This fully intact Neoclassical-Greek Revival style firehouse operated until 1938.

"You don't need a rocket scientist to build a steam engine, but we've got one." -Museum docent on the credentials of a restoration volunteer.

Built in 1895, this bed and breakfast was once a hospital that served an early 1900s Gold Rush boomtown.

A fine mixture of the old and the new topped with an art deco neon spire.

The oldest continuously operating Catholic school west of the Mississippi.

The modest home of the very immodest dancer who cost a king his crown.

Established in 1853, this crumbling cemetery sits forgotten on the corner of Church and Chapel in Gold Country.

An abandoned lot littered with concrete debris was once the home of the world's first female railroad president.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

Dentist's hated concrete colossi are now beloved icons of the community.

This Niagara Falls tourist trap is a world bright with neon and curiosities that will inspire love, hate, or a mixture of both.

A natural gas leak provides a flickering flame beneath a waterfall.

Ruins of a once-prized railroad station in New York.

The seat of Buffalo government is a gorgeous Art Deco palace.

This massive melon is a recreation of a similar gate from the Pan-American Expo.

A beautifully designed asylum was resurrected as a hotel and art center with a ghost story or two.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

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

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

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.