John Brown House Museum

John Quincy Adams called it "the most magnificent and elegant private mansion that I have ever seen on this continent." Completed in 1788 on College Hill, the three-story brick Georgian was designed by Joseph Brown for his brother John — statesman, merchant, and slave trader — and modeled, in part, on Mount Vernon. In 1942, the Brown family donated it to the Rhode Island Historical Society, which restored it and operates it today. Eleven of the twelve original mantelpieces remain. That's the house telling you it's still there.