Travel and background

America250: 50 Revolutionary-era sites you can visit

John HarrisonUpdated October 2026

Here are 50 National Register places in six eastern states whose nomination forms describe events of 1765 to 1791: the first protests, the battles, the headquarters houses and the homes of the people who signed the Declaration and wrote the state constitutions. Each entry gives one or two facts from the nomination and links to the property page.

About the anniversary and this list

The 250th anniversary of American independence falls on July 4, 2026. Congress created the United States Semiquincentennial Commission to plan it through the United States Semiquincentennial Commission Act of 2016, Public Law 114-196, approved July 22, 2016; the commission’s official site is america250.org. This list is not the commission’s. It is our own selection, made as of October 2026, from the nomination summaries of listings in the ten states this site covers.

The rule: we searched indexable listings with photographs whose nomination summaries mention the Revolution, the Continental Army or Congress, the Declaration of Independence, or specific events of 1775–1783, and preferred National Historic Landmarks. That produced over 1,400 candidates; the 50 below are the ones whose nominations describe the clearest Revolutionary-era role. Our ten states include Ohio, Texas, California and Illinois, which have almost no listings from this period, so the list is weighted to the six states where the events happened. To find a listing near you, use the address lookup tool.

Massachusetts (12)

1. Old State House, Boston: James Otis argued against the Writs of Assistance here in 1761, the Boston Massacre took place at its east end in 1770, and the Declaration was first read in Boston from its balcony in 1776.
2. Faneuil Hall, Boston: colonial leaders met in this 1742 market hall to oppose the Stamp Act and later British measures; the nomination calls it the Cradle of Liberty.
3. Old South Meeting House, Boston: its size made it the gathering place for the protests of late 1773 that ended with the Boston Tea Party. British troops gutted it in 1775 and used it as a riding school.
4. Old North Church, Boston: on April 18, 1775, sexton Robert Newman hung two lanterns in the spire to warn that British troops were moving out by water.
5. Lexington Green: on the morning of April 19, 1775, about 75 militia under Captain John Parker faced a British advance guard; eight Americans were killed and the Revolutionary War opened.
6. Buckman Tavern, Lexington: the militia’s headquarters the night before and during the skirmish. Musket-ball scars remain on its walls.
7. Hancock-Clarke House, Lexington: John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying here when Paul Revere and William Dawes arrived with word that the British were advancing.
8. Wright’s Tavern, Concord: Provincial Congress committees met here in October 1774; on April 19, 1775, the Concord Minute Men gathered here and British officers waited here while their troops searched the town.
9. Bunker Hill Monument, Boston: the 220-foot obelisk marks the approximate center of the redoubt militia held on June 17, 1775, in the first full-scale action between colonial militia and British regulars.
10. Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters, Cambridge: the 1759 Vassall house served as a hospital for colonial wounded and as George Washington’s headquarters from July 1775 to April 1776.
11. General John Glover House, Marblehead: Glover’s regiment of Marblehead fishermen moved Washington’s army from Long Island in August 1776 and carried it across the Delaware on Christmas night. A private residence, closed to visitors.
12. John Adams Birthplace, Quincy: the saltbox where the signer, principal author of the Massachusetts Constitution and second President was born in 1735. Next door, John Adams drafted that constitution in the old kitchen of the John Quincy Adams Birthplace.

New York (11)

13. Conference House, Staten Island: on September 11, 1776, Lord Howe received Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge here; the talks ended after about three hours with the Americans committed to independence.
14. Morris-Jumel Mansion, Manhattan: Washington’s headquarters in September 1776 around the Battle of Harlem Heights, and described as the only important pre-Revolutionary house still standing in Manhattan.
15. Valcour Bay, Plattsburgh: on October 11, 1776, Benedict Arnold’s hastily built fleet fought a larger British force here; the delay it caused pushed the British invasion into the next year.
16. Fort Ticonderoga: Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys took it in 1775, and its cannon were hauled to the siege of Boston.
17. Fort Stanwix National Monument, Rome: in August 1777 a 700-man Continental garrison held out against the western prong of the British invasion, a factor in Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga. The fort itself is a 1976 reconstruction.
18. Oriskany Battlefield: on August 6, 1777, about 800 Tryon County militia under Nicholas Herkimer were ambushed while marching to relieve Fort Stanwix; Herkimer died of his wounds.
19. Bennington Battlefield, Walloomsac: John Stark’s militia routed a British and German force of about 800 on August 16, 1777, costing Burgoyne roughly ten percent of his army before Saratoga.
20. Fort Montgomery Site: Sir Henry Clinton stormed this Hudson fort and its twin on October 6, 1777, capturing 263 Americans and 67 cannon and cutting the river chain.
21. Stony Point Battlefield: Anthony Wayne’s light infantry took the British fort with bayonets on the night of July 15–16, 1779, in about twenty minutes.
22. Knox Headquarters, Vails Gate: the 1754 Ellison house served Henry Knox as headquarters four times between 1779 and 1782, and Greene, von Steuben and Gates also used it.
23. De Wint House, Tappan: Washington stayed here four times, including during the trial and execution of Major John André in 1780, and met Sir Guy Carleton here in May 1783 about the British evacuation of New York.

Pennsylvania (10)

24. Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia: the First Continental Congress met in this 1770–73 guild hall in 1774.
25. Christ Church, Philadelphia: Franklin and Washington worshipped here, and the Continental Congress attended as a body in July 1775.
26. George Taylor House, Catasauqua: the ironmaster who signed the Declaration lived here from 1768 to 1776 and supplied cannon and shot from the Durham Furnace.
27. Brandywine Battlefield, Chadds Ford: Howe’s flanking march broke Washington’s line on September 11, 1777, in the only major clash of the campaign against Philadelphia.
28. Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia: the surviving eighteenth-century stone river wall is noted for its role in the siege of October–November 1777.
29. Valley Forge National Historical Park: the Continental Army arrived on December 19, 1777, and stayed six months, building roughly 900 to 2,000 huts and the earthworks that survive.
30. Washington’s Headquarters, Valley Forge: Isaac Potts’s 1758 farmhouse served as Washington’s headquarters from Christmas Eve 1777 to June 18, 1778; about 90 percent of the house is original.
31. Von Steuben Headquarters, Valley Forge: Steuben quartered here from February to June 1778 while drilling a model company of 100 men that drew the whole army into training.
32. Mount Pleasant, Philadelphia: the Fairmount Park mansion passed to Benedict Arnold in 1779 and later to Baron von Steuben on a short lease.
33. Summerseat, Morrisville: George Clymer, a Pennsylvania signer who served three terms in the Continental Congress, lived here from 1806 until his death.

Virginia (9)

34. Williamsburg Historic District: the colonial capital until 1779, where Patrick Henry delivered his Stamp Act speeches, George Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the 1776 state constitution was drawn up.
35. Peyton Randolph House, Williamsburg: home of the speaker of the House of Burgesses and president of the Continental Congress in 1774.
36. Wythe House, Williamsburg: George Wythe, a signer and law teacher of Jefferson, Marshall and Monroe, lived here from about 1755 to 1791.
37. Hanover County Courthouse: Patrick Henry argued the Parson’s Cause in this arcaded brick courthouse in 1763.
38. Scotchtown, Hanover County: Henry lived here from 1771 to 1777, the years he helped steer Virginia toward independence, before becoming governor.
39. Gunston Hall, Mason Neck: George Mason, who wrote the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, planned this house and died in it in 1792.
40. Rising Sun Tavern, Fredericksburg: in 1777 Mason, Wythe, Pendleton, Lee and Jefferson outlined here the bill that became the Statute of Virginia for Religious Liberty; the 1781 Peace Ball for Yorktown was held in its assembly room.
41. Menokin, Warsaw: home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, who with his brother Richard Henry Lee were the only two brothers to sign the Declaration. The house is now a ruin.
42. Berkeley, Charles City County: home of signer Benjamin Harrison V, pillaged by Benedict Arnold in 1781.

North Carolina (5)

43. Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Greensboro: Cornwallis held the field on March 15, 1781, but lost about a quarter of his army and surrendered at Yorktown seven months later.
44. Halifax Historic District: the Fourth Provincial Congress adopted the Halifax Resolves here in April 1776, and the Fifth drafted the state’s first constitution that December.
45. Nash-Hooper House, Hillsborough: built in 1772 by Francis Nash, who died a general at Germantown, and later home of signer William Hooper; the only surviving building associated with him.
46. Hezekiah Alexander House, Charlotte: the 1774 stone house of a member of the Fifth Provincial Congress, possibly the only surviving structure belonging to a framer of the first state constitution.
47. Alston House (House in the Horseshoe), Moore County: Tories under David Fanning attacked Philip Alston and his men here in 1781, leaving bullet holes that remain.

Georgia (3)

48. Kettle Creek Battlefield, Washington: on February 14, 1779, about 400 patriot frontiersmen under Pickens, Dooly and Clarke surprised a Loyalist force, one of the few Revolutionary victories fought in Georgia.
49. Midway Historic District: the church was rebuilt in 1792 after the British burned its predecessor in 1778; the community produced signers Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett.
50. Meadow Garden, Augusta: the circa 1791 home of George Walton, one of Georgia’s three signers, bought by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1901 in one of the nation’s earliest preservation campaigns.

Going further

Most of these places are National Historic Landmarks as well as Register listings; the difference is explained in local landmark vs. National Register vs. National Historic Landmark. If you want to trace how a battlefield or a tavern was documented, how to read a nomination form walks through the sections, and the oldest listed buildings in each state covers the colonial generation before this one.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Researched from the sources above and drafted with AI assistance; published under the editor's name, corrections welcome. See the editorial policy.