10 Best Sights in Northern Virginia, Virginia

The Georgian-style mansion has some of the finest hand-carved ornamented interiors in the country and is the handiwork of the 18th-century's foremost architect, William Buckland, originally an indentured servant from England. Construction of Gunston Hall took place between 1755 and 1758. Buckland went on to design several notable buildings in Virginia and Maryland, including the Hammond-Harwood and Chase-Lloyd houses in Annapolis. It is believed he worked closely with another indentured servant, William Bernard Sears, to complete the house. Unlike other Virginia colonial homes, which tended to be very simple, Gunston Hall was, possibly, the only or one of a few houses known to have had chinoiserie decoration. The interior and the outbuildings have been meticulously restored.

While it is alleged that one of the reasons Mason didn’t sign the Declaration of Independence is that it didn’t stop the importation of enslaved people, Mason was himself a slaveholder of at least 300 people in his lifetime, many of whom lived at Gunston Hall. While touring the property, you have the opportunity to learn about the lives of some of these individuals, although there is currently not a permanent exhibit focusing on them.

The Riverside Garden currently is being restored; you can view the Potomac from the garden terraces. There are three hiking trails on the 500-plus-acre property. Guided tours are offered daily at 10 am and 11 am, as well as at 1, 2, 3, and 4 pm.

The former plantation of George Washington and his wife, Martha, Mount Vernon sits on the banks of the Potomac River about 10 miles south of Alexandria. Washington’s great-grandfather, John Washington, was awarded the land grant in 1674 for what would become Mount Vernon. It grew into 5,000 acres with four operating farms by the time the future president inherited it all in 1761. Washington used his wife’s financial wealth and hundreds of enslaved people to transform the main house from an ordinary farm dwelling into what was, for the time, a grand mansion. The red-roof main house is elegant though understated, with quite ornate first-floor rooms, especially the formal large dining room, with a molded ceiling decorated with agricultural motifs.

You can stroll around the estate’s 500 acres and four gardens, visiting workshops, a kitchen, a carriage house, a greenhouse, quarters for enslaved African Americans, and, down the hill, the tomb of George and Martha Washington. There’s also a four-acre, 18th-century farm site with costumed interpreters and a reconstructed 16-sided treading barn as its centerpiece.

Throughout Mount Vernon, you can learn about the more than 300 enslaved people who lived here, and whose labor you see all around you. Relevant tours include “The Enslaved People of Mount Vernon” tour and the "Through My Eyes" tour, both of which explore the lives and experiences of the people who lived here and the role slavery had in the life of Washington and how he built and ran this estate.

Visitors, especially children, tend to enjoy the Museum and Education Center’s 23 galleries and theaters, including hundreds of artifacts, interactive displays, and a 4D theater that brings Washington's story to life. Actors in period dress, General Washington and his wife, welcome visitors at special occasions throughout the year, including President’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, and July 4.

It was in Arlington that the two most famous names in Virginia history—Washington and Lee—became intertwined. George Washington Parke Custis, raised by Martha and George Washington, his grandmother and step-grandfather, built Arlington House (also known as the Custis-Lee Mansion) between 1802 and 1818 on a 1,100-acre estate overlooking the Potomac. After Custis's death, the property went to his daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis. In 1831 Mary married Robert E. Lee, a graduate of West Point. For the next 30 years she lived at Arlington House while Lee went wherever the Army sent him, including the superintendency of West Point.

In 1861 Lee was offered command of the Union forces in Washington. It was understood that the first order of business would be a troop movement into nearby Virginia. He declined and resigned from the U.S. Army, deciding that he could never take up arms against his native Virginia. The Lees left Arlington House that spring, never to return. Federal troops crossed the Potomac not long after that, fortified the estate's ridges, and turned the home into the Army of the Potomac's headquarters. Arlington House and the estate were confiscated in May 1864 when the Lees failed to pay $92 and change in property taxes in person. (General Lee's eldest son sued the U.S. government, and after a 5–4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, was eventually compensated for the land.) Two hundred nearby acres were set aside as a national cemetery in 1864. One thousand soldiers were buried there by the end of that year. Soldiers from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 were reinterred at Arlington as their bodies were discovered in other resting places.

The building's heavy Doric columns and severe pediment make Arlington House one of the area's best examples of Greek Revival architecture. The plantation home was designed by George Hadfield, a young English architect who, for a while, supervised construction of the Capitol. The view of Washington from the front of the house is superb. In 1933 the National Park Service acquired Arlington House and continued the restoration that the War Department had begun, and in 1972 Congress designated the Custis-Lee Mansion as Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial. It looks much as it did in the 19th century, and a quick tour takes you past objects once owned by the Custises and the Lees.

In front of Arlington House, next to a flag that flies at half staff whenever there's a funeral in the cemetery, is the flat-top grave of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of Washington, D.C.

This childhood home of the commander of the Confederate forces of Virginia is a fine example of a 19th-century Federal town house. The house is privately owned and not open to visitors.

The Carlyle House offers a rich, nuanced portrait of both American and Alexandrian history. As one of the largest slaveholders in Virginia at the time, John Carlyle established himself as a powerful merchant, city founder, and local leader. Built in 1753 by enslaved people, the house hosted many important mid-18th century figures, from a meeting between General Braddock and royal governors on the French and Indian War to the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin for parties and balls. Today, the house serves as a museum where visitors can get a behind-the-scenes look at the history of Alexandria and the Carlyle family (roughly 1753–1780). Specialty tours and programs focus on other aspects of the Carlyle property's history.

Built in 1785, the Lee-Fendall House was home to members of the prominent Fendall, Lee, and Downham families, as well as generations of enslaved and free African Americans. During the Civil War, it served as a federal military hospital. The home’s last resident owner was national labor organizer John L. Lewis. Furnishings reflect how the house changed from 1785 to 1969. Highlights include a collection of Alexandria-made furniture as well as a tour and exhibit focusing on the enslaved and free people who worked in the house. There’s also a beautifully restored, award-winning garden, which can be visited without buying a ticket to the museum.

This fine example of Georgian architecture was built in 1797 and is owned by the City of Alexandria and used for offices for the Office of Historic Alexandria. The interior has nothing on display, so the house is best admired from outside.

Within the 1,200 acres that make up Morven Park are the Morven Park International Equestrian Institute (a private riding school), formal English gardens, and two museums. The Winmill Carriage Museum houses more than 40 historic vehicles, including one belonging to Grace Kelly and another belonging to Tom Thumb, and the Museum of Hounds and Hunting features artifacts and displays about the sport. The elegant mansion was originally a fieldstone farmhouse built in 1781. It evolved into a Greek Revival building that bears a striking resemblance to the White House (completed in 1800). Scenes from the Civil War film Gods and Generals and other movies were filmed here. In fact, the land was once a Confederate camp, remnants of which they are still finding today. Two governors have also lived here. Guided tours of the mansion are available; the Winmill Carriage Museum and Museum of Hounds and Hunting are self-guided.

This Federal-period home has changed hands many times since it was built in 1794 by Richard Bland Lee, Northern Virginia's first representative to Congress. Citizen action in the 20th century saved it from destruction during construction of nearby Dulles Airport; it is now on the Register of National Historic Places. In the 1970s the house and its outbuildings were restored to their original appearance, with a representative kitchen and flower gardens. A 45-minute tour is offered every hour on the hour, and tours of the outbuildings and slave quarters are available daily at 2 pm from mid-March–mid-November. Educational programs, special events, and living-history programs are held here throughout the year.

Two iconic homes on one site are found just west of Mount Vernon. Woodlawn overlooks the Potomac River on lands first belonging to the Algonkian-speaking Doeg people, and then lands of George Washington’s larger Mount Vernon plantation. Finished in 1805, the Federal-style mansion was designed for Eleanor and Lawrence Lewis by William Thornton, the architect of the U.S. Capitol. It displays the power and prosperity of America’s first ruling class. Anti-slavery Quakers purchased and transformed Woodlawn in 1805. The Quakers and local free Black people demonstrated that with agricultural reforms and Black landownership, the South could be successfully cultivated without slavery.

Also on the grounds, Pope-Leighey House is a Frank Lloyd Wright Unison home. Designed for the Pope family in 1940, it artfully blends into the landscape. Its innovative design concepts and natural materials create a sense of space and grace. The home is an expression of Wright’s radical vision for beautiful, affordable, and more inclusive middle-class housing. To save it from demolition, the home was moved from Falls Church, Virginia, to Woodlawn in 1965 by its second owner, Marjorie Leighey. It's the only Wright house open to the public in Virginia.

Guides and exhibitions at both houses offer insight into the architectural details of both houses, as well as thoughtful narratives dedicated to telling the fullest story possible about all people associated with the property.