Visiting Mount Airy, North Carolina should be on every Andy Griffith Show fan’s bucket list. This is Andy Griffith’s hometown, the real life “Mayberry” and the inspiration for the town the show takes place in.

For decades, The American Tobacco Campus and the city of Durham were one of the busiest industrial centers the country. When the tobacco industry ended in Durham, there needed to be re-invention.

Norwalk native LeGrand Lockwood, New York financier, railroad magnate, and Treasurer of the New York Stock Exchange purchased 35 acres in Norwalk, Connecticut to build his country estate. French-trained architect Detlef Lienau was commissioned to design a technologically advanced 62-room mansion with indoor plumbing, running hot and cold water, burglar alarm system and heat and ventilation controls.

Sara Spencer Morgan, sister of J.P. Morgan and husband George Hill Morgan commissioned Rotch & Tilden to build Ventfort Hall, and it was built between 1891 and 1893. They were 7th cousins so they both carried the Morgan name. The Morgan family summered together at their Lenox home until Sarah died in 1896, and then her husband in 1911. Ventfort Hall was left to their three children, Junius Spencer, George Dennison and Caroline Lucy, who sold the house and all the contents, so there are no original furnishings in the house today.

Boston, and neighboring Cambridge are among the most loved cities, loved for their art, culture and history. Boston Tea Party, Boston Public Garden and the Freedom Trail is a unique collection of museums, meeting houses, churches, parks and burying grounds that tell the American Revolution story.

The Cloister’s museum buildings were constructed by merging various medieval styles and portions of buildings, and the overall design was the work of Charles Colleens. The museum was opened in 1938, and the park and museum were donated by oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller.

Reynolda was built between 1912 and 1917 by Kathharine Smith Reynolds and her husband R.J. Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, on 1,067 acres.

Glenview is a mansion built in 1877 by successful stockbroker, John Bond Trevor. In 1876, Trevor purchased 23 acres and commissioned architect Charles W. Clinton to design his home in the New York City suburbs. Nothing was spared both inside and out, when building the house.

Nemours, the former 300-acre estate of Alfred I. du Pont, is named after the du Pont ancestral home in north central France. The 102-room French chateau-style mansion, designed by Carrere and Hastings, and built between 1909 and 1910, was a gift from Alfred to his second wife, Alicia.

The town of Saugerties is popular now because they have the right mix of high-quality shops and restaurants, cool art and architecture and the outdoors with hiking trails. There is something for everyone in this town nestled between the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River. Saugerties, like many Hudson Valley towns, lost many manufacturing jobs, but have been on the upswing with popularity.

Sefton Manor, now called Mill Neck Manor, is a Tudor-Revival mansion that sits on 86 acres on the north shore of Long Island overlooking the Sound in Mill Neck.

On the Long Island Sound, in the town of Lattingtown, John Edward Aldred, along with W.D. Guthrie decided to establish themselves on Long Island’s Gold Coast. In 1910 they bought out the incorporated village of Lattingtown, leveled some 60 houses and businesses and built two mansions on the waterfront.

William K. Vanderbilt chose architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the 39th birthday present he wanted to give to his wife, Alva. It would be call Marble House and was to be built on Newport’s fashionable Bellevue Avenue. Richard Morris Hunt was the first American educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Rosecliff was commissioned by Nevada silver heiress Theresa “Tessie” Fair Oelrichs and her husband, Hermann, and was built between 1898 and 1902. Flamboyant architect, Sanford White of McKim, Mead & White, designed the house modeled after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat at Versailles. The mansion is clad in white terracotta adorned with flowers and musical instruments. Jules Allard and Sons of Paris were commissioned to do the interior decoration.

Belcourt was a bachelor pad built for horse enthusiast Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, with French and Gothic influences, designed by renowned Beaux Arts architect Richard Morris Hunt. The 44,000 square foot house was built with one bedroom and one bathroom and extensive stables and carriage area incorporated into the house’s ground level design.

The Breakers is the grandest of Newport’s summer “cottages” and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial pre-eminence in turn-of-the-century America. The mansion was built for Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife Alice, on 13 acres, and is named after the waves that crash at the base of the cliffs. The Italian Renaissance-style mansion replaced a smaller home on the site that was completely destroyed by fire in 1892. Architect Richard Morris Hunt was commissioned to design the house modeled after the 16th century palaces and villas of Genoa. The lavish interiors in the 70-room mansion were the work of Jules Allard & Sons of Paris and Ogden Codman, Jr.

The Elms was the summer residence of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind. In 1898, the Berwin’s engaged Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer to design a house modeled after an 18th century French chateau. The mansion was completed in 1901, with interior furnishings designed by Jules Allard and Sons of Paris. Mrs. Berwind died in 1922, and Mr. Berwind invited his sister, Julia, to become his hostess at his Newport house. Mr. Berwind died in 1936 and Julia continued to summer at the house until her death in 1961.

The village of Catskill, a historic river town located along the banks of the mighty Hudson, was incorporated in 1806. New Yorkers would head to the Borscht Belt to sunbathe, swim, dance, and dine during the summer months and the area soon became known as the Jewish vacationland.

Hudson, named for the famous English explorer Henry Hudson, has seen it all. It started as a busy river port town, then a center of inspiration for landscape painters leading to the Hudson River School.

Glenview is a mansion built in 1877 by successful stockbroker, John Bond Trevor. In 1876, Trevor purchased 23 acres and commissioned architect Charles W. Clinton to design his home in the New York City suburbs. Nothing was spared both inside and out, when building the house.