An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

A century and a half of research in the sciences and natural history, still going strong.

Over 315,000 preserved amphibians and reptiles in jars.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

A shining, cold, black organ lies in San Francisco's financial district.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

This is the house that spite built.

"the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well . . . The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges."

Museum dedicated to awful artwork.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

The headquarters of one of the world’s longest-running humor magazines bears a noticeable resemblance to a head wearing a Prussian helmet.

A "Texanic" (gigantic Texas) collection of Art Deco architecture at Dallas' historic Fair Park.

Large but largely ignored, these 42 life-size Liberty Bell replicas were a peculiar, unexplained feature on the facade of a Macy's department store.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

This mysterious series of teeny guerrilla installations sheds a whimsical light on street art in Oakland.

International delicatessen has been owned and operated by the same family for more than 110 years.

A modest reminder of treacherous waters at the Golden Gate.

Depicting scenes of everyday life - and specific individuals - in Great Depression era San Francisco.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.