Patti Swanson's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium

Chicago's North Park Village was once the largest municipal sanatorium in the country.
Chicago, Illinois

Zion Evangelical Lutheran 'Ghost Church'

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.
Chicago, Illinois

Former Site of Selig Polyscope Film Studios

Chicago was once a major hub of film production, but being silent film you don’t hear much about it.
Seguin, Texas

World's Largest Pecan

The saga of the massive nut begins and ends in Texas.
Chicago, Illinois

Coyote Building

One of the last functioning antique elevators in Chicago.
Chicago, Illinois

Graceland Cemetery

An enormous park-like oasis, full of famous Chicagoans' graves.
Chicago, Illinois

Goldblatt’s Department Store Flagship Location

Landmark Chicago building narrowly avoided destruction.
Chicago, Illinois

Puerto Rican Flag Sculptures

Huge abstract sculptures of the Puerto Rican Flag.
Chicago, Illinois

Eternal Silence

A haunting statue called "Eternal Silence" has quite the reputation among visitors with active imaginations.
Chicago, Illinois

S.S. Eastland Memorial

This memorial plaque remembers a strangely shallow maritime disaster known as "Chicago's Titanic."
Chicago, Illinois

Bubbly Creek

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.
Chicago, Illinois

Rosehill Cemetery

Chicago's largest cemetery is full of beautiful Victorian monuments and more than a few ghost stories.
Chicago, Illinois

Thorne Miniature Rooms

Each of these gorgeous, intricately decorated rooms is painstakingly crafted to the scale of 1 inch: 1 foot.
Chicago, Illinois

World Artifacts on the Tribune Tower Walls

Fragments of architectural wonders from around the globe are embedded in the newspaper building's walls.
Chicago, Illinois

Lower Lower Wacker Drive

Illegal drag racing two stories beneath Chicago’s streets.
New York, New York

Strawberry Fields Memorial

This mosaic dedicated to John Lennon was tended for years by a Beatles super-fan.
Brooklyn, New York

Sunshine Laundromat

One of New York's best collections of pinball is hidden in a secret bar in the back of this laundromat.
Brooklyn, New York

Mount Prospect Park

This city park was once a lookout point for George Washington’s army during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776.
New York, New York

Fearless Girl Statue

Wall Street has a new heroine, a bronze statue of a small but fierce girl.
New York, New York

The Standard Oil Building

This curved Manhattan building was built to house the opulence of John D. Rockefeller's oil empire.
New York, New York

Preserved Remnants of 17th Century New York

Under a glass sidewalk lie the remains of some of Manhattan's oldest buildings.
Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room

Once at the center of U.S. finance, the historic Trading Room was meticulously recreated piece by piece and rebuilt in the Art Institute.
Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Water Cribs

These chunky stone towers out in Lake Michigan are the key to Chicago’s drinking water.
Chicago, Illinois

Nelson Algren's Last Residence

"No writer ever gave more to a city and got back less.”