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I agree with others that most mid to large cities have a fair amount of this. But off the top of my head, the big ones are DC, NYC and Boston. NYC is #1.
I would throw in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Fran for the top tier too. These cities have collections of museums, theaters, parks and historic sites (especially Philadelphia for historic sites).
New York runs away with any of these threads, but after NYC, I would say the other 4 are in the league, some have more options in specific categories though.
Galleries and book stores are more specific, but I have no doubt all of these cities have their fair share.
National Bonsai and Penjing Museum (at National Arboretum)
National Building Museum
National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art - Modern Art Building
National Geographic Museum
National Museum of African American History and Culture
National Museum of African Art
National Museum of American History
National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of the United States Army
National Museum of Women in the Arts
National Portrait Gallery
National Postal Museum
National Zoological Park
Phillips Collection (of Amelie fame)
Renwick Gallery
Sackler Gallery
Scottish Rite Temple and Supreme Council Library
Smithsonian Castle
Udvar-Hazy Center (best aviation museum in the world)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Congress also just commissioned the establishment of the upcoming museums: the National Museum of the American Latino and the Women’s History Museum
Art Galleries -
Not as common, but they exist in Barracks Row, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Logan Circle, etc.
Theater and Music -
9:30 Club
The Anthem
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater
Atlas Performing Arts Theatre
Black Cat
The Birchmere
Blind Whino Arts Club
Blues Alley
Ford's Theatre
Howard Theatre
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Theatre
National Theatre
Pearl Street Warehouse
Tivoli Theatre
U Street Music Hall
Union Stage
Warner Theatre
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Bookstores - tons, as a very educated city. The most famous are Capitol Hill Books, Politics and Prose and Kramerbooks. I like old books, so am more into the antique bookstores. My favorite place in the whole region though is the Book Thing in Baltimore: hundreds of books for free everytime I visit!
Historical Sites - Of course.
National Register of Historic Places:
Alexandria: 49
Arlington and Falls Church: 75
Calvert: 20
Charles: 39
Clarke: 41
Culpeper: 29
Fairfax City and County: 73
Fauquier: 66
Frederick: 101
Fredericksburg: 28
Jefferson: 78
Loudoun: 93
Madison: 21
Montgomery: 79
Prince George's: 106
Prince William and the Manassas Duo: 52
Rappahannock: 19
Spotsylvania: 17
Stafford: 21
Warren: 23
Washington: 639
TOTAL (MSA): 1,669
CSA:
Anne Arundel: 103
Baltimore City: 299
Baltimore County: 89
Berkeley: 119
Carroll: 62
Franklin: 63
Hampshire: 27
Harford: 79
Howard: 42
Morgan: 14
Queen Anne's: 38
Saint Mary's: 32
Talbot: 62
Washington (Hagerstown): 103
Winchester and Frederick County: 50
TOTAL (CSA): 2,851
For perspective, the entire State of California has 2,866 and Texas has 3,365. Very impressive for a CSA of 9.7 million to be competing with the two largest states on historic assets.
Parks - Yes, and the MSA is brimming with nature
Caledon State Park
Calvert Cliffs State Park
Cedarville State Forest
Chapel Point State Park
Chapman State Park
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
Constitution Gardens
Cunningham Falls State Park
Gambrill State Park
Great Falls Park
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
Lake Anna State Park
Leesylvania State Park
Mason Neck State Park
Merkle Natural Resources Management Area
Monocacy River Natural Resource Management Area
National Mall
Patuxent River State Park
Prince William Forest Park
Rock Creek Park
Rosaryville State Park
Seneca Creek State Park
Shenandoah National Park (25% in the MSA)
Sky Meadows State Park
Smallwood State Park
South Mountain Battlefield
South Mountain State Park
Sugarloaf Mountain
United States Botanic Garden
Washington Monument State Park
Widewater State Park
Re: Politics And Prose--seems like every other 'book event' shown on C-SPAN 2/C-SPAN 3 over the weekend is held at that store
About 15 years ago, there was a news story that the closing of a bookstore in Laredo TX left a city of 250,000 without one. But now there are some on Google Maps.
Bookstores seem rare these days. Everything is ebooks it seems.
I wouldn't say traditional brick and mortar bookstores are extinct, but that maybe they are slightly less common now. To be honest I think a lot more people are anti-ebooks than you might realize, such as EVEN myself! I know in the last 5-10 years, there have been a handful of new mom and pop bookstores that've opened in Chicago, such as Volumes in Wicker Park and Uncharted Books(used to be in Logan Square, but now they're in Andersonville). I do hope Volumes survives, since a year or 2 back they had to do a Gofundme to keep their doors open.
Also Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million still exist as traditional bookstore chains, to this day. I won't deny both chains have closed a few stores, but that most of their locations still exist. Heck, I know a few malls still have Books-A-Million inside a mall to this day, such as Chicago Ridge Mall and Fox Valley Mall. I believe Southlake got Books-A-Million to fill the Borders vacancy when that shut down, but am not 100% sure. Speaking on the note of bookstores within malls, Barbara's Bookstore also opened a store within Hawthorn Center mall in Vernon Hills after Barnes and Noble built a new store in a nearby strip mall.
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