40 Famous People's Homes You Can Visit

Everyone wants to know a little more about their favorite celebrities, which is why Hollywood tour companies can make good money driving tourists to see just the exteriors of actors' homes. Some folks even try to go where celebs hang out. But it's far easier (and more educational) to experience the lives of America's most famous figures by visiting their well-preserved home after they've passed on or moved. The following are many of the most fascinating famous homes available to visit in the United States.

Related: Celebrity Houses Regular People Can Afford

Palm Springs, California 
While spending the night in Ol' Blue Eyes' Palm Springs digs isn't cheap ($2,500 a night), the price is a little more affordable if you recruit some fellow Sinatra fans to bunk with you (the four-bedroom sleeps eight and has 6.5 bathrooms). The midcentury modern home has a piano-shaped pool, cabanas, and a well-equipped pool house.

Related: Famous Movie Homes That Will Bring Back Memories

Dyess, Arkansas 
Iconic country singer and Man in Black Johnny Cash was raised in Dyess Colony, an agricultural resettlement community for 500 poor families created as part of FDR's New Deal. Cash's modest boyhood home and other features of the colony have been restored for visitors in recent years, with $15 tours giving an overview on colony life in the '30s and how Cash's upbringing influenced his music.

Related: The Most Expensive Celeb Homes on the Market

Memphis, Tennessee 
Graceland was a cattle farm before it became the home of early rock 'n' roller and "Hound Dog" singer Elvis Presley in 1957. Since his death, the 13.8-acre estate has become a museum and the second-most visited house in the nation, after the White House, celebrating The King's life story and showcasing the opulence in which he spent his later years. The cheapest tours that include the mansion start at $77.

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Key West, Florida
From 1931 to 1939, his most prolific period as an author, Ernest Hemingway lived in a Spanish Colonial-style house featuring an in-ground swimming pool and the author's collection of antique Spanish furniture. Today, guests can pay $17 for a half-hour guided tour and visit with the stunning property's current residents — an adorable brood of 40 to 50 six-toed cats.

Palm Springs, California 
Elizabeth Taylor was born in England, but like Sinatra and many midcentury Hollywood elites, she kept a desert vacation home in Palm Springs — hers was complete with a pool, waterfalls, and her own collection of artwork. This home hasn't been made into a museum, but rather into a vacation rental containing some of her old possessions, available for reportedly just $625 per night.

San Simeon, California 

Inspired by his travels to Europe, newspaper tycoon and "Citizen Kane" inspiration William Randolph Hearst built a castle for himself overlooking the central California coast. The 90,000-square-foot home is now a major tourist attraction in the area, and it's not hard to see why, between the world-famous art collection, coastal views, gardens, and swimming pools.

Hartford, Connecticut
Author and humorist Mark Twain wrote "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and other famous works while living in this 11,500-square-foot Gothic Revival-style home. Parts were converted to apartments for decades, but restoration began in 1963 when the house was designated a national historic landmark. Guided tours cost $24 and take visitors through the gardens, carriage house, and 25 rooms all containing the most modern innovations of 1874.

Dearborn, Michigan
After upending transportation around the world with his affordable Model T, Henry Ford and his wife sought refuge from the public eye at their Fair Lane estate. The home blends architectural styles and includes unique features such as an indoor pool, hydroelectric dam, skating house, a bowling alley, and Ford's personal garage and laboratory. The house has 1,300-acre grounds that are free to explore.

Medora, North Dakota
Future president Theodore Roosevelt divided his time in the 1880s between New York and his 1½-story Maltese Cross cabin in North Dakota, where he learned to hunt bison. The cabin has been preserved but moved to Theodore Roosevelt National Park with its original Ponderosa pine logs and antique furnishings.

East Hampton, New York
In 1945, renowned abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock moved into a house on Long Island, where he lived and worked on his color-spattered artworks until his death in 1956. Now a national historic landmark, the 19th century house was made into a museum in 1988, and for $15 admission, visitors can view Pollock's record collection, personal library, and floorboards that still show evidence of his work.

Chanhassen, Minnesota 
Paisley Park was Prince's home and recording studio in life, but the late pop star also opened its doors to the public for parties on occasion. The modernist, 65,000-square-foot complex in Minnesota began hosting tours organized by Graceland Holdings in 2016, showcasing Prince's concert wardrobes, personal artifacts, and the studios where he recorded and mixed his biggest hits. Ninety-minute, general admission tours cost $48.

Abiquiu, New Mexico
Though born in Wisconsin, artist Georgia O'Keeffe based her work on the natural scenery of New Mexico and made her home at Ghost Ranch in the town of Abiquiu, some 60 miles northwest of Santa Fe. Starting at $55 per person, visitors can arrange tours of the isolated homestead to learn about O'Keeffe's life and see some of the Southwest landscapes that inspired her work.

Prouts Neck, Maine 
Considered one of America's most accomplished painters, Winslow Homer made his home and painted many of his marine landscapes on the Atlantic coast town of Prouts Neck, Maine. Built by famed Portland architect John Calvin Stevens, Homer's 1,500-square-foot residence is now open as a national landmark containing some of his works, personal photos, and furniture preserved from his lifetime. Tours start at $65 per person … in 2023.

Oak Park, Illinois
When Frank Lloyd Wright built his first home in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1889 at the age of 22, he was just experimenting with the architectural Prairie style that would come to define his career. Guided tours starting at $20 per adult highlight the architectural innovations in Wright's former home and studio, as well as in the neighborhood around them.

Scottsdale, Arizona 
Fittingly enough, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home is now home to the Taliesin School of Architecture, as well as the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Mimicking its desert surroundings, the home was one of Wright's most personal designs. On guided tours, guests can view his private quarters and garden room, and for $49 per person, see how the property lights up in the evening.

Denver
Also known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," Margaret Brown was an American philanthropist around the turn of the century most famous for surviving and aiding in the evacuation of the "Titanic." Saved from demolition in 1970, her home on Denver's Capitol Hill still stands as a relic of the era's architectural styles and socialite culture, available to tour at $16 per adult.

Oak Park, Illinois 
Though not as flashy as his Key West estate, Ernest Hemingway's Birthplace Home Museum offers a window into the author's early life in Oak Park, where he was born and spent the first six years of his life in his family's Queen Anne home, the first on its block to have electricity. The home has been preserved to look as it did back at the turn of the century, with tours reflecting the impact Hemingway's origins in Oak Park had on his later life and work.

Atchison, Kansas 
Amelia Earhart was a renowned traveler, but she considered her home to be in Atchison, at the wood-frame childhood home where she spent more of her life than anywhere else. First built in 1861, the Gothic Revival cottage remains as a museum and National Historic Site educating visitors about the life and accomplishments of the famed female aviator.

Lexington, Kentucky
U.S. Speaker of the House and Secretary of State Henry Clay lived on his Kentucky plantation, called Ashland, for more than 40 years, devoting his time to farming and horse breeding between political appointments. Complete with onsite gardens, walking trails, and a Civil War monument, the grounds outside his 18-room mansion are free for the public to tour on their own, while guided tours of the mansion are $20 per person.

North Platte, Nebraska 
Bison hunter, showman, and Old West icon Buffalo Bill used the earnings from his Wild West Show to build his Victorian ranch on 1,400 acres. Today, that's been whittled down to a 16-acre historical park, containing the home filled with period appropriate furnishings and Buffalo Bill memorabilia, plus the barn containing his collection of antique carriages. Admission and state park permit together cost $12 for non-Nebraskan residents.

Derry, New Hampshire
Robert Frost lived in this New England farmhouse from 1900 to 1911, and later attributed many of his most famous poems to memories from this period. Today the timeless home runs tours, poetry readings, and displays on the author's life and work. Admission is $4 for New Hampshire residents and $5 for others.

Asheville, North Carolina 
George Vanderbilt is mostly famous for belonging to the prominent Vanderbilt family, which amassed a shipping and railway empire in the 19th century. He used his family's wealth to build the nation's largest privately owned home ever, the Biltmore Estate. With 250 rooms and 4 acres of indoor space, it takes a good six to eight hours to fully explore the home, plus its lush gardens, onsite restaurants, and winery.

Salt Lake City
One of Mormonism's most significant early leaders and Utah's first governor, Brigham Young had several official residences built in Salt Lake City to accommodate his many wives and children. Built in 1854 from sandstone and adobe, the stately Beehive House is now a museum within the larger complex of Brigham Young Historic Park, open to the public for free half-hour guided tours.

Mount Vernon, Virginia 
Like many aristocratic Virginians, the nation's first president took great pride in his plantation house Mount Vernon along the Potomac River, building it in stages between 1758 and 1778. Washington himself welcomed the public to view his home and gardens, so the tradition continues today, with the interiors restored to their former appearance and regular reenactments occurring onsite. Buy visitors' tickets online for $26.

Charlottesville, Virginia
Perhaps even more famous than Mount Vernon is Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation, originally 5,000 acres and designed by Jefferson himself over decades. Onsite is Jefferson's burial place, plus numerous specialized outbuildings for housing slaves, breeding crops, making nails, and more. Visitors can explore the grounds and tour parts of the in-house museum and educational institution for $32.

New York
After his childhood in New Orleans, jazz legend Louis Armstrong lived for nearly 30 years in a working-class neighborhood of Queens. The brick house he and his wife renovated to suit their tastes now operates as a museum with archives of Armstrong's writings, books, and memorabilia made available alongside tours of Satchmo's bedroom and personal den.

West Hollywood, California 
This cottage comes with a double dose of early 20th century star power. Not only was this storybook cottage part of a group of homes built by silent film star Charlie Chaplin in the 1920s as a central location for his movie crew, early film heartthrob Rudolph Valentino also lived here. Available for $225 a night, it's centrally located (and conveniently fenced off from the hustle and bustle of the outside neighborhood).

Lenox, Massachusetts
"Age of Innocence" author Edith Wharton was no stranger to the wealthy New York aristocracy her novels scathingly depicted, and she designed, with great architectural care, what she considered her "first real home," The Mount, in the Berkshires of Massachusetts in 1902. The estate is now a historic house museum running standard and ghost tours (starting at $20) from May through October.

Los Angeles
Speaking of "Citizen Kane," Orson Welles wrote the film's script at this 3,000-square-foot Hollywood home above Sunset Boulevard, which was reportedly also owned and inhabited by celebrities spanning the years, such as Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and David Bowie. It was built in 1928 by Sidney Toler, who later became famous for playing Charlie Chan. These days, it goes for $1,000 a night on Airbnb.

Sleepy Hollow, New York
John D. Rockefeller Jr. — not his father — was the one largely responsible for the construction of Kykuit, home to four generations of the wealthy oil industry family before it became a historically preserved Hudson Valley landmark. Tours start at $20 and take visitors to the main rooms and grounds of the six-story house, encompassing a renowned collection of art, antique cars, and horse-drawn carriages.

Osawatomie, Kansas
Radical abolitionist John Brown organized his historic raid on the Harpers Ferry armory and other anti-slavery activities while living at a cabin owned by his sister in Kansas. The back room is said to have been used to harbor escaped slaves. The frontier-style home is preserved as a museum by the Kansas Historical Society offering group tours by appointment.

Baltimore
American literary icon Edgar Allan Poe penned some of his most famous works while living in an unassuming Baltimore rowhouse from 1833 to 1835. Now a national historic landmark, the home is well-preserved and contains a few of Poe's original furnishings, such as a telescope and writing desk.

Boston
Dating back to 1680, the oldest house in downtown Boston was once home to founding father and midnight-rider Paul Revere from 1770 to 1800. It's now one of the last 17th century dwellings in any American urban area. As a national historic landmark, the three-story structure is 90% original and provides insight into Revere's life as well as the standard living conditions of colonial times.

St. Joseph, Missouri 
Famed outlaw Jesse James was shot with his back turned by fellow bank robber Robert Ford in 1881, while living with his family at a four-bedroom home in Missouri. Now, for $4 apiece, visitors can tour the historic property to see some of James' personal effects and a hole in the wall from where the bullet (allegedly) left his skull.

Dummerston, Vermont 
Rudyard Kipling wrote influential works such as "The Jungle Book" and "The Seven Seas" while living at this shingle-style house he called Naulakha, a national historic landmark now available for rent. For nightly costs from $430 in the low season and $495 in the peak, up to eight guests can lounge in the well-preserved quarters Kipling designed himself, play on the state's first tennis court, or just ski and hike through the meadows.

Salem, Massachusetts
Though not exactly a household name, as sole judge in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, Jonathan Corwin was at the center of one of the darkest periods in America's colonial history. His gloomy gray home is the only house remaining that belonged to a prominent figure in the trials, and it's been preserved with authentic floorboards and period-appropriate furniture for public tours. Tours run from May through November and cost $9 per adult, with special events around Halloween.

Sarasota, Florida 
After making his fortune from the circus, John Ringling and his wife built their Venetian dream home in Florida, spending huge sums to furnish it with European artifacts and artworks spanning different historical eras. Called Ca d'Zan, or House of John, the mansion is now part of a historical site complex that also includes the Ringling Circus Museum and Ringling Art Museum.

Palm Springs, California
Like Elizabeth Taylor, Bing Crosby kept a vacation home in the desert that's now available for rent. The successful and influential crooner's former place in Palm Springs' Old Movie Colony is a Spanish-style villa with a pool, vaulted ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces, original tiled floors, and citrus trees. It costs upward of $920 per night on Airbnb.

Springfield, Illinois 
The Lincoln Home National Historic Site preserves the only home Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln owned in the 17-year period preceding his presidency. It's free to visit and tour the 12-room Greek Revival home, as well as 12 other structures dating to the same time preserved in the surrounding four-block neighborhood, many highlighting tales of Lincoln's neighbors.

Warm Springs, Georgia
President Franklin D. Roosevelt first came to Warm Springs for polio treatment in 1924, but he liked the area (and its springs) so much he had a personal retreat built there, where he later died in 1945, three months into his fourth term. Almost immediately, Roosevelt's Little White House was opened as a museum that now charges $12 admission, with one of the top attractions being the "Unfinished Portrait" that was being painted of him when he died.

Related: Celebrity Homes and Other Famous Places You Can Stay on Vacation