The interior of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining" was based on this Yosemite original.

Built by the inventor of the radio, this abandoned hotel has housed early radio employees, military men, and a dangerous cult.

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

These WWII-era murals were initially booed as a libelous portrayal of the American dream but have survived multiple attempts to have them destroyed.

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

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

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

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

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

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

In this century-old literary safehouse, print is alive and well.

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

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

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

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

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

The only visible piece of San Francisco's most famous shipwreck.

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

An unassuming grey box sitting on San Francisco's Pier 17 is a "sky diary" of the coastal city's temperamental weather.

Early prototype for Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim.

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.

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

Furniture tries to escape an abandoned building in San Francisco.