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Virtually Visit a New Historic Spot Every Day This Month

Virtually Visit a New Historic Spot Every Day This Month
Credit: Shutterstock

Life during a pandemic doesn’t give us much to look forward to—especially since we don’t really have any idea when it’s ever going to end. But one of the rare positive side effects of our new quarantine lifestyle is our newfound virtual access to various national parks, museums and historical destinations. We’re especially excited about a new program from the National Trust for Historic Preservation called Virtual Preservation Month that we learned about via the most recent Recomendo newsletter.

Recognizing that we’re all probably experiencing some level of wanderlust right now, the National Trust is offering the public a new historical and cultural experience each day for the month of May, highlighting some of the most important sites under its purview from coast-to-coast. All you need to do is sign up to get their daily reminders by email or keep checking the site as they add more sites and virtual events.

As of right now, the virtual experiences for the first five days of the month are up, and they’re pretty great. May 1 featured a tour of one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses (his attempt at creating affordable but well-designed homes for the masses), while May 2's offering was a concert inside Nina Simone’s childhood home. If traveling Route 66 has been on your list for a while, get your virtual kicks via May 3rd’s tour using Google Earth. The rest of this week will take you to a virtual games night at Woodrow Wilson’s house, through a tour of sculptures at a Rockefeller estate and on a walkthrough of a gothic revival mansion.