This symbolic piece of New Orleans architecture is also home to a few ghastly stories.

This bar named after the world's first mixed cocktail was home to one of New Orleans' most notorious politicians.

In 2010, Nicolas Cage purchased two plots in this cemetery using one to construct this strange pyramid mausoleum.

The restaurant keeps a hidden séance room on the second floor and reserves a table for the spirit of the former owner each night.

The curiosities and wonders of pharmacy in a delightful historic building.

The only rotating bar in New Orleans has been slowly spinning since 1949.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

This New Orleans tree is filled with hidden chimes that produce a carefully tuned melody.

A 200-year-old bar in the historic French Quarter refuses to give up its place in history, nor its role in securing ours.

A still functioning vaudeville carousel that has operated for over a century boasts a colorful menagerie and past.

San Franciscans leave gifts and messages for the magical beings that live behind the tiny, mysterious door installed on a tree in Golden Gate Park.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

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

This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.

This otherwise innocuous bodega was once the headquarters of the most feared assassin's guild in American history.

This innocent-looking townhome is actually a subway exit.

This former Norwegian sailor's church is slowly being taken over by ramshackle robot musicians.

Behind a bodega is a small museum of relics and ephemera showcasing the history of New York.

A beautiful and abandoned New York subway station from 1904, complete with chandelier.

This tall and trim architectural oddity is one of the skinniest buildings in San Francisco.

A quiet nook at the top of a little-known hilltop park named after California's first poet laureate.

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

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

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.