Places Sandi Hemmerlein Wants to Go

This city park was once a lookout point for George Washington’s army during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776.

The sun acts as a key that only fits this giant keyhole twice a year.

A quiet and contemplative oasis in the middle of New York's bustle and riot.

This curved Manhattan building was built to house the opulence of John D. Rockefeller's oil empire.

A girls' boarding school inspired by the Chicago World's Fair, once abandoned, now restored to strange and scenic glory.

This abandoned sea fort has become an accidental bird sanctuary.

The site where Poe “in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance” likely died.

The trials and tribulations of marking Poe’s grave.

Remnants of a storybook amusement park hidden behind a strip mall.

A local farm's collection of unusual structures from a now defunct storybook amusement park.

This abandoned asylum was once a state of the art facility before devolving into one of the most deadly mental institutions in American history.

The haunting "Hell House Altar" is one of the few remnants of an abandoned college that has been a magnet for local legends.

The birthplace of America's favorite fruit-flavored mystery dessert.

This small road tunnel is the only place where you can cross beneath the Erie Canal.

Life in this isolated, hilltop lighthouse was lonely, but it sure was lovely.

This whimsical Oz-themed park had a wonderful impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

This tiny church near Sleepy Hollow contains Henri Matisse's last work, a rose window, and nine windows by Marc Chagall.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

This little museum in the town where zombies were born celebrates the living dead.

A natural gas leak provides a flickering flame beneath a waterfall.

Ruins of a once-prized railroad station in New York.

Celebrate the history of the rich and truly misunderstood relationship between man and pigeon.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

The last remnants of what was once one of the world's grandest hotels can now be found in a Manhattan subway station.