Woodlawn, Alexandria, Virginia

photo by: Woodlawn in Alexandria, Virginia | Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture

Historic Sites

Explore an unequaled collection of historic places.

  • Plan Your Visit

    We encourage you to check directly with each site for up-to-date information on available activities, ticketing, and guidelines if you are planning a visit.

Historic places create connections to our heritage that help us understand our past, appreciate our triumphs, and learn from our mistakes. Historic places help define and distinguish our communities by building a strong sense of identity.

To ensure that their stories remain a part of our lives today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation protects and promotes historic places, including a diverse collection of 27 sites open to the public. When you visit a historic site, you learn from their stories and help keep history alive.

Members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation enjoy discounted admission to all 27 sites open to the public and Distinctive Destinations nationwide.

Explore all of our historic sites via the map below, or see the full list here. We encourage you to check directly with each site for up-to-date information if you are planning a visit.

Donate Today to Help Save the Places Where Our History Happened.

Support the National Trust for Historic Preservation today and you'll be providing the courage, comfort, and inspiration of historic places now, when we need it most.

Upcoming Events at National Trust Historic Sites

March 1-31, 2025

Woodlawn Needlework Show (Alexandria, Virginia)

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The Woodlawn Needlework Show is the largest judged needlework show in the nation, exhibiting hundreds of pieces of work submitted by needlecrafters from all skill levels and backgrounds. In 2025, Woodlawn will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Nelly’s Needlers, the volunteer corps at Woodlawn that are instrumental in orchestrating the Needlework Show.

March 16, 2025

Two Glass Houses: An Entangled History (Online)

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This online program is presented via Zoom by the Smithsonian Associates program on March 16, 2025, 2:00 PM-3:15 PM ET. Tickets are $25.

During the late 1940s, two glass-walled pavilions were designed by then-leading modern architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. From their beginnings to the present, these houses have an intertwined history. In 1938, Mies became head of the architecture school at Chicago’s Armour Institute.

Mies was later commissioned to design a modern weekend house for Chicago nephrologist Edith Farnsworth. Johnson admired the concept of the glass, travertine, and steel residence and became familiar with it during visits to Mies’s Chicago office as he curated a retrospective of the architect’s works planned for MoMA in 1947. In 1949, Johnson designed and built his own version—the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut

Over the years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation acquired both houses, opening them to the public in 2004. The executive directors Scott Mehaffey of the Edith Farnsworth House and Kirsten Reoch of the Glass House, discuss the fascinating shared history of these icons of Modernism.

Historic Sites

Explore Creative Places: Historic Artists Homes and Studios

Studio at Chesterwood, feating statue of Lincoln

The Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program (HAHS) is a coalition of more than 30 museums that were the homes and working studios of American artists. Come, witness creativity.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation works to save America's historic places. Join us today to help protect the places that matter to you.

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