Places Edited by Ian Hall

This stunning blue and gold room changed cities twice before becoming part of the Smithsonian.

Descendants of this colonial Pennsylvania family still travel from far and wide to visit the 300-year-old home of their Quaker ancestors.

This splendid Versailles-inspired mansion has the largest French-style formal gardens in North America.

This weeping, 10-foot-tall sculpture was a maquette for a 9/11 memorial.

A grotesque Fiji merman dwells within this traditional Dutch-style building.

Enchanting gardens surround a derelict mansion, all hidden in plain sight behind a stone wall.

Fiji mermaids, mummified remains, and recreated cryptids are among the morbid oddities at this Maryland museum.

A replica of a 7th-century church hides in plain sight in the middle of the concrete jungle.

The mysterious canine hides atop a drain pipe on the back of the building, some say as a sneaky shoutout to Yale.

A blend of art, antiquities, and Americana fill this museum, surrounded by whimsical, enchanting gardens.

An eerie, decaying ghost town destined to fade into the forest.

A quiet, gothic haven nestled between Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze neighborhoods.

A beautiful oddities shop crammed with strange and morbid curiosities.

The first dish to bounce radio signals off the Moon, it was the forerunner to the U.S. Space Program.

This sprawling farm was once a Cold War-era hideaway for the nation's top diplomats.

The Cold War-era "underground Pentagon" is a sprawling subterranean hideaway for the Defense Department.

Affectionately known as "Lord Bot," this historic statue has a cult social media following and rightly claims to be “the most metal inhabitant of the Wren Yard.”

America's first serial killer rests in anonymity.

Part of a WWII submarine is lurking outside the Washington Navy Yard parking lot.

This giant disembodied horse head seems to balance impossibly on its nose.

The oldest building in the District of Columbia was preserved because of a mistaken connection to George Washington.

The residents of this ominous-sounding street in Pennsylvania liked its name so much they fought to keep it.

One of the largest artillery pieces in the world sits in a Washington D.C. parking lot.

Where pardoned turkeys once spent their all-too-brief final days.