Historic Building sights in USA
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Mercer-Williams House
Although Jim Williams, the Savannah art dealer portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the film version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, died back in 1990, his infamous mansion didn't become a museum until 2004. You're not allowed to see the upstairs, where Williams' family still lives, but the downstairs is an interior decorator's fantasy.
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William Heath Davis House Historic building
For a full historical picture, peruse the exhibits inside this museum; the saltbox house was the onetime home of William Heath Davis, the man credited with starting the development of modern San Diego. Self-guided tours are available and the foundation also offers guided walking tours of the quarter (adult/child $10/8; tours 11am Saturday).
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County Courthouse
Built in Spanish-Moorish-revival style, it's an absurdly beautiful place to stand trial. Marvel at hand-painted ceilings and intricate murals, then climb the Vertigo-esque clock tower for panoramic views. Free tours.
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Texas State Capitol
Built in 1888 from sunset-red granite, this state capitol is the largest in the US, backing up the ubiquitous claim that everything is bigger in Texas. If nothing else, take a peek at the lovely rotunda and try out the whispering gallery created by its curved ceiling.
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Morris-Jumel Mansion Museum
Built in 1765 as a country retreat for Roger and Mary Morris, this columned mansion is the oldest house in Manhattan. It is also famous for having served as George Washington’s headquarters after it was seized by the Continental Army in 1776. The mansion’s rooms contain many original furnishings, including a bed that reputedly belonged to Napoleon.
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Old State House
Dating to 1713, the Old State House is Boston’s oldest surviving public building, where the Massachusetts Assembly used to debate the issues of the day before the revolution. The building is best known for its balcony, where the Declaration of Independence was first read to Bostonians in 1776.
It occupies a once prominent spot at the top of State St (then known as King St), which was Boston’s main thoroughfare. The rooftop is graced with lions and unicorns, which were symbols of the British crown. These are replicas, as the originals were torn down in a fit of patriotism after the reading of the Declaration. Inside, the Old State House contains a small museum of…
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Pacific-Union Club
The only Nob Hill mansion to survive the 1906 earthquake and fire is a squat neoclassical brownstone, which despite its grandeur lacks architectural imagination. Today it's a private men's club. The exclusive membership roster lists newspaper magnates, both Hewlett and Packard of Hewlett-Packard, several US secretaries of defense and government contractors (insert conspiracy theory here). Democrats, people of color and anyone under 45 are scarce on the published list, but little else is known about the 800-odd, all-male membership: members can be expelled for leaking information. Cheeky cross-dressing protesters have pointed out that there's no specific ban on transgender…
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Old Corner Bookstore
In the 19th century, this historic house was leased to a bookseller, Carter & Hendlee. This was the first of nine bookshops and publishing companies that would occupy the spot, making it a breeding ground for literary and philosophical ideas. The most illustrious was Ticknor & Fields, publisher of books by Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
In the earliest days of Boston history, this was the site of the home of Anne Hutchinson, the religious dissident who was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay colony and co-founded the Rhode Island colony. The current brick building dates to 1718, when it served as a pharmacy and residence. Today…
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Casa Antigua
This was technically Hemingway's first house in Key West and the spot where he wrote A Farewell to Arms, but it isn't all that notable, except for a lush garden in the back and one of the kitschiest 'guided tours' in the US. Here's how it breaks down: go to the Pelican Poop Gift Shoppe, which now occupies the Casa, pay the $2 garden entrance fee and let the kitsch begin! Go into the peaceful green area out the back, then a recorded tape plays at the volume God uses whenever he says anything that begins with 'Let there be…' At this ear-splitting volume, a man with a voice that can only be described as Big Gay Al raised in Dixie lays down the history of the Casa for you.…
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Gibson House Museum
Catherine Hammond Gibson was considered quite the pioneer when she moved to this Italian Renaissance row house in 1860 (that she was a female homeowner in this ‘New Land’ was even more unusual). The Gibson House attempts to preserve a piece of Victorian-era Boston, showcasing antique furniture and art that was collected by the Gibson family.
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Hamilton Grange
This Federal-style retreat belonged to US founding father Alexander Hamilton, who owned a country estate here in the early 1800s. The home was recently moved from Convent Ave to its present location (and is now bizarrely situated on the side of a hill). But it’s beautifully refurbished – of interest to history and architecture buffs as well as really grange people.
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Apollo Theater
The Apollo has been Harlem’s leading space for concerts and political rallies since 1914 and, with its gleaming marquee, is one of the neighborhood’s most visible icons. Virtually every major black artist in the 1930s and ’40s performed here, including Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. And to this day it hosts regular concerts by high-profile entertainers. Everyone from Tony Bennett to Usher has played here.
The theatre is most famous, however, for its long-running Amateur Night – ‘where stars are born and legends are made’ – which takes place every Wednesday night. The wild and ruthless crowd is as fun to watch as the performers.
Tours of the interior are…
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Old US Post Office
Constructed in 1912, this post office and county courthouse served as the first federal building in Miami. The building, which features a low-pitched roof, elaborate doors and carved entryways, was purchased in 1937 to serve as the country's first savings and loan (funny, considering S&Ls helped build Miami in the 1980s). Check out Denman Fink's 1940 mural Law Guides Florida Progress in the main courtroom on the 2nd floor.
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Historic Capitol
Next door to the current state capitol is its far more charming 1902 predecessor, adorned by candy-striped awnings and topped with a reproduction of the original glass dome, and as grand as its successor is uninviting. It now houses the Florida Legislative Research Center & Museum, including a restored House of Representatives chamber and governors' reception area, plenty of governors' portraits, and exhibits on immigration, state development and the infamous 2000 US presidential election, with displays such as the equally infamous butterfly ballot, now enclosed in glass.
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Heritage House
Of all the many historic Key West homes open to visitors, this Caribbean-Colonial house is among the most wonderful to walk through. That's because it's rarely crowded, has passionate guides, and contains original furnishings and antiques, from a piano from the court of Marie Antoinette to a set of dining chairs from the 1600s. All have been collected and preserved by seven generations of a local family. The Robert Frost Cottage, where the poet stayed for 16 winters, is out back, along with another wonderful garden. Numerous lectures, readings, writers' workshops and weddings are held here.
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Freedom Tower
Designed by the New York architectural firm of Shultz & Weaver in 1925, this tower is one of two surviving towers modeled after the Giralda bell tower in Spain's Cathedral of Seville (the second is at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables). The 'Ellis Island of the South,' it served as an immigration processing center for almost half a million Cuban refugees in the 1960s. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it was also home to the Miami Daily News for 32 years.
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Dade County Courthouse
If you end up on trial here, at least you'll get a free tour of one of the most imposing courthouses in the USA. When Miami outgrew its first courthouse it moved legal proceedings to this neoclassical icon, built between 1925 and 1929 for $4 million. It's a very…appropriate building: if structures were people, the courthouse would definitely be a judge. Some trivia: back in the day, the top nine floors served as a 'secure' prison, from which more than 70 prisoners escaped.
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Little White House
While we were first tempted here by the prospect of a Lego-sized execution of the presidential digs, this is in fact the spot where ex-president Harry S Truman used to vacation when he wasn't molding post-WWII geopolitics. It is as lushly luxurious as you'd expect and open only for guided tours, although you are welcome to walk around the surrounding botanical gardens for free. Plenty of Truman's possessions are scattered about, but the real draw is the guides, who are intensely intelligent, quirky and helpful.
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Merrick House
It's fun to imagine this simple homestead, with its little hints of Med-style, as the core of what would eventually become the gaudy Gables. When George Merrick's father purchased this plot, site unseen, for $1100, it was all dirt, rock and guavas. The property is now used for meetings and receptions, and you can tour both the house and its pretty organic garden. The modest family residence looks as it did in 1925, outfitted with family photos, furniture and artwork.
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Stranahan House
Constructed from Dade County pine, grand Stranahan House is a fine example of Florida vernacular design and one of the state's oldest homes. It served as both home and store for Ohio transplant Frank Stranahan, who built a small empire trading with the Seminoles before committing suicide by jumping into the New River after real-estate and stock-market losses in the late 1920s. The house, with many original furnishings, is open for three daily hour-long tours.
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Knott House Museum
This stately, white columned 1843 house, affiliated with the history museum, is a quirky attraction. Occupied during the Civil War by Confederate and then Union troops before the Emancipation Proclamation was read here in 1865, it's otherwise known as 'the house that rhymes.' That's because in 1928 it was bought by politico William V Knott, whose poet wife, Luella, attached verses on the evils of drink to the many of the furnishings.
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Coral Gables City Hall
This grand building has housed boring city-commission meetings since it opened in 1928. It's impressive from any angle, certainly befitting its importance as a central government building. Check out Denman Fink's Four Seasons ceiling painting in the tower, as well as his framed, untitled painting of the underwater world on the 2nd-floor landing. There's a small farmers' market on-site from 8am to 1pm, January to March.
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Zen Center
No, this isn't a spa, but an active spiritual retreat since 1969 for the largest Buddhist community outside Asia. The graceful landmark building was designed by Julia Morgan, California's first licensed female architect, better known as chief architect of Hearst Castle and the Chinatown YWCA. Morgan built this Italianate brick structure in 1922 to house Emanu-el Sisterhood, a residence for low-income Jewish working women, and you can see ironwork stars of David on the first-floor loggia. With its large, open courtyard and casement windows, the building has inspired and illuminated people of all faiths.
The center is open to the public for visits, meditation (see the…
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Gracie Mansion
This Federal-style home served as the country residence of merchant Archibald Gracie in 1799. Since 1942, it has been where New York’s mayors have lived – with the exception of megabillionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who prefers his own plush, Upper East Side digs. The house has been added to and renovated over the years. Reservations required.
The home is bordered by the pleasant, riverside Carl Schurz Park.
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Belle Meade Plantation
The Harding-Jackson family began raising thoroughbreds here (6 miles west of Nashville) in the early 1800s. Every horse entered in the Kentucky Derby in the past five years is a descendant of Belle Meade's studly sire, Bonnie Scotland, who died in 1880. The 1853 mansion is open to visitors, as are various interesting outbuildings, including a model slave cabin.
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