Places From the Backwoods Wants to Go

The first "Hall of Fame" in America was designed by legendary Gilded Age architect Stanford White for what was then the NYU uptown campus.

The remains of a century-old mansion that met a fiery demise years after it was deserted.

A winding, cliffside stretch of road overlooking the Delaware River.

The famous author's cottage hideaway.

This plot of old-growth forest is the largest surviving remnant of New York City's original woodland.

Collect holy water from a Bronx grotto.

Small monoliths of several varieties of stone sit alongside a wooded path in the Bronx.

All that remains of a magnate's dream home is a historic gate and an abandoned public pool.

This disastrous New Jersey safari park saw animal attacks, escapes, and disease before being abandoned.

This museum on a college campus pays tribute to the Arctic and to two explorer alumni.

The end of the 4 Line is also the end of the line for 300,000 souls in one of NYC's most illustrious cemeteries.

The former estate of the Guggenheims, part of the opulent Gold Coast that inspired the Great Gatsby.

A whimsical monument deep in this park commemorates the groups that helped build it.

An abandoned horticulture institute gloomily presides over rows of derelict and vine-wrought greenhouses.

The dairy farm in upstate New York where nearly half a million people gathered for three days of peace and music in 1969.

This derelict building used to house infirm Freemasons, their widows, and orphans.

These mouldering mansion ruins remember a time when the Catskills were nothing but luxury.

Some of the earliest burial grounds of New York State are to be found hidden away in this quaint town.

This dilapidated castle-like structure overlooks the Hudson River at one of its widest points and was once home to nuns.

The "Skinny House" is made from scrap, salvage, and a neighbor’s kindness.

A 19th-century smallpox cemetery is being reclaimed by scrub forest and sand dunes.

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

These World War I shooting range tunnels are now haunted halls of underground graffiti accessed through the roots of a tree.

One of the earliest bowling lanes in the U.S. doubled as a sewing school during a time when women had little job opportunity.