Across the United States
Take a closer look.
A theater full of parked cars. A diamond sent through the mail. A reservoir beneath a park. Read the stories behind places across the country.
Detroit, Michigan · 1926–1977
Detroit’s Movie Palace Parking Garage
A parking deck fills the Michigan Theatre’s old auditorium. The ceiling above it still belongs to a 4,000-seat movie palace.
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Redwood City, California · 1917–1921
Redwood City Built an Ocean Ship out of Concrete
Launched in 1918, the SS Faith tested whether reinforced concrete could help meet a wartime shortage of ships.
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Mount Tamalpais, California · 1902–1929
Down Mount Tamalpais Without an Engine
The mountain railway’s gravity cars coasted downhill with passengers aboard and a brakeman controlling the descent.
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Seattle, Washington · 1889–1890s
Seattle Built New Sidewalks Above the Old Ones
After the Great Fire, parts of downtown were rebuilt at two different heights. The gap left rooms beneath today’s sidewalks.
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San Diego, California · 1949–1990s
Learning to Sail on a Ship Built on Land
The USS Recruit trained Navy recruits on a concrete ship in San Diego. Its nickname was “Neversail.”
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Devils Tower, Wyoming · 1941
Six Days on Top of Devils Tower
George Hopkins parachuted onto the summit for publicity. The rope he needed to leave landed out of reach.
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Flanders, New York · 1931 onward
The Duck Shop Shaped Like a Duck
A Long Island farmer built a giant duck to sell ducks and eggs. Architects later borrowed its name for an entire kind of building.
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Biloxi, Mississippi · 1880s–1960s
The Pots Stored at the Auto Repair Shop
George Ohr’s thin, twisted pottery spent decades packed away in Biloxi before an antiques dealer came looking for old cars.
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Ochopee, Florida · 1953 onward
The Pipe Shed That Became a Post Office
After a fire destroyed Ochopee’s post office, mail service moved into a tiny farm shed beside the Tamiami Trail.
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Hastings, Nebraska · 1920s–1930s
Kool-Aid Began with a Shipping Problem
Edwin Perkins’s bottled fruit concentrate could break or leak in transit. In Hastings, he developed a powder that traveled in an envelope.
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Washington, D.C. · 1958
The Hope Diamond Arrived by Registered Mail
The Smithsonian’s famous diamond traveled from New York in a wrapped parcel. Its postage was $2.44, but its full mailing bill was much higher.
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Houston, Texas · 1926–2016
Under Houston, 221 Columns Held Up a Reservoir
An underground drinking-water reservoir became a place to walk among long rows of columns and hear a seventeen-second echo.
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Doylestown, Pennsylvania · 1913–1916
A Concrete Castle Full of Hand Tools
Henry Mercer built six stories of concrete around a collection of the tools and equipment people used before factory production became commonplace.
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Michigan City, Indiana · Late 1800s–1920s
The Indiana Dune Sold to Glassmakers
Hoosier Slide was a landmark above Lake Michigan. Its sand was shipped to factories, including the makers of Ball jars.
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Hancock, Massachusetts · 1826 onward
The Round Barn Where Wagons Never Backed Up
Hancock’s Shakers arranged hay, cattle, and manure on three levels, with a circular route for the wagons overhead.
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Georgetown, Colorado · 1884–1984
The Railroad That Crossed over Itself
Georgetown and Silver Plume were close together, but far apart in elevation. A looping railway made the climb manageable.
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Mountain View, California · 1975 onward
The Kitchen Teapot Used to Test Computer Graphics
Martin Newell turned a household teapot into a digital model in Utah. The original pot is now in California’s Computer History Museum.
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San Francisco, California · 1946 onward
The Room That Projects the Pacific onto a Table
Beside San Francisco’s Cliff House, a walk-in camera uses mirrors and lenses to bring the moving ocean indoors.
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Omaha, Nebraska · 1898–1899
Omaha’s Temporary City of Palaces and Canals
For the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha built an illuminated fairground with classical buildings and gondolas on a canal.
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Hastings, Minnesota · 1895–1951
The Mississippi Bridge with a Spiral Approach
Hastings wrapped its bridge approach into a loop to gain height while keeping traffic connected to downtown.
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