Places LeslieB Wants to Go

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

The "possessed" house that inspired "The Haunting in Connecticut" book and movie.

This abandoned caretaker's apartment is one of 13 left in the New York Public Library system.

The abandoned grounds and derelict greenhouses of this once-magnificent Edwardian estate are now a nature preserve open for exploration.

The famous author's cottage hideaway.

This historic park site contains the last remnants of a once bustling canal system.

Hundreds of glow-in-the-dark objects light up a museum in a historic zinc mine.

One of the U.S. Forest Service's only mansions is outfitted with a dinner table for floating food.

Along the Palisades skyline are the ruins of a large mansion built in 1911 and demolished in the 1930s.

Once in a state of dilapidation, this candy-inspired fortress is now being revived.

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

Forgotten under the construction of a new urban roadway is a small, abandoned part of town.

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

An enormous cat made of recycled wood scraps.

Oldest existing church in New York and the inspiration for Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

For over 80 years, Mayan ruins stood proudly in a most unlikely location.

A living antique aviation museum in the historic town of Red Hook, New York.

The second largest maple syrup producer in the U.S. runs a high-tech operation.

An abandoned dollhouse factory.

This sprawling woodland estate was the brainchild of iconic American industrial designer Russel Wright.

The life of one of FDR's possible mistresses is preserved in her palatial Hudson Valley mansion.

Collapsing castle on the Hudson river was once the storage site of military surplus business.

The abandoned husk of a mental institution that failed to save a Jazz Age icon still sits nearly unchanged.

The rustic think-space of famed naturalist John Burroughs stands exactly as he left it.