Virginia - Landmarks and Points of Interest

Ash Lawn-Highland
Visit the home of fifth U.S. President James Monroe, adjacent to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville. The home contains original and period furniture and a 535-acre working farm and reconstructed slave quarters.

Belle Grove Plantation
Belle Grove, in Middletown, was once the home of Major Isaac Hite, Jr., and his wife Nelly Conway, Madison, sister of President James Madison.

Birthplace of Sam Houston
Sam Houston was born in this Lexington cabin on March 2, 1793. As commander-in-chief of the Texas army, he won the battle of San Jacinto, which secured Texan independence. He served as President of Texas, a U.S. Senator, and governor, 1860-1861 before his 1863 death.

Birthplace of Tennessee Ernie Ford
Visit the birthplace of the county-music legend in Bristol. See old family photos and upright piano.

Black Soldiers Memorial
The only Civil War monument in the South to honor African-American Union soldiers, this Norfolk site is also a cemetery for African-American veterans of the Civil War and Spanish American War.

Chancellorsville Battlefield
See the site of the largest engagement fought on Virginia soil. The battle has been called General Lee's greatest victory for the challenge it posed.

George Washington's Birthplace National Monument
George Washington was born on his father's Pope Creek tobacco farm on February 22, 1732, about three years before they moved to Mount Vernon. Today the National Park Service operates a colonial farm where costumed interpreters recreate the sights, sounds and smells of 18th-century plantation life.

Gillfield Baptist Church
This is the second-oldest black church in America dating from 1786 when it was founded in Prince George County. In 1800, it was moved to its current location in Petersburg. The present building was constructed of bricks made at the Virginia Normal Institute for blacks, now Virginia State University.

Historic St. Luke's Church
Historic St. Luke's Church, c. 1632, in Smithfield is also known as "the Old Brick." It's the oldest surviving church of English foundation in America and the only original Gothic church in the US.

Iwo Jima Memorial
This Arlington memorial is dedicated to all marines who have died defending the U.S. and is the largest cast-bronze statue in the world.

Menokin-Home of Francis Lightfoot Lee
Tour 500 acres of rural grounds and the 1769 home of Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife, Rebecca Tayloe Lee.

Site of the Nat Turner Rebellion
The primary action of this pivotal slave revolt took place on August 21, 1831, in what is now known as Courtland in Southampton County.