The modest, restored home of the legendary ragtime musician John William "Blind" Boone.

This museum located in the "Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World," chronicles the history of cob pipe.

A subterranean haunt where wine and homemade biscottis are always on the menu.

An unassuming store hides relics of its former life as the jazz club that hosted some of the best black performers of the 1920s and '30s.

Hidden on the 7th floor of a historic building, this Cajun spot features wall-to-wall bottles of hot sauce.

The first home and studio that belonged to the famous architect.

Tiny treasures, giant murals, and strange sculptures decorate the windows and doors of this abandoned building.

A long lost multi-cultural music venue used to reside in the bottom floor of Chicago's Flat Iron Building.

Odd, decrepit fountain honors Chicago author who had mixed feelings about his hometown.

A journey begins with a single step, and for many, the road-trip of a lifetime started at this Chicago intersection.

The sign to a demolished amusement park now stands in front of a local library.

Once an ornate movie theater remade by Catholic Charities.

An exhibit of items from the mental institution where Mary Todd Lincoln lived after her son conspired to have her committed.

The last masonry skyscraper ever built reveals a transitional moment in architectural history.

This rare female version of the Muffler Man has its clothes removed each summer to signal the start of pool season.

One of the first historical sites of an alternative universe was installed in the town of Paris, Illinois—which is now home to an annual spelling bee of Kcymaerxthaereal words.

The original Garfield station is the oldest station facility on the "L", with the station house dating from 1892.

This historic lavatory leftover features two levels of defecation stations completely without context.

Designed by Alfred Caldwel, this landscape showcases his vision of a native garden.

Today this bizarre rooftop phone booth seems like a piece of kitsch but it was once used to spot disastrous storms.

A military museum and library dedicated to the citizen soldier.

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

This life-size bronze statue remembers the tallest recorded human in his Illinois hometown.

This architectural stunner is one of the few surviving Egyptian Revival theaters in the U.S.