Places alessandralee Wants to Go

An art installation commemorates journalist Nellie Bly's undercover reporting inside a New York asylum.

This former water source for the City of Brooklyn is now a thriving natural wetland.

Final resting place for the Triangle Shirtwaist fire’s unidentified victims.

A labor of love by laborers in the sign-making business.

An easy to overlook storefront hides some of the most authentic and regionally diverse Chinese food in New York.

The poet Walt Whitman was a frequent visitor to this spot, the highest on Long Island.

Now a retreat center for the faithful, it once provided training for clergy—but it began as a farm owned by a famed financier and his opera singer wife, who built a surprise in the backyard.

A formerly abandoned mental institute, now back in business.

Once the site of seances, this restaurant is said to be haunted by several ghosts.

Starting in 1961, Brookhaven National Labs regularly irradiated a section of forest with a canister of Cesium-137 to study the effects of hard gamma radiation on an ecosystem.

The oldest working cattle ranch in the U.S.

A man used his Civil War-era fortune to build this sanctuary in memory of his wife.

Have a steam and some blini at this cafe in a century-old bathhouse.

The inventor of the Coney Island hot dog rests in a grand mausoleum in Brooklyn.

Located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, this mansion is home to a massive art collection.

This island castle contains enough secret passageways to support a season of Scooby-Doo episodes.

A century-old magnolia tree is the only living landmark tree in New York City.

This stained glass window designed by Tiffany Studios is hidden behind the circulation desk of a public library.

This elaborate High Victorian Gothic structure is one of the world's few 16-sided buildings.

This striking arch, one of the first architectural elements constructed in Prospect Park, was recently restored to its original glory.

This eclectic sculpture garden in Brooklyn, home to a bizarre collection of art, was once a run-down junkyard.

In Little Caribbean, an ice-cream shop serves up regional flavors, including soursop, Irish moss, and "greatnut."

For a buck, students can snag freshly picked apples grown in the university orchards.

The Brigadier General was so afraid of being buried alive that he had a buzzer installed in his mausoleum, just in case he woke up.