One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.

The world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory continues to report on the stars.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

A beautiful geyser under environmental threat.

One of nature's most well-scheduled phenomenons resides in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park.

An entire town preserved as a historic landmark.

A wild west cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona, provides a window into the Old West.

What is the Thing?

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

Once the fastest ship from San Francisco to Tahiti, the Galilee now lays in pieces in three different cities.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

A classically inspired temple in Redwood City.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

The longest burning light bulb in the world.

A house built from trash known as the poor man's Hearst Castle.

Neoclassical Revival mansion and set of horror cult classic Phantasm.

This quaint archive of the silent era preserves and pays homage to a seminal moment in film history.