Virginia
Nine historic landmarks in Virginia, across five eras of American history. Start with Mount Vernon, Monticello and Colonial Williamsburg.
- Landmarks
- 9
- Eras
- 5
- World Heritage
- 1
Pictured Mount Vernon
Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA · via Wikimedia Commons
Landmarks in Virginia
- Colonial America
Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, VA
Mount Vernon was the home of George Washington — commander of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States.
Early RepublicMonticello
Charlottesville, VA
Monticello was the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson — author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States — which he designed himself and reworked over some forty years.
Colonial AmericaColonial Williamsburg
Williamsburg, VA
Colonial Williamsburg is the restored 18th-century capital of the Virginia colony and the largest living-history museum in the United States.
Colonial AmericaHistoric Jamestowne
Jamestown, VA
Historic Jamestowne is where permanent English America began.
Civil WarAppomattox Court House
Appomattox, VA
Appomattox Court House is where the American Civil War effectively ended.
Early RepublicMontpelier
Orange, VA
Montpelier is where the Constitution was, in a sense, conceived.
Revolutionary WarYorktown Battlefield
Yorktown, VA
On the fields around Yorktown in October 1781, the American Revolution was effectively won.
AntebellumArlington House
Arlington, VA
Arlington House occupies one of the most contested hills in American memory: built as a monument to George Washington, home to the Confederacy's most famous general, and the literal ground from which Arlington National Cemetery grew out of the wounds of the Civil War.
Civil WarShenandoah Valley Battlefields
VA
Not one battlefield but an entire valley shaped by war — its fertile farms fed the Confederacy, its terrain gave Stonewall Jackson a legendary campaign, and its systematic burning by Sheridan's cavalry became one of the Civil War's starkest examples of total war against a civilian economy.
Historical Essays
- Civil War
From Sumter to Appomattox: The Civil War in Five Places
Four years of war, from the first shots in Charleston Harbor to a surrender in a Virginia parlor and a gunshot in a Washington theater — told through five landmarks you can still visit.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
Revolutionary WarWashington's War in Four Places: Ticonderoga to Yorktown
Cannon dragged through a New England winter, a desperate January counterstroke, a starving encampment and a surrender on the York River — the Revolution's turning points, and where to stand on them.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026
- Colonial America · Early Republic
The Founders at Home: Mount Vernon, Monticello and Montpelier
Three Virginia houses where Washington, Jefferson and Madison lived, planned and wrote — and where hundreds of enslaved people made their public lives possible.
Old USA Editors · 2 min read · September 28, 2026