Places Avalon Wants to Go

A Chicago Movie Palace Lost to Time.

This monolithic statue was erected in honor of Chief Black Hawk (even if it wasn't made to look like him).

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

A collection of 11 million buttons illustrates the human toll of the Holocaust.

A towering Art Deco movie palace made to look like a Mayan temple.

The original vault that held the president's remains still stands, empty, not far from where he was finally buried.

This historic Illinois "Muffler Man" has been converted from axe-touting lumberjack to rocket-wielding space ace.

A 400-foot-tall tall map of Chicago makes this once-ignored building stand out.

The dream home of an iconoclastic renaissance man still stands as a monument to his domestically mundane vision.

Once at the center of U.S. finance, the historic Trading Room was meticulously recreated piece by piece and rebuilt in the Art Institute.

This titanic Catholic church in Chicago is also a refuge of the fictional cult-favorite wizard detective Harry Dresden.

More than 8,000 drinking jugs say “Cheers!” to a guy named Toby.

This Mediterranean castle was built for a millionaire and his giant dog.

This abstract sculpture is rumored to cast a hammer-and-sickle shadow once a year.

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.

Planes, trains, and automobiles have all been sunk as attractions at this Illinois diving spot.

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

This softly rounded mansion was built without corners not to avoid evil spirits, but to make them more comfortable.

Over 1,000 pieces of one of the most niche art objects imaginable: the glass paperweight.

Where dioramas can follow you home.

This deceivingly ordinary warehouse hides an enormous collection of pop culture treasures.

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

The world's third-largest scale model of the planets.

A bloodstain from "the wound of the transverberation of the heart."