Elsewhere, the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park tells the story of the city's seafaring past, while the campus of St John's College – America's third oldest
The Newport Mansions remain the epitome of the city's Gilded Age when America's wealthiest flocked here during the summer months – a tradition that still continues to a degree.
Colonial Williamsburg is now a working history museum evoking 18th-century America. The historic area includes 89 original 18th-century buildings and hundreds more reconstructed after painstaking research.
History enthusiasts can start with the 2.5-mile Freedom Trail through the city's historic neighborhoods, which takes in the Massachusetts State House
New York City is the cultural and financial capital of the US and a feast for all the senses. The Statue of Liberty still stands guard over the harbor – gifted by the French in 1884
Dover's pride in being a textile town is obvious in its remaining historic mills, many of which have been renovated and are now home to businesses and artists.
Plymouth was overtaken by Boston as the major political power in what became the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but thrived as a center of fishing, shipping, and rope-making in the 1800s.
The historic center of the modern town, Taos Plaza, has its origins in the 1700s, although many of the buildings date from the 1930s.