A century and a half of research in the sciences and natural history, still going strong.

The taxidermied remains of the "last wild grizzly bear in California" and of the symbol of the state of California.

The legendary statue-hating superintendent of Golden Gate Park is honored with... a statue.

San Francisco's first World's Fair, dedicated to the wonders of California.

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

Art in the form of a winding, man made crack in stone.

A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

A monumental cross hides in the trees in Golden Gate Park.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

A shining, cold, black organ lies in San Francisco's financial district.

The first fresco Diego Rivera painted in the United States can be found in the former San Francisco Stock Exchange.

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

One of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies still uses its original secret recipe.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

This teeny-tiny park built by a San Francisco man in 1962 is mostly stairs.

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

27-room home built with the fortune of a sugar magnate.

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

One of few lasting examples of the brief octagon craze that developed into folly.

A brooding mansion of clinker brick stands out among the Victorian houses of Pacific Heights.