10457 Best Sights in USA

One of the largest single collections by and about an American woman is housed at this library, which also includes temporary exhibits that celebrate the power of ideas and provide context to the life and achievements of Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910); there's a research room on the fourth floor that's open Monday through Thursday.

The library also serves as the welcome center for the entire 14-acre Christian Science Plaza and is home to the fascinating Mapparium, a huge stained-glass globe with a 30-foot interior exhibit that captures a moment in time in 1935. While the Mapparium requires tickets, the adjacent free and interactive "How Do You See the World?" experience brings together stories, artifacts, and panels on Eddy's inspired scriptural study and research and how it relates to modern-day life. Exhibit cases feature objects, books, and documents from the library’s collections, where you can explore how Mary Baker Eddy founded a church and a college, and at the age of 87, launched the Christian Science Monitor newspaper.

After leaving Reedville on Route 360, turn left on Route 200 and drive 13 miles to Kilmarnock. Turn right on Route 3 and drive to the little town of Lancaster, the birthplace of Mary Ball. Lancaster House, a four-building complex honoring George Washington's mother, was built about 1798, and contains Washington family memorabilia and historic items related to the county and the Northern Neck. The Steuart-Blakemore Building houses a genealogical library, and the Old Jail is a lending library and archives.

This contemporary space houses the city's most impressive collection of art, including works by nationally and internationally acclaimed painters, sculptors, and photographers. It's especially well known for its bronzes and large wooden sculptures, as well as glass pieces and custom-designed jewelry. There's a second location on East Bay St., and the gallery provides works to several downtown hotels.

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.

A 40-foot granite obelisk, dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in 1894, marks the final resting place of George's mother. It was laid at "Meditation Rock" on her daughter's property, where Mrs. Washington liked to read.

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.

This 3,514-foot-tall mountain sits just south of the Thornton Gap Entrance on Skyline Drive. View-seekers can hike one of two routes along the Appalachian Trail to reach the summit of the park's eighth highest peak.

Celebrate Maryland's history and heritage at this block-long museum. One major draw is the original manuscript of "The Star-Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key. It's the centerpiece of an excellent War of 1812 exhibit that also includes guns and personal belongings of Baltimore's "Defenders," as well as the fashions of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, known by contemporaries as "the most beautiful woman in 1812 America." The first floor is devoted to an exhibit about the Civil War in Maryland, which was a powder keg of Northern and Southern sympathies—the War's first blood was shed downtown, on Pratt Street. Other exhibits feature Revolutionary-era paintings by the Peale family and Joshua Johnson, America's first African-American portrait artist. Furniture manufactured and designed in Maryland from the 18th century to the present is on the third floor. A gallery of Baltimore Civil Rights photographs by Afro-American newspaper photojournalist Paul Henderson adjoins the library, which contains 7 million works that relate to the state's history.

It's not just famous for the Marymoor Velodrome, the Pacific Northwest's sole cycling arena. This 640-acre park also has a 35-foot-high climbing rock, game fields, tennis courts, a model airplane launching area, a huge off-leash dog park, and the Pea Patch community garden. You can row on Lake Sammamish or head straight to the picnic grounds or to the Willowmoor Farm, an estate inside the park. Evenings bring Cirque du Soleil shows, concerts by top bands, and drive-in movies.

Marymoor has some of the best bird-watching in this largely urban area. It's possible to spot some 24 resident species, including great blue herons, belted kingfishers, buffleheads, short-eared and barn owls, and red-tailed hawks. Occasionally, bald eagles soar past the lakefront. The Sammamish River, which flows through the western section of the park, is an important salmon spawning stream.

Ambitious bikers can follow the Burke-Gilman Sammamish River Trail to access the park; Marymoor is just over 20 miles from Seattle, and it's a flat ride most of the way.

Halfway between Sandwich and Falmouth, this outdoor shopping center has restaurants and cafes, shopping, fitness options, and live entertainment and holiday attractions. There's mini-golf, a movie theater, and The Lanes Bowl & Bistro.

Talk about religious conversions: in the mid-1960s, the Lenox Casino was transformed into this house of worship and cultural center and given bright yellow arches and a huge, green, aluminum dome that loudly proclaims its presence in a neighborhood of churches. Once functioning as Temple No. 7 under the Nation of Islam with a message of Black nationalism, the mosque was bombed after the assassination of Malcolm X, who had preached here. It was then rebuilt and renamed in honor of the name Malcolm took at the end of his life, El-Hajj Malik Shabazz; its philosophy now is one of inclusion.

These days the Sunni congregation has a large proportion of immigrants from Senegal, many of whom live in and around 116th Street. Next door is Graceline Court, a 16-story luxury condominium building that cantilevers somewhat awkwardly over the mosque.

One of the city's architectural jewels, this temple remains a hidden treasure even to many Philadelphians. Historically, Freemasons were skilled stoneworkers who relied on secret signs and passwords. Their worldwide fraternal order—the Free and Accepted Masons—included men in the building trades, plus many honorary members; the secret society prospered in Philadelphia during Colonial times. Brother James Windrim designed this elaborate temple as a home for the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania. The ceremonial gavel used here at the laying of the cornerstone in 1868, while 10,000 brothers looked on, was the same one that Brother George Washington used to set the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. The temple's ornate interior consists of seven lavishly decorated lodge halls built to exemplify specific styles of architecture: Corinthian, Ionic, Italian Renaissance, Norman, Gothic, Oriental, and Egyptian. The Egyptian hall, with its accurate hieroglyphics, is the most famous. The temple also houses an interesting museum of Masonic items, including Benjamin Franklin's printing of the first book on Freemasonry published in America and George Washington's Masonic apron.

Decidedly un-artsy in its former incarnation as an auto-body shop, this space now hosts an exciting, artist-managed gallery that has launched many a contemporary artist onto the scene. In addition to the 1,500 square feet of gallery space, there are several project studios where local and national artists create new works in a variety of media, making for a singularly unique gallery experience for visitors. Check their online events calendar to see their current programming of seasonal film screenings, musical performances, artist talks, and community outreach activities.

The first historical society in the United States (founded in 1791) has paintings, a library, and a 12-million-piece manuscript collection from 17th-century New England to the present. Among these manuscripts are the Adams Family Papers, which comprise more than 300,000 pages from the letters and diaries of generations of the Adams family, including papers from John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Casual visitors are welcome, but if you'd like to examine the papers within the library in depth, call ahead. The Society also offers a variety of programs and special exhibits.

Founded in 1861, MIT moved to Cambridge from Copley Square in the Back Bay in 1916. Once dissed as "the factory," particularly by its Ivy League neighbor, Harvard University, MIT mints graduates that are the sharp blades on the edge of the information revolution. It's perennially in the top five of U.S. News and World Report's college rankings. It has long since fulfilled the predictions of its founder, the geologist William Barton Rogers, that it would surpass "the universities of the land in the accuracy and the extent of its teachings in all branches of positive science." Its emphasis shifted in the 1930s from practical engineering and mechanics to the outer limits of scientific fields.

Architecture is important at MIT. Although the original buildings were obviously designed by and for scientists, many represent pioneering designs of their times. Kresge Auditorium, designed by Eero Saarinen, with a curving roof and unusual thrust, rests on three, instead of four, points. The nondenominational MIT Chapel, a circular Saarinen design, is lighted primarily by a roof oculus that focuses natural light on the altar and by reflections from the water in a small surrounding moat; it's topped by an aluminum sculpture by Theodore Roszak. The serpentine Baker House, now a dormitory, was designed in 1947 by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in such a way as to provide every room with a view of the Charles River. Sculptures by Henry Moore and other notable artists dot the campus. The latest addition is the Green Center for Physics, punctuated by the splash of color that is Sol LeWitt's 5,500-square-foot mosaic floor.

The East Campus, which has grown around the university's original neoclassical buildings of 1916, also has outstanding modern architecture and sculpture, including the stark high-rise Green Building by I. M. Pei, housing the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Just outside is Alexander Calder's giant stabile (a stationary mobile) The Big Sail. Another Pei work on the East Campus is the Wiesner Building, designed in 1985, which houses the List Visual Arts Center. Architect Frank Gehry made his mark on the campus with the cockeyed, improbable Ray and Maria Stata Center, a complex of buildings on Vassar Street. The center houses computer, artificial intelligence, and information systems laboratories, and is reputedly as confusing to navigate on the inside as it is to follow on the outside. East Campus's Great Dome, which looms over neoclassical Killian Court, has often been the target of student "hacks" and has at various times supported a telephone booth with a ringing phone, a life-size statue of a cow, and a campus police cruiser. Nearby, the domed Rogers Building has earned unusual notoriety as the center of a series of hallways and tunnels dubbed "the infinite corridor." Twice each winter the sun's path lines up perfectly with the corridor's axis, and at dusk students line the third-floor hallway to watch the sun set through the westernmost window. The phenomenon is known as "MIT-henge."

MIT maintains a welcome center located at  292 Main Street in Kendall Square, where you can pick up campus maps, grab some water, and charge your phone weekdays 9 to 5.

On July 4, 1795, the surviving fathers of the Revolution were on hand to enshrine the ideals of their new Commonwealth in a graceful seat of government designed by Charles Bulfinch. Governor Samuel Adams and Paul Revere laid the cornerstone; Revere would later roll the copper sheathing for the dome.

Bulfinch's neoclassical design is poised between Georgian and Federal; its finest features are the delicate Corinthian columns of the portico, the graceful pediment and window arches, and the vast yet visually weightless golden dome (gilded in 1874 and again in 1997). During World War II, the dome was painted gray so that it would not reflect moonlight during blackouts and thereby offer a target to anticipated Axis bombers. It's capped with a pine cone, a symbol of the importance of pinewood, which was integral to the construction of Boston's early houses and churches; it also serves as a reminder of the state's early connection to Maine, once part of Massachusetts.

Inside the building are Doric Hall, with its statuary and portraits; the Hall of Flags, where an exhibit shows the battle flags from all the wars in which Massachusetts regiments have participated; the Great Hall, an open space used for state functions that houses 351 flags from the cities and towns of Massachusetts; the governor's office; and the chambers of the House and Senate. The Great Hall contains a giant, modernistic clock designed by New York artist R. M. Fischer. Its installation in 1986 at a cost of $100,000 was roundly slammed as a symbol of legislative extravagance. There's also a wealth of statuary, including figures of Horace Mann, Daniel Webster, and a youthful-looking President John F. Kennedy in full stride. Just outside Doric Hall is Hear Us, a series of six bronze busts honoring the contributions of women to public life in Massachusetts. But perhaps the best-known piece of artwork in the building is the carved wooden Sacred Cod, mounted in the Old State House in 1784 as a symbol of the Commonwealth's maritime wealth. It was moved, with much fanfare, to Bulfinch's structure in 1798. By 1895, when it was hung in the new House chambers, the representatives had begun to consider the Cod their unofficial mascot—so much so that when Harvard Lampoon "codnapped" it in 1933, the House refused to meet in session until the fish was returned, three days later. Free guided tours are available; call for reservations. This is Freedom Trail stop 2.

Boulder scrambling is optional on this 3-mile hike that loops past a gold mine and up to the 3,371-foot Mastodon Peak where you can get a glimpse of the Salton Sea in the distance. The peak draws its name from a large rock formation that early miners believed looked like the head of a prehistoric beast. Moderate.

Matanuska Glacier is the largest car-accessible glacier in the country, with a four-mile wide terminus that can be seen from the road. Right off the Glenn Highway (Mile 102), the entrance is maintained through Guided Glacier Tours. The only way to visit is on a guided tour—a number of companies offer glacier these.

The visitor center at Matanzas Creek sets itself apart with an understated Japanese aesthetic, extending to a tranquil fountain and a vast field of lavender. The winery makes Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon wines under the Matanzas Creek name, and four equally well-regarded bottlings—a Bordeaux red blend, a Pinot Noir, a Chardonnay, and a Sauvignon Blanc—bearing the Journey label. The winery, owned by Jackson Family Wines, encourages guests to enjoy a picnic on the property. Hosts waive the table fee with a wine purchase. Weekend reservations are a good idea.  From late June to mid-August, blooming lavender perfumes the air.

Kids love the gentle waves and warm (albeit often murky) waters of this beach in Coral Gables suburbia, near the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. But the beach is only part of the draw—the park includes a boardwalk trail, a playground, and a golf course. Plus, the park is a prime spot for kiteboarding. The man-made lagoon, or "atoll pool," is perfect for inexperienced swimmers, and it's one of the best places in mainland Miami for a picnic. Most tourists don't make the trek here; this park caters more to locals who don't want to travel all the way to Miami Beach. The park also offers a full-service marina. Amenities: parking (fee); toilets. Best for: swimming.

The in the North Side's historic Mexican War Streets District, is devoted to contemporary installation and experimental art, often with an environmental theme. The space gets its unusual name from its location, a former Stearns & Foster mattress factory warehouse. The rock garden outside, designed by Winifred Lutz, is breathtaking. Check for special events on the Web site.

The museum contains interesting exhibits that survey the Upper Mojave Desert area's art, history, archaeology, and geology. It also sponsors art exhibits and cultural programs, and it contains an information center for Death Valley.

Tranquil fern-draped footpaths lead through groves of cedar and Douglas fir to reveal a rich array of art installations at this delightful gallery and sculpture garden on the south side of Camano Island. More than 85 artists, many from the Pacific Northwest and Japan, show their work here, both in the sun-dappled garden and the indoor gallery.

This Maui-based agency manages more than 200 condos. Most units are near the beach or golf courses, and are located in Kihei, Wailea, and West Maui. Studios to three-bedroom units run $100–$450 per night.

Hawaiian and Polynesian species are cultivated at this fascinating 7-acre garden, including Hawaiian bananas; local varieties of sweet potatoes and sugarcane; and native poppies, hibiscus, and anapanapa, a plant that makes a natural shampoo when rubbed between your hands. Reserve ahead for the weekly ethnobotany tours. Self-guided tour booklets and an audio tour wand are included with admission (docent tours must be arranged online in advance).

Pineapple exudes tropical happiness, and it just so happens Maui has the only tour of a working pineapple plantation in the United States. You'll join a worker on a stroll through the sunny fields and hear all about the especially sweet Maui Gold pineapples, sampling the fruit in various stages of maturity along the way. The best part? Everyone gets a free pineapple at the end! For an extra fee, you can also tour the nearby Haliimaile Distilling Company to learn about its operations and taste Pau Maui Vodka, the world's only pineapple vodka. Time things right, and you'll be able to enjoy lunch or dinner at the renowned Haliimaile General Store just across the street from the distillery.

Even locals get up early on a Saturday to go to the Maui Swap Meet for fresh produce and floral bouquets. Hundreds of stalls sell everything from quilts to hammocks and island-themed souvenirs each Saturday. Enter the parking lot from the traffic light at Kahului Beach Road.

When Maui's cash crops declined in importance, a group of visionaries opened an agricultural theme park on the site of this former sugarcane field. The 60-acre preserve offers zip-lining courses, a 40-minute tour, and a tram ride with informative narration covering the growing process and plant types. Children will enjoy activities like coconut husking. You'll also find an art gallery, a restaurant, and a store specializing in "Made in Maui" products. Don't leave without checking out the Kumu Cafe and Farm Bar, which offers coffee, tea, brewing supplies, seasonal organic produce, and some of the tastiest papayas.

Acres of macadamia nut trees lead to a giant roasting facility and processing plant with viewing windows and self-guided tours. You can even watch demonstrations showing how they coat nuts and shortbread cookies with milk chocolate to create their famous products. There are free samples and plenty of gift boxes with mac nuts in every conceivable form of presentation for sale in the visitor center. Children can burn off extra energy on a nature trail here after enjoying dairy-free ice cream for sale.