10457 Best Sights in USA

This space is home to two galleries—Hirschl & Adler Galleries and Hirschl & Adler Modern. The galleries focus on American and European paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculpture from the 18th through the early-20th centuries. The latter differs by specializing in modernist, postwar, and contemporary works.

Occupying almost an entire city block between Broadway and Riverside Drive East on 155th Street in upper Manhattan, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, a repository of an extraordinarily rich collection of more than half a million items relating to the art and cultures of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, opened to the public for the first time in six years in early 2023. Founded in 1904 as a museum for Spanish and Portuguese art, with Goya’s Dutchess of Alba (1797) as a major draw of the collection, the museum reopened with a mission to connect the Society to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries and to its Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights. The Dutchess of Alba is still here, and still a big draw in the arcaded, Spanish Renaissance--style Main Court, which features luscious terra-cotta details. Other highlights include the Sorolla Vision of Spain Gallery housing 14 monumental paintings from the Valencian master painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, and the Upper Terrace, an open-air space that looks out over the bronze equestrian statue of El Cid and other fine sculptures. Renovations to the museum continue and will include a visitor center and an education center.

Stroll on the paths or take to the water on a boat tour or in a paddleboat to explore this 32-acre urban waterfront park. Boat rides are available at the riverwalk center at 101 South Union Avenue.

Jewish peddlers in the Adirondacks built this synagogue in 1905. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the synagogue has been restored and contains art exhibits. It also hosts concerts and other activities.

At this engaging living history museum on the edge of the historic hamlet of Cashmere—midway between Wenatchee and Leavenworth—you can explore an excellent collection of Native American artifacts, as well as 20 pre-1900 Chelan County buildings that have been reassembled and furnished with period furniture and other historical objects. Surrounded by snowcapped mountain peaks, Cashmere is one of Washington's oldest towns, founded by Oblate missionaries back in 1863, when the Wenatchi and their vast herds of horses still roamed free over the bunch grasslands of the region.

The St. Mary's River, which once powered Historic Cecil's Old Mill, is just a trickle in this area now, so the water wheel now runs on electricity. Today the building, which dates to 1900, contains an artist co-op as well as a small display of artifacts and photographs of the mill. In keeping with the setting, most of the arts and crafts on sale are quaint and rustic: rural scenes painted on circular saw blades or lighthouses on driftwood, crocheted place mats, and colorful quilts. The mill is about five miles west of Lexington Park and quite difficult to find—there are no signposts. Once a year, in the fall, the mill is powered up for sawing logs. Call for details.

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.

Completed in 1735, this church opened its doors when George Washington was three years old. The Georgian-style structure, included in the National Register of Historic Places, was built by Robert "King" Carter, and contains a rare "triple-decker" pulpit made of native walnut. Bricks for the church were fired in a great kiln near the churchyard. An informative 12-minute video is screened in the museum.

The Cody Mural, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presents a larger-than-life artistic interpretation of Mormon settlement in the West. Edward Grigware painted the 36-foot-diameter scene on the domed ceiling in the 1950s. A small museum contains historical artifacts as well as interactive kiosks where visitors can explore their genealogy.

Craftspeople in date-appropriate costumes demonstrate their trades using traditional tools, methods, and materials at this nonprofit, living-history site on 22 shady acres north of Cape May. The farming village is made up of more than 20 restored buildings originally built between 1691 and 1905, including a blacksmith shop, a bookbindery, and a schoolhouse.

Historic Cranbrook House and Gardens is an Arts and Crafts-style mansion designed by Albert Kahn for newspaper publisher George Booth and his wife, Ellen. Situated on a 319-acre National Historic Landmark campus, the house, the oldest surviving manor house in the Detroit area, has lead-glass windows, beautiful art objects, and formal gardens with fountains and sculpture.

Storied Route 66 runs right through the heart of downtown Flagstaff. The late Victorian, Tudor Revival, and early Art Deco architecture in this district recalls the town's heyday as a logging and railroad center. The Santa Fe Depot now houses the visitor center. The 1927 Hotel Monte Vista, built after a community drive raised $200,000 in 60 days, is one of the Art Deco highlights of the district; today it houses a restaurant, live music venue, and a combination coffeehouse and cocktail bar. Across the street, the 1888 Babbitt Brothers Building was constructed as a building-supply store and then turned into a department store by David Babbitt, the mastermind of the Babbitt empire. (The Babbitts are one of Flagstaff's wealthiest founding families.) The Weatherford Hotel, built in 1900, hosted many celebrities; Western author Zane Grey wrote The Call of the Canyon here. Most of the area's first businesses were saloons catering to railroad construction workers, which was the case with the 1888 Vail Building. Nowadays, downtown is a bustling dining and retail district, with restaurants, bakeries, and alluring shops. Across the railroad tracks, the revitalized Southside is home to popular eateries and craft breweries.

Shops and restaurants fill the restored brick buildings in this area that evokes a slower-paced era in Texas. It's easy to spend half a day or more exploring the boutiques, sampling fresh pastries, and catching a performance at the Palace Arts Theatre Center.

This shopping area is defined by the architecture of its 19th- and early-20th-century buildings, many of which survived the storm of 1900 and are on the National Register of Historic Places. When Galveston was still a powerful port city—before the Houston Ship Channel was dug, diverting most boat traffic inland—this stretch, formerly the site of stores, offices, and warehouses, was known as the Wall Street of the South. As you stroll up the Strand, you'll pass dozens of shops and cafés.

This Historic Entrance to Mammoth Cave provides the centerpiece of historic locations in the visitor center area, a singular point to which human beings have gravitated—and into which they have descended—for 5,000 years. It is easily found at the end of the Historic Entrance Trail.

Three historic buildings—an 18th-century log cabin and a turn-of-the-19th-century tavern and house—have been restored and opened for guided tours by Historic Fallsington. In the off-season (mid-Oct.--mid-May), it's open by appointment only.

Once home to pirates, privateers, and whalers, this neighborhood across the water from the Marina district is now a restored maritime village and waterfront park complete with Crafters Village, historic vessels, restaurants, and the Atlantic City Aquarium.

This steam train takes passengers on a nostalgic trip along a line that first ran in 1899, past the Deer Creek Reservoir and through beautiful Provo Canyon. It continues past Bridal Veil Falls, a veil-like waterfall near snow-capped Mount Timpanogos. Each car has been restored, and two of the engines are fully operational, steam-powered locomotives. The railroad offers special events, including cheese-tasting rides, the local favorite North Pole Express, Raft 'n Rails (pairing rafting with a train excursion), Reins 'n Trains (with horseback riding), and Wilderness. Lunch is available for an extra cost.

There's no climate control in the rail cars, so dress for the weather.

An island originally connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, Historic Jamestowne was the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America (1607) and the capital of Virginia until 1699. The first settlers' bitter struggle for survival here, on the now uninhabited land, makes for a visit that stirs the imagination. Redbrick foundation walls roughly outline the settlement, and artists' conceptions of the original buildings can be seen at several locations. The only standing structure is the ruin of a church tower from the 1690s, now part of the Memorial Church built in 1907; the markers within indicate the original church's foundations. Other monuments around the site also date from the tercentenary celebration in 1907. Statues portray the founder of Jamestown, Captain John Smith, and his advocate, the Native American princess Pocahontas, whom Smith credited with saving him from being beheaded.

Near the entrance to the park, you can stop at the reconstructed Glasshouse to observe a demonstration of glassblowing, an unsuccessful business venture of the early colonists. The products of today are for sale in a gift shop. Archaeological discoveries from the site are showcased at the Archaearium. You can also observe digs on-site where archaeologists from Preservation Virginia continue to dig up evidence of colonists' and Native Americans' ways of life, including the remains of the original 1607 fort.

A visitor center near the main parking lot tells the history of Jamestown and the Virginia Indians, Europeans, and African peoples who lived here. Ranger-guided tours, held daily, explore many different events in Jamestown's history. Living-history programs are presented daily in summer and on weekends in spring and autumn.

A 5- to 8-mile nature drive (some cut out a loop within the loop and skip certain sections) that rings the island is posted with informative signs and paintings.

During the War of 1812, the Americans made a failed attempt to invade Canada from Lewiston, in the Battle of Queenston. The town has further historic significance as the last stateside stop on the Underground Railroad and as the birthplace of Niagara Falls; today's Niagara Gorge is the result of the falls' movement south to their current location. This community of 2,700 is a clean, quiet, small-town contrast with Niagara Falls, which is about a 10-minute drive south. Center Street, lined with restaurants, shops, a pub, and a café, leads down to the waterfront, where the Barton Hill Hotel and Whirlpool Jet Boat launch are located. Lewiston has a virtually nonstop festival calendar in summer, with waterfront concerts almost daily.

The 17th-century tobacco port of London, on the South River a short car ride from Annapolis, was made up of 40 dwellings, shops, and taverns. London all but disappeared in the 18th century, its buildings abandoned and left to decay, but one of the few remaining original Colonial structures is a three-story brick house, built by William Brown between 1758 and 1764, with dramatic river views. Newly reconstructed buildings include a tenement for lower-class workers, a carpenter's shop, and a barn. Guests can walk around on their own or take a 30-minute docent-led tour. Allow more time to wander the house grounds, woodland gardens, and a visitor center with an interactive exhibit on the area's archaeology and history.

Take a walking tour of one of Milwaukee's vivid neighborhoods, such as Brady Street, the Historic Third Ward, or Lake Drive, or embark on evocatively titled tours like "Naughty Ladies of Beertown" or "Gargoyles, Grotesques & Dragons." Walking tours generally last 1½ hours. Some tours require reservations, and tickets are either $7 or $20, depending on the type of tour.

This private archive and exhibit complex, with thousands of historic photos, documents, portraits, and books, is one of the finest research centers in the south. It occupies the 19th-century town house of General Kemper Williams and the 1792 Merieult House. Changing exhibits focus on various aspects of local history. Architecture, history, and house tours are offered several times daily, and a museum shop sells books, prints, and gifts. The Williams Research Center addition, at  410 Chartres Street, hosts additional free exhibits.

Don’t be fooled by the name. The Owl Café off Highway 395 just south of Randsburg contains a mining museum in a building that once served as a speakeasy saloon and brothel. The original 1930s bar remains, and there’s plenty of memorabilia to keep you entertained, including prospecting supplies, old photographs, and newspaper clippings from the Prohibition era. Mining tours and gold-prospecting charters are offered by advance reservation.

This sprawling museum re-creates Frisco's boom days. Stroll through 11 buildings dating from the 1880s, including a fully outfitted one-room schoolhouse, a trapper's cabin with snowshoes and pelts, the town's original log chapel, and a jail with an exhibit on mining.

Within the Seville Square Historic District is this complex of several museums and historic homes whose indoor and outdoor exhibits trace the area's history back 450 years. The Museum of Industry ( 200 E. Zaragoza St.), in a late-19th-century warehouse, has permanent exhibits dedicated to the lumber, maritime, and shipping industries—once mainstays of Pensacola's economy. A reproduction of a 19th-century streetscape is displayed in the Museum of Commerce ( 201 E. Zaragoza St.).

Strolling through the area gives you a good (and free) look at many architectural styles, but to enter some of the buildings you must purchase an all-inclusive ticket online or at Tivoli High House Shop, the Pensacola Museum of Art, the Pensacola Museum of History, or the Pensacola Children's Museum. Insightful, 60- to 90-minute, guided tours are offered Tuesday through Saturday at 11 am and 1 pm. Also, be sure to check on Victorian Holiday Traditions, Haunted Ghost tours, and other seasonal offerings.

This easy ½-mile walk on Santa Cruz Island takes you to a historic ranch where you can visit an interpretive center in an 1800s adobe and see remnants of a cattle ranch. Easy.

New York City's only living-history museum is like a small-scale version of Virginia's Colonial Williamsburg. This 100-acre village, constructed from the 1670s to the early 19th century, was the site of Staten Island's original county seat. Thirteen of the site's 30 historic buildings (28 landmarked) are open to the public. During Open Village season (May–August), you can wander town to encounter historical interpreters in period dress demonstrating Early American crafts and trades such as tinsmithing, broom making, and basket making, or talking politics in the village tavern. During the cold months when most reenactors are on hiatus, guided tours are still available for a few buildings, along with the Historical Museum, built in 1848, housing thousands of Staten Island artifacts within the nine galleries.

North America's first paper mill was built here in 1690 by Mennonite minister William Rittenhouse. Over the next 150 years, 10 generations of his family lived on the site and operated the mill. His most famous offspring, born in 1732, was David Rittenhouse, astronomer, statesman, and first president of the U.S. Mint. You can stroll anytime through this National Historic District that consists of 30 picturesque acres along the Wissahickon and seven outbuildings—this is worth doing, as it is also an entryway to Wissahickon Valley Park. Public tours (summer only) are offered intermittently—private tours can be arranged by phone. By the parking lot is the PAPERTrail Bike Cafe ( papertrailbikecafe.com), a tiny coffee and bike repair shop, where you can grab a coffee and snack and sit at picnic benches on the historic grounds.