Blighted Irish field and the ruins of a 19th-century cottage on the edge of urban Manhattan.

A dark, dank room in subterranean Manhattan was the site of a ghastly murder.

A Yiddish theater turned movie house turned rock and roll landmark turned gay disco turned bank.

A hidden "place of interment for gentlemen."

The greatest real estate coup of all time.

The iconic Manhattan corner that was once the site of the Beastie Boys' fake clothing store.

The competition: breathe deeply as long as you can.

The best place in New York to pick up the controversial, notoriously foul-smelling Asian "king of fruits."

During the 19th century, you could pay for violence off a prix fixe menu on this Manhattan street.

Avoid gangster interaction while window-shopping.

This humble historic facade hides a history of boozing and the gentlemanly sport of rat-fighting.

Revolutionary War casualties fill the only 17th century structure remaining in Manhattan.

This monument to a veteran of the Mexican-American War is one of only two in Manhattan that serve as an actual mausoleum.

A Manhattan courthouse hides a small but scathing memorial to Holocaust injustice.

The one-time office of the architectural firm that ushered in the Gilded Age is now a Club Monaco.

Nope, not Washington Irving's house.

The notorious headquarters of a corrupt political machine.

A strangely angled West Village home is the only monument to an explosion that took the lives of three American revolutionaries.

New York's unstoppable progress turned this cemetery into the smallest burial ground in the city.

Named the fifth most beautiful building in America in 1885, this former courthouse boasts the best view in the Village.

New York City's smallest piece of private property.

This castle-like building in Manhattan helped destigmatize cancer in the 19th century.

The oldest living tree in Manhattan comes shrouded in sinister legend.

The former hotel where Tesla invented the radio.