Hollywood's oldest hotel is the site of the first Academy Awards, the birthplace of Marilyn Monroe's career, and the home of Montgomery Clift's ghost.

L.A.'s oldest operating bowling alley is a beautifully restored homage to its speakeasy days.

An increasingly eccentric apartment building, topped with winged beasties.

This otherwise ordinary close on the Royal Mile constituted the end of the world for Edinburgh’s poorest residents.

Known as the "Hobbit Houses," these storybook homes look like they're straight out of the Shire.

One man's vast collection of artifacts and ephemera from matchbooks and postcards to vintage neon signs and cars.

Beautiful Victorian buildings from L.A.'s forgotten architectural past.

A monthly street "service" of handmade puppets and live original puppets, whose devotees profess has the power to change lives.

The awe-inspiring ship from the golden era of cruising has an incomparable history and a reputation as one of the world’s most haunted places.

This symbol of peace is appropriately positioned overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Remants of foundations, streets, and streetcar tracks inhabit the cliffs where a landslide occurred in 1929.

This little gem of Spanish Colonial architecture has been abandoned since the 1950s.

Colorful Native American paintings are hidden within this small cavern.

Hidden in the Santa Ynez Mountains off Highway 154, this tiny restaurant once served as a stagecoach stop.

The ruins of the castle that chemicals built.

The mysterious, untimely death of a Canned Heat band member still haunts this unfinished home.

Home to one of the world’s largest collections of model yachts.

San Francisco's first World's Fair, dedicated to the wonders of California.

Guns that have been defending San Francisco since 1904.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

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

This grinning pup statue is all that's left of what was once a ubiquitous Bay Area diner chain.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.