Places Edited by James Ricci

The unluckiest U-boat in the entire German fleet is now on display in a Chicago museum.

Hidden in the back of a disused small town hotel is a dive bar shellacked with over a million pennies.

This unlicensed collection of fast-food memorabilia sits on the site of the first ever McDonald's restaurant.

Rumor had it that these concrete crosses scattered across the Arizona scrubland helped align spy satellites. (They didn’t.)

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

A dwindling menagerie of anthropomorphic oil derrick animals still dot the barren California landscape.

The world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory continues to report on the stars.

Steinbeck's old stomping grounds, immortalized in Cannery Row.

The oldest continuously operating church in California.

An outdoor sculpture park of giant pink robots and post-apocalyptic Christmas scenes.

One of Hollywood’s favorite government buildings.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

This massive stained-glass masterpiece is thought to be the largest Tiffany dome in existence.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Water of undetermined depth has attracted rare fish and cult leaders alike.

Rodin's famous depiction of Dante's 'Inferno', amidst a sculpture garden of many of his other works.

In the country around Buttonwillow, California, a marker commemorates a revealing moment in the story of a water colony from the fictional Kcymaerxthaere that sought independence.

Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.

An unassuming grey box sitting on San Francisco's Pier 17 is a "sky diary" of the coastal city's temperamental weather.

A strange house built only at night, with rumored mystic inspiration.

Panorama exhibition hall in old silent theater with a beautiful backyard garden.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

A ruined hotel with an unlucky history and an eerie present.

Barely visible foundations remain where Stow Lake’s “observatory” once welcomed visitors.