Every home around the world has a story. And here in the United States, some of these homes have a great history behind them that they deserve to be visited and explored.
Tiles king Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930) built this castle-like abode, from 1908 to 1912. He designed it using reinforced concrete. It has forty-four rooms and over two hundred windows.
The Castle Hill is one prime example of the homes built during the American Country Palace era (during the turn of the century), where the wealthy folks built impressively large and beautiful estates. It is located in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
The Beauport, also known in many other names such as Sleeper-McCann House, Little Beauport or Henry Davis Sleeper House, is another historical house in the New England region. Located in Gloucester, Massachusetts, this shingle-style home was built during the early 1900s and was once owned by noted antique collector and interior decorator Henry Davis Sleeper.
Monticello is one of the most famous historical homes in the United States. Future president Thomas Jefferson, who was also an architect, built this Neoclassical/Palladian-style plantation house in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1772.
Also known as the Jonathan Corwin House, this was owned by the local magistrate Jonathan Corvin, who became infamous for ruling twenty innocent people wrongly accused of witchcraft.
This Salem, Massachusetts home was built in 1675, and Corwin lived there for four decades.
Unlike the other houses in this list, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ home in Cross Creek, Florida, is a humble “cracker style” abode where she lived for over 25 years. The house and the property now belong to the state of Florida as well as is a tourist spot. Its “off-the-beaten-path” location makes this historical house one of Florida’s best-kept tourism secrets. If you’re a fan of her famous work The Yearling, you will most likely appreciate visiting the home of this Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.
About three hours from Cross Creek (the location of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ humble home) is the John and Mable Ringling Mansion in Sarasota, Florida. John Ringling made his multi-million-dollar fortune from his Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus. He and his wife Mable fashioned this mansion, which was patterned after the Venetian villas that they saw during their Italian holiday. The house was constructed from 1924 to 1925 and building cost over a million dollars. In today’s money, the house is worth over $80 million.
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote his 1851 novel The House of Seven Gables which was inspired by his own experiences living in an actual seven-gabled home located in Salem, Massachusetts. It was also the house where Hawthorne was born and is not too far from the “Witch House.”
The house is now listed in the US National Registry of Historic Places and US National Historic Landmark District.
Located in Lynchburg, Virginia, the Point of Honor house was built from 1806 to 1816. It was originally owned by Dr. George Cabell, the personal physician of the American Revolution patriot Patrick Henry and friend/neighbor of president Thomas Jefferson. After Dr. Cabell and his family, the house changed hands several times before eventually becoming a museum and tourist attraction.
Also known as the Frederic E. Church House, the Olana mansion was originally owned by Frederic Edward Church (1826-1900), one of the prominent figures in the Hudson River School of landscape artists. The style of the Hudson, New York house is strikingly eclectic as it seamlessly blends the Eastern (Persian) and Western (Victorian) elements.
Naumkeag is a country estate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and was once owned of New York City attorney Joseph Hodges Choate. Constructed in 1886, the mansion was built in the typical “Queen Anne” style which flourished during the Victorian era. The estate features beautiful gardens and the famous “Blue Steps” by Fletcher Steele.
Lyndhurst is a Gothic Revival-styled mansion in Tarrytown, southern New York, just near the city of White Plains. Designed and later expanded by architect Alexander Jackson Davis, this mansion was built in 1838 and once owned by railroad tycoon Jay Gould. The sprawling mansion-turned-museum is now listed in the US National Registry of Historic Places and US National Historic Landmark District.
Hildene was the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln, the 35th US Secretary of War and eldest son of US President Abraham Lincoln. The house was constructed in the Georgian Revival style and is now a museum listed in the US National Register of Historic Places. Guests will be awed by the 1,000-pipe organ by the time they step into the home’s entrance hall.
Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was so inspired by the things he saw from his European travels that when he sailed back to the US, he decided to build a castle-like home. He hired architect Julia Morgan who went on to create an impressive Mediterranean Revival-styled mansion, located near San Simeon, California. The construction began in 1919 and underwent several modifications through 1947, but it was in that year when Hearst stopped living at the castle due to failing health (he died in 1951).
One of the prominent features of this imposing, opulent mansion is 60,645 square feet “castle” The Casa Grande.