Places alessandralee Wants to Go

Micro-distillery in Brooklyn produces New York’s first homemade rum since Prohibition.

An unassuming island in the middle of the Hudson that hosts campers, including Aleister Crowley.

This former crime corner has been turned into an eclectic community center.

An abandoned 19th century quarry in the middle of the woods, remade by unnamed wanderers into a massive series of rock thrones.

The Hudson River School comes alive at this palatial estate.

Reclaimed by nature, the ruins of Doodletown, New York are remnants of a town consumed by a state park.

A town trapped in time - 1958 to be exact.

A castle built for love, and abandoned due to heartbreak.

Read between the lines of the subway map to find the hidden abandoned Civil War fort.

Nondescript elevator doors open to reveal a stunning, surreal world.

Records of the dead describe the myriad odd ways people used to die.

Quite possibly the last cross all humans will ever see.

One sculptor's lifelong war game is the largest and longest running miniature campaign in history.

Dedicated to the art and science of glass in equal measure, this space is as much laboratory as museum.

A burial ground of rusting metal grave markers.

This roadside dinosaur park offered up lumpy neon thunder lizards in the name of kitsch and education.

This once-grand marvel of engineering is now 41 miles of scenic hiking trail.

This throwback amusement park is home to rides and unique storybook figures from the past.

The smallest island in Manhattan is a manmade landfill dominated by a Buddhist peace arch.

A once crucial portion of the Long Island railroad still lays abandoned, waiting to be turned into an urban park.

The life of one of FDR's possible mistresses is preserved in her palatial Hudson Valley mansion.

This former Norwegian sailor's church is slowly being taken over by ramshackle robot musicians.

Decades after testing the polio vaccine on unwitting patients, this historic mental hospital sits in ruin.

Discovered by cows, these upstate New York show caves are presented with a healthy dose of psychedelic folk art.