4 Best Sights in Central and Western Virginia, Virginia

The University of Virginia is simply called "The University" by many associated with it, annoying its rivals. Unquestionably, though, it is one of the nation's most notable public universities, founded and designed by 76-year-old Thomas Jefferson, who called himself the university's father in his own epitaph. Even if you're not an architecture or history buff, the green terraced expanse called The Lawn, surrounded by redbrick columned buildings, is astounding. The Rotunda is a half-scale replica of Rome's Pantheon, suggesting Jefferson's Monticello and the U.S. Capitol. Behind the Pavilions, where senior faculty live, serpentine walls surround small, flowering gardens. Edgar Allan Poe's room—where he spent one year as a student until debt forced him to leave—is preserved on the West Range at No. 13. Campus tours (daily at 10, 11, 2, 3, and 4 pm) begin indoors in the Rotunda, whose entrance is on the Lawn side, lower level.

Adjacent to Washington and Lee University, the Virginia Military Institute, founded in 1839, is the nation's oldest state-supported military college. With an enrollment of about 1,300 cadets, the institute has admitted women since 1997. After a two-year expansion and renovation effort, the Virginia Military Institute Museum now includes a 3,000-square-foot main exhibit hall in Jackson Memorial Hall, dedicated to the VMI Heritage. Displays include 15,000 artifacts, including Stonewall Jackson's stuffed and mounted horse, Little Sorrel, and the general's coat, pierced by the bullet that killed him at Chancellorsville, and on the lower level, the Henry Stewart antique firearms collection.

Virginia Tech is the state's largest university. A small college just a few decades ago, the school is now known for top-notch research programs and its Hokies football team, regularly ranked in the top 10. The focal point of the sprawling campus is the Drillfield, a vast green space surrounded by hefty neo-Gothic buildings built of what is known locally as "Hokie Stone" masonry.

The ninth-oldest college in the United States, Washington and Lee University was founded in 1749 as Augusta Academy and later renamed Washington College to commemorate a donation made by George Washington. After Robert E. Lee's term as its president (1865–70), it received its current name. Today, with 2,000 students, the university occupies a campus of white-column, redbrick buildings around a central colonnade. Twentieth-century alumni include the late Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, newsman Roger Mudd, and novelist Tom Wolfe. The campus's Lee Chapel and Museum contains many relics of the Lee family. Edward Valentine's statue of the recumbent general, behind the altar, is especially moving: the pose is natural and the expression gentle, a striking contrast to most other monumental art. Here you can sense the affection and reverence that Lee inspired.