Shirley Plantation

Founded in 1613, six years after Jamestown, and worked by the same family since 1638 — eleven generations of Hills and Carters, who still live on the upper floors. It is generally cited as the oldest family-owned business in North America.

The brick house of 1738 sits at the head of a Queen Anne forecourt of outbuildings, with a famous flying staircase inside that rises three storeys with no visible support. Anne Hill Carter, Robert E. Lee's mother, was born and married here. The site now interprets the several hundred people enslaved across its history alongside the family story, using unusually complete estate records.

Practical: grounds and house tickets are sold separately; the guided ground-floor tour is the reason to come, since the family occupies everything above it. Allow around two hours with the outbuildings, the icehouse timeline exhibit and the 350-year-old willow oak behind the house. Book ahead in season.