Architectural Oddities

Four ionic columns from the Treasury Department building ended up in a park in Nebraska.

A completely round house designed for the Atomic Age.

Look closely and you’ll notice that the color changes a third of the way up the tower.

The 10-foot-wide Long Beach home was built on a dare.

An eccentric 18th century naval officer built a ship's quarterdeck on his roof, the inspiration for Mary Poppins's "Admiral Boom."

The "stairway to heaven" lookout tower was built to resist weather, arson, and the laws of physics.

Small teepee-like houses built for TB patients have become sheds, studios, and bus stops around Colorado Springs.

Members of Congress have traveled between the buildings on Capitol Hill for a century hidden from tourists, press, and storm clouds.

Modern design and unusual architecture make this mountaintop temple no ordinary Buddhist retreat.

The whimsical construction on the roof has given rise to many a Montgomery myth about its contents.

There's an old indoor swimming pool hidden directly underneath the White House Press Briefing Room.

The library's graceful rotunda is like a bibliophile's temple.

Visitors flock to see this church tower's unintended feature: It happens to resemble a giant chicken from multiple points of view.

This small hut in the middle of a parking lot was once the wooded sanctuary of the 'Hermit of Montrose.'

A mysterious "wedding cake" castle in the middle of the urban desert.

The walls of the iconic dome are hollow and have a secret stairway.

The grand marble structure next to the White House is Andrew Carnegie's temple to Pan-American diplomacy.

A wondrous old library overlooking the nation's capital.