Maymont

A 100-acre Gilded Age estate above the James River that the Dooley family left to the city in 1925 — furniture, art and all — with the instruction that it be opened to the public. It has been free ever since.

The grounds are the draw: an Italian garden with a wisteria-draped pergola, a Japanese garden with waterfalls and koi ponds that ranks among the best in the eastern US, a working children's farm with goats and chickens, and habitats for native Virginia species including black bears, bison, bobcats and bald eagles that cannot be returned to the wild. The 33-room mansion is preserved on two levels: the family's floors upstairs and the below-stairs world of the domestic staff, told with unusual candour.

Practical: grounds free and open daily; the mansion and nature center ask a modest donation and keep shorter, seasonal hours. Parking at the Hampton Street gate fills on weekends — the Byrd Park side is usually easier.