History

In the basement of the U.S. Capitol Building is a hidden storage room full of ornate floor tiles leftover from the 1850s.

America's oldest Eastern European synagogue provided the immigrants of crowded Lower East Side tenements a space of sanctuary.

An oddly shaped tower built to mark the acquittal of Admiral Keppel in a controversial 1770s case.

Fittingly, America's museum of architecture is itself a magnificently designed old building.

Before Nixon, "watergate" meant canals.

The place where the great marine explorer first learned to work underwater is not where you'd expect.

An abandoned mine now resembles a post-apocalyptic landscape of derelict buildings and blood-red pools of water.

The profile of one ill-fated deacon was emblazoned forever on this church window during the Halifax explosion.

A trove of century-old litho stones from the Puck Building's printing days were discovered behind a cellar wall, and are now hanging in the store.

An 11th-century fortress home to one of the most influential royal houses in medieval Europe.

Herbert Hoover's "Brown House" rural presidential retreat was a PR disaster amid the start of the Great Depression.

The statue of John Harvard isn't actually John Harvard—or even, technically, the founder of the school.

The townhouse where the English poet created some of his most influential work has been preserved in tribute.

The final resting place of the first American-born professional magician.

The abandoned mine where American troops discovered a treasure trove of art and artifacts hidden by the Nazis.