The Thunderbird Lodge National Historic Site was built as a private estate for George Whittell, Jr., a businessman born into a wealthy San Francisco family who struck big during the Gold Rush. Whittell owned 20 miles of Nevada shoreline along Lake Tahoe and decided to build a summer cottage on the land. He broke ground on the six-acre estate in the 1930s, complete with a boathouse for his beloved yacht, “Thunderbird.”

After a memorable trip to the Cotswolds region of England, the Ford family (of Ford Motor Company) decided to build an English countryside-style estate in their native Michigan. Located just northeast of Detroit, the Ford House was constructed in the late 1920s and features European design throughout, including its stone cottage exterior. The charming estate is also home to various pieces of fine art, including works by Vincent van Gogh and Diego Rivera.

George C. Boldt — owner of the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City — built a castle estate on Heart Island, in the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York. In 1904, Boldt received the tragic news that his wife had unexpectedly passed away, and he abandoned the project. The castle sat empty for 73 years but is now a museum, boasting Italian gardens, tunnels, and over 120 rooms.

With French influences throughout the property, the Nemours Estate is a 77-room neoclassical French mansion built by industrialist Alfred I. du Pont as a gift to his second wife, Alicia. The mansion is named for the French town where his du Pont’s great-great grandfather lived. The estate features 200 acres of French formal gardens (jardin à la française) that are the largest of their kind in the U.S.

Located in the Berkshires mountain range of western Massachusetts, the Mount is a Georgian Revival home with almost 17,000 square feet of living space. It was built in 1902 by novelist Edith Wharton and her husband Edward on 113 acres overlooking Laurel Lake. A National Historic Landmark, the Mount is known for its immaculate gardens designed by Wharton herself.

A pristine example of Gilded Age splendor, Oheka Castle is the second-largest private home in the U.S. Today, it serves as a hotel with 34 guestrooms and suites. The home was built on central Long Island by financier Otto Hermann Kahn in 1919. Over its many decades, it has welcomed politicians and celebrities from all over the world and has even been featured in music videos by Beyoncé, Brandy, and Taylor Swift.

Kingscote was the first of the “cottages” of Newport, Rhode Island, a series of Gilded Age mansions overlooking the coast. Full of towers, grand windows, and arches, Kingscote is a classic example of Gothic Revival architecture. The home was donated to the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1972 and maintains its original furniture and landscaping.

After inheriting her father’s fortune, socialite Isabella Stewart Gardner began building her impressive art collection. As the collection grew, she and her husband Jack decided to build a museum in Boston’s Back Bay, with a residence for the couple located within it. The museum is perhaps best known for a famous 1990 robbery of 13 masterworks that were never recovered.

Finished in 1902, Whitehall boasts a whopping 100,000 square feet of living space over 75 rooms. Henry Flager, a co-founder of Standard Oil, used the lavish Palm Beach mansion as a summer residence. After the Flaglers’ deaths, the house was sold and became a hotel. In 1959, a non-profit purchased it to save it from being torn down, and today Whitehall is open to the public for tours.

Arguably the most famous house in American music, Graceland was the Memphis, Tennessee, home of Elvis Presley. It was also where he recorded his final two albums. Elvis referred to the room as “the Den,” but it is now known as “the Jungle Room.” It only recently gained its moniker after Graceland opened to the public thanks to the room’s green shag carpet, tiki bar, ferns, and waterfall.

Located about a two-hour drive north of New York City, Hyde Park is a small community along the Hudson River. Springwood was the childhood home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, where the former President is now buried. The Hyde Park home of Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt, simply known as the Mansion, was modest compared to other Vanderbilt homes like the Breakers and the Biltmore, but still lavish at 44,000 square feet with 54 rooms.

Orson Welles’ masterpiece “Citizen Kane” (1941) was based on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, America’s first media mogul, and his Hearst Castle, which he built on a hilltop in San Simeon, California, in 1919. The property overlooks 250,000 acres, with the house itself featuring 165 decadent rooms and an elaborate pool complex. It is now a popular tourist destination, with 750,000 people visiting each year.

Built in 1851, Ernest Hemingway’s Spanish colonial estate is now a museum and memorial for the famous author. Hemingway and his wife, Pauline, renovated the home in the 1930s, adding the first in-ground pool in Key West, Florida. Remnants of the Hemingway family are still seen throughout the house, from Ernest’s writing studio to the many six-toed cats that have taken up residence in its shaded gardens.

The third U.S. President lived at this plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia, until his death in 1826. Called Monticello, or “Little Mountain,” Jefferson designed the Neoclassical estate after the architecture he saw during his time in France. The politician was interested in modern innovations, and the interior also features dumbwaiters, disappearing beds, folding doors, and hidden staircases.

Situated steps from Sarasota Bay in the city of Sarasota, this property built in 1926 originally functioned as the winter home of John Ringling (one of the five brothers who founded the Ringling Bros. Circus in 1886) and his wife Mable. Though often referred to as the Ringling Mansion, the home’s official name, Ca’ d’Zan, translates to “House of John” in the Venetian dialect, referencing the couple’s longtime interest in Venice, Italy, which is also reflected in the house's architectural style.

Located southwest of Washington D.C., the Mount Vernon estate overlooks the Potomac River in Virginia. It was the former home of the first U.S. President George Washington, and is also the location of his and his wife Martha's tombs, which are situated among nearby gardens on the estate grounds. The 18th-century Georgian-style mansion was built on a 5,000-acre plantation where hundreds of enslaved peoples lived and worked.

Built for Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1895, the Breakers mansion sits on 13 acres of Newport waterfront and features 70 rooms, including 48 bedrooms. Gloria Vanderbilt, mother of Anderson Cooper, famously lived there as a child. In 1948, the Breakers began permitting the Preservation Society of Newport County to give tours, and in 1972 the Society purchased the property outright. In 1994, it was named a National Historic Landmark.

Frank Lloyd Wright was a pioneer of modern architecture. One of his most eccentric and celebrated designs is located near Mill Run, Pennsylvania, just southwest of Pittsburgh. Built for the Kaufmann family, the home is called Fallingwater for its tiered construction atop a waterfall. Constructed in the 1930s, it later opened as a museum in the 1960s and has since become a top destination for modern architecture fans.

The grand Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, was the residence of Hawaii’s royal family until the monarchy was overthrown in the late 19th century. It’s believed that the palace was built on an ancient site of worship, chosen by ​​King Kamehameha III in the mid-19th century. Built in 1879, the palace has hosted many foreign dignitaries and celebrations over the decades since.

Located in Asheville, North Carolina, the 175,000-square-foot, 250-room Biltmore Estate was built for Cornelius Vanderbilt’s grandson, George Vanderbilt, in 1895. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the mansion took six years to build. With the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop, the Biltmore is now a popular tourist destination, filming location for movies and TV, and a popular place to hold weddings and other special events.