barbaramstein's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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San Francisco, California

The 'Full House' House

This private residence was the template for one of the most beloved television homes of all time.
Oakland, California

Chapel of the Chimes

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.
San Simeon, California

Hearst Castle

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.
San Francisco, California

Vaillancourt Fountain

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

San Francisco Center for the Book

This shop and studio is dedicated to the art of the book, from letterpress to bookbinding.
San Francisco, California

Three Gems

A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.
San Francisco, California

Golden Gate Park Bison

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

Mission Dolores Cemetery

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.
San Francisco, California

450 Sutter Street

Nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling Financial District stands a unique homage to the Mayan and Beaux Arts.
San Francisco, California

Fort Miley Batteries

Big gun installations, built over a massive cemetery, now abandoned & hidden in trees.
San Francisco, California

Crown & Crumpet

The tea room that pushed the boundaries of adorable straight into...we can't find the words.
San Francisco, California

Palace of Fine Arts

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

Buena Vista Park Tombstones

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.
San Francisco, California

Long Now Orrery

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.
Los Angeles, California

Venice of America Canals

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.
San Francisco, California

Paxton Gate

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.
San Francisco, California

Musée Mécanique

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

The Tonga Room

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.
San Francisco, California

Ruins of the Sutro Baths

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.
Fresno, California

Forestiere Underground Gardens

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.
San Francisco, California

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.
San Francisco , California

Yoda Fountain

There is no trying to fall in love with this Star Wars fountain, you just do or do not.
San Francisco, California

'Wood Line'

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.
Mecca, California

Salton Sea

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.