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This sounds annoying, but as I understand the rules, the UN is almost trying to create a list of "natural wonders". There are National Parks on the list, Mammoth Cave is on the list, Ancient ruins are on the list.

Identifying someone's home is not really what the list is about.

I was at first expecting Harriet Tubman's home on the list, and Rosa Parks' home on the list, and Martin Luther King's home on the list -- but No. I think George Washington's home deserves recognition, juts not on this particular UN list.

I think this is the gist of it:

"The United States has 20 World Heritage sites, including the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty, as well as Monticello, which is included not in tribute to Thomas Jefferson, but in recognition of its architecture.

"All was going swimmingly until the mid-1990s, when environmentalists feared that a gold mine just outside Yellowstone National Park, another World Heritage site, would irrevocably damage the park. UNESCO put the site on its World Heritage in Danger list, a move the Clinton administration then used to help justify shutting down the mine.

"Conservatives, property rights advocates and conspiracy theorists fearing a U.N.-led world government sounded the alarm. Though World Heritage designation is little more than ceremonial -- control of the sites remains with private land owners or governments -- Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Don Young (Alaska), introduced legislation to bar any new U.S. applications without congressional approval. ("Is Boutros Boutros-Ghali Zoning Land in Your District?" ... The United States hasn't nominated a single site since. An effort to add the historic district of Savannah, Ga., to the list faltered over a rule, unique to this country, requiring the consent of all property owners before a site is nominated. Mount Vernon and a marine sanctuary in Hawaii are the first two U.S. nominations in 15 years. So advocates wanted a sure thing."