George Washington Birthplace National Monument

An obelisk fashioned from Vermont marble, a one-tenth replica of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, greets visitors at this national monument, run by the National Park Service. The site is interesting enough as Washington's birthplace, but it's more engaging as a peek into the lifestyle of the plantation owners who formed Virginia's original aristocracy, a class of essentially large-land-owning gentry, which stood in contrast to the small plot farmers and mercantile class of Northern colonies like New York and Massachusetts.