A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

A century-old hotspot for jazz, frequented by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Al Capone.

An antiquated German apothecary on Chicago's North Side.

A speakeasy takes on Chicago's drinking culture.

A theater sits abandoned on Roosevelt Road, once majestic in splendor, now majestic in decay.

Once known as the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

A onetime gangsters' hideaway where you can dine on steaks, fine wines, and cigars just like they once did.

The young Black revolutionary was killed before getting to see a non-segregated pool in his hometown.

This house renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright was the centerpiece of a lavish 20th-century estate.

A tribute to one granddaughter's old apartment which now represents the whims of each visitor.

In a grove of fast growing walnut trees outside Paris, Illinois, a marker shares the story of a fictional road building culture.

A chance to follow in the footsteps of the word's most legendary animator.

Roses and other fascinating flora fill this garden built to commemorate Britain's immortal Bard.

This tiny historic jail along Route 66 is the perfect fit for exactly one criminal and their partner-in-crime.

The famous author's birthplace is preserved in a town that he once described as narrow-minded.

Small and slightly hidden, the American Writers Museum is preserving the legacy of America's finest authors.

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

The NBA player's elaborate former home is now a ghost of its old glory.

One of Chicago's last seafood smokehouses perfects a dying breed of fishcraft.

A sprawling museum filled with larger-than-life works of art.

In the Shawnee National Forest, amazing rock formations peer through the treeline.

A plaque marks a former safe house on the secret route, now hidden next to a McDonald's.

Tour the luxe "glass cage" that inspired and unnerved the architecture world upon its debut.

This botanical garden outside Chicago boasts an array of more than 300 varieties of lilacs.