Places Ramshackle Wants to Go

An antiquated German apothecary on Chicago's North Side.

This whimsical Oz-themed park had a wonderful impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

Macabre headstones carved with winged skulls, dancing skeletons, and pithy reminders of impending death.

19th-century operating theatre in which the use of ether was first demonstrated - plus, a skeleton and a mummy!

The oldest Italian café in Boston, this spot also serves as a veritable museum of vintage coffee ephemera.

This popular Boston haunt is reminiscent of a time gone by, when slow cafes and sweet-smelling smoke wafting from patios was the norm.

This ambitious father and son team reigned supreme over the North End, and witches, for many years.

Historic Hull Street was actually the first street with a proper name in the Boston area.

The inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories and Batman's Arkham Asylum is now a condominium complex.

The macabre graffiti spectacle in a quarry in a Massachusetts forest reservation.

A cave dug by a man directed by ghosts to find pirate treasure.

At the supposed instruction of Ben Franklin and Socrates, a Spiritualist believer intended to birth a mechanical messiah here.

This historic graveyard monument is dedicated to a tragic victim of witch trial hysteria.

Ornate and macabre headstone in one of the country's oldest cemeteries.

Grave of the man allegedly responsible for a series of infamous murders in Boston in the 1960s.

The headquarters in Salem doubles as an occult art gallery.

One man’s hobby is another man’s world of metal wonders.

The 340-year-old house that inspired the classic Nathaniel Hawthorne novel.

Covering 37 subterranean acres, this Armillaria gallic is a famous fungus with its own festival.

This huge stew pot is the focal point of the "Community Soup" event, which honors tradition and soup.

Though its branches are painted bright colors by generations of locals, the tree is said to be a haunted portal to hell.

A bedazzled house and crown "jewel" of outsider artist Loy Allen Bowlin.

House built with over 60,000 glass bottles.

The home of 1.5 million wood letters for printing is still a functioning workshop.