Chicago's museum dedicated to the history of bondage and fetishism is more textbook than titillation.

The only Bahá'í house of worship in North America and one of only a handful worldwide.

This humble star-gazing center touts itself as the "Birthplace of American Astronomy."

This magnificent Cincinnati graveyard is also a popular public park.

What was meant to be a temporary exhibit is now a permanent fixture at the St. Louis Zoo filled with beautiful birds.

A kitschy, creepy St. Louis mainstay.

A creepy sculpture of a decapitated head invites viewers to see St. Louis through its empty eyes.

This is not your typical jungle gym.

A prohibition-style speakeasy takes up residence in the last Victorian residence in Hollywood.

Dodge prohibitionists and slide through the telephone booth in Crif Dogs.

San Francisco's oldest operating hotel, with a Victorian atmosphere and a "haunted" fourth floor.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

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

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

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

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

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

Open since 1938, this diner has kept its fountain, malt machine, and all the gum that greasers left beneath its counter.

This luxury shopping lane has been protected by its own tiny police force for over a century.

This hidden green space is the city's second largest conservatory.

Artists and musicians now rule over this former rail station.

Hidden behind a wall for decades, this masonic lodge was only rediscovered during renovations.

A Victorian natural history and ethnographic museum with wonderful turn-of-the-century, science-book-esque evolution displays.