This titanic Catholic church in Chicago is also a refuge of the fictional cult-favorite wizard detective Harry Dresden.

What's left of the ruins of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition, or World's Fair, also known as the White City.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

An antiquated German apothecary on Chicago's North Side.

A European-style bath house in Chicago.

The iconic Chicago sculpture hides a beautiful and easily overlooked plaque on the backside.

This alley in downtown Chicago held the bodies of over 600 people after the fateful Iroquois Theatre fire.

Small and slightly hidden, the American Writers Museum is preserving the legacy of America's finest authors.

This memorial plaque remembers a strangely shallow maritime disaster known as "Chicago's Titanic."

This historic hotel invented the chocolate brownie.

One of Chicago's last seafood smokehouses perfects a dying breed of fishcraft.

First planned industrial community in the United States.

The final resting place of up to 6,000 Confederate soldiers, the largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere.

This urban drawbridge gained eternal pop culture fame when the Blues Brothers jumped it while it was raised.

Cemetery featuring rare glass-fronted columbarium.

Built to house a chapter of the Knights Templar, this grandiose building is a relic of Freemasonry in Chicago a century ago.

A science teacher's dream.

Once an ornate movie theater remade by Catholic Charities.

Orthodox church partially financed by Tsar Nicolas II.

A speakeasy takes on Chicago's drinking culture.

The palatial McDonald's that inspired Wesley Willis.

A strange rock in Chicago marks the spot where a tree once stood in honor of the 18th President.

Landmark Chicago building narrowly avoided destruction.