This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.

Appropriation-friendly collection of books, periodicals, and more.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

The only theatre in the world constructed specifically for sound movement.

A nondescript building that's been functioning as a speakeasy for nearly a century and a half.

A historic hotel that made a cameo in Hitchcock's classic film has no intention of letting guests forget its fame.

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

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

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

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

A library built during San Francisco's pioneer times is a student's retreat, bibliophile's sanctuary, and chess player's delight.

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

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

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

A Barbary Coast watering hole built into a Gold Rush shipwreck.

A whimsical antique shop with a strong air of mystery, filled with items from ages, and what feels like worlds, past.

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

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

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

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

An optical illusion found amid a logged redwood forest.