A course can be storied for its architecture, or it can be storied for the golf that's been played there, or it can be both, it seems.
Cypress and Pine Valley, really, have not had many significant golf events played there since their founding -- by significant, something that resonates beyond the tiny world of golf nuts.
Baltusrol Lower, which has hosted a ton of USGA events, and TCC in Brookline, seem more storied for the golf than the architecture.
Augusta, Merion, Shinnecock, Oakmont, Riveria, and Pebble seem to have elements of both. (Shinnecock is interesting, because it hosted the second US Open ever played, disappeared from the screen for 100 years, then has returned, and held up amazingly well as a solid test for a major. I'm not too sure too many courses could make that claim; the field is pretty limited.) I'd throw one more into the mix -- Myopia -- which had an early, critical role in establishing the US Open as a premier test of golf (four Opens held there, with very high scores -- it sort of established the notion of the Open being a test of par golf), and played a pretty interesting role in the development of early American golf architecture.
I'd go with a top 10, in order, of:
Merion
Augusta
TCC (tho it does deserve an asterisk, as Pat Mucci points out)
Oakmont
Shinnecock
Pine Valley
Winged Foot
Riveria
Myopia
Pebble