merchants, Pitot served as New Orleans mayor from 1804 to 1805, the city's first after the Louisiana Purchase, and later as parish court judge. The Pitot House was restored and moved 200 feet to its current location in the 1960s, and is noteworthy for its stuccoed brick-and-post construction, an example of which is exposed on the second floor. The house is typical of the West Indies style brought to Louisiana by early colonists, with galleries around the house that protect the interior from both rain and sunshine. The house is furnished with period antiques from the United States, including special pieces from Louisiana.

The home of insurance magnate William Robertson Coe from 1910 to 1955, Planting Fields is now a public arboretum with 160 acres of gardens and plant collections and 250 acres of lawns and woodlands. Two greenhouse complexes nurture native plants. Coe Hall, the estate's magnificent Tudor-style manor, is filled with period furnishings and antiques, including windows from the home of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Guided tours of the house are available.

Though the "Master of the Macabre" lived in this tiny row house only three years, he wrote "MS Found in a Bottle" and his first horror story, "Berenice," in the tiny garret chamber that's now furnished in an early-19th-century style. Besides visiting this room, you can view changing exhibits and a video presentation about Poe's short, tempestuous life. Because of the possibility of crime, it's best to visit this neighborhood during daylight hours as part of a group.

Built in 1815, this mansion on Daniel's Hill was named to commemorate the many duels fought on the site. Once part of a 900-acre estate, this redbrick house surrounded by lawns retains a commanding view of the James River. It was the home of Dr. George Cabell, a friend of Thomas Jefferson and the physician of Patrick Henry. The facade is elegantly symmetrical, with two octagonal bays joined by a balustrade on each of the building's two stories. Interiors have been restored and furnished with pieces authentic to the early 19th century Federal period.

Baroness Micaela Pontalba built this twin set of town houses, one on each side of Jackson Square, around 1850; they are known for their ornate cast-iron balcony railings. Baroness Pontalba's father was Don Almonester, who sponsored the rebuilding of the St. Louis Cathedral in 1788. The strong-willed Miss Almonester also helped fund the landscaping of the square and the erection of the Andrew Jackson statue at its center. The Pontalba Buildings are publicly owned; the side to the right of the cathedral, on St. Ann Street, is owned by the state, and the other side, on St. Peter Street, by the city. On the state-owned side is the 1850 House, and at 540--B St. Peter Street on the city-owned side is a plaque marking the apartment of Sherwood Anderson, writer and mentor to William Faulkner.

The only dedicated house museum to an African American person in the state, this historic house was built for Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope around 1900 with all the modern conveniences of the time. Dr. Pope had been a military surgeon during the Spanish American War, then the first practicing black doctor in North Carolina, and later a mayoral candidate in the heavily segregated Jim Crow era. The two Columbia-educated daughters of Dr. Pope maintained the house until the 1990s, preserving 3,000 artifacts that give a glimpse of the life of a prominent black family in the 20th century.

The octagonal architecture of Poplar Forest, now standing in a residential neighborhood and surrounded by only a few remaining poplars, was conceived and built by Jefferson, and he would occasionally stay here between 1806 and 1813. This Palladian hermitage exemplifies the architect's sublime sense of order that is so evident at Monticello. Erected on a slope, the front of the house is one story high, with a two-story rear elevation. The octagon's center is a square, skylighted dining room flanked by two smaller octagons. The restoration to its Jefferson-era state is ongoing, and likely to continue for years to come. Every July 4 there's a free celebration that includes a reading of the Declaration of Independence and living-history exhibits. The house is deliberately unfurnished, so visit during a special event to see the property at its best.

Take a tour of what was once a major peanut and sweet potato farm in North Carolina, with an 1850 Greek revival manor house and its outbuildings. Watch a blacksmith at work, admire the farm animals, see weaving and basket-making demonstrations, and learn about the difficult lives of the people who were enslaved here. On Wednesday from 8 to 1, mid-April through late September, local farmers, growers, and artisans sell their produce, plants, and crafts. The site adjoins the hiking trails of the 67-acre Abbey Nature Preserve.

This 22-acre state historic site 10 miles south of central Charlotte marks the humble birthplace and childhood home of the 11th U.S. president, nicknamed "Napoléon of the Stump" for his excellent speeches. Guided tours of the log cabins (replicas of the originals) show what life was like for settlers back in 1795.

In June 1862, President Lincoln moved from the White House to this Gothic Revival cottage on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home to escape the oppressive heat of Washington and to grieve for the loss of his son Willie. Lincoln and his wife, Mary, lived in the cottage until November of that year, and because they found it to be a welcome respite from wartime tensions, they returned again during the summers of 1863 and 1864. Lincoln ultimately spent a quarter of his presidency at this quiet retreat; he was here just one day before he was assassinated. One of the most significant historic sites of Lincoln's presidency, it was here that he developed his ideas for what would become the Emancipation Proclamation. Visitors may picnic on the cottage grounds, which have been landscaped to look as they did when Lincoln lived here.

As you go up the hill toward the Cottage, there's a panoramic view of the city, including the Capitol dome. The 251-acre Soldiers' Home sits atop the third-tallest point in D.C.

Queen Emma, King Kamehameha IV's wife, used this small but stately New England–style home in Nuuanu Valley as a retreat from the rigors of court life in hot and dusty Honolulu during the mid- to late 1800s. Self-guided and docent-led tours highlight the residence's royal history and its eclectic mix of European, Victorian, and Hawaiian furnishings, most of which are original to the home. There are excellent examples of feather-covered kahilis (a standard), umeke (bowls), and koa-wood furniture. Visitors also learn how Queen Emma established what is today the largest private hospital in Hawaii, opened a school for girls, and ran as a widow for the throne, losing to King Kalakaua. Check online for special events like hula, quilting, and ukulele classes and a Hoonanea event including a tour, making a floral hairpiece, and picnic lunch. A short drive away, you can visit the Royal Mausoleum State Monument, where Queen Emma, her husband, and their son, Albert, who died at age four, are buried beside many other Hawaiian royals.

The 19th-century essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson lived briefly in the Old Manse in 1834–35, then moved to this home, where he lived until his death in 1882. Here he wrote Essays. Except for artifacts from Emerson's study, now at the nearby Concord Museum, the Emerson House furnishings have been preserved as the writer left them, down to his hat resting on the newel post. You must join one of the 45-minute-long tours to see the interior.

Three generations of the Townsend family, renowned merchants and ship traders, lived in this colonial saltbox structure dating from the American Revolution. Sally Townsend was responsible for alerting her father to the fact that a certain Benedict Arnold was going to betray his country. Many of the original family furnishings are in the house, and there are rotating exhibits of Civil War memorabilia and holiday decorations. The house-museum reveals much about Oyster Bay from the time of the Revolution through the town's affluent Victorian period.

Curious about how the wealthy built their urban palaces during America's Gilded Age? Steps away from the Magnificent Mile, the former Samuel Mayo Nickerson mansion has lavish interiors with 19th-century furniture and objets d'art, including pieces by Louis Comfort Tiffany and George Schastey, along with rotating exhibitions related to art, architecture, and design.

Built in 1640, Sparrow House is Plymouth's oldest structure. One of several historic houses in town that are open to visitors, it allows guests to take a peek into rooms furnished in the spartan style of the Pilgrims' era. In the adjoining 1720 section of the building is an art gallery, which supports the museum and has been in operation since the 1930s.