Slate Valley Museum, Granville

No matter what direction their houses might actually be facing, most of the roofs in the United States point toward Slate Valley, a 24-mile-long stretch between New York and Vermont. That region not only produces most of the nation's roofing slate, but also has an intricate history that reaches all the way back to the 1800s.

• The Building: Slate Valley Museum fills a New World Dutch Barn, which was built around 1840
• Eye Catcher: a worn-down and beat-up 1951 LJT Mack Truck, which once hauled finished slate—and then blocks and rubbish—for the Tatko Bros. Slate Company
• Don't Miss: Neil Rappaport's black-and-white photographs of Slate Valley's quarries, workers, and earliest bunny ears
• Permanent Mainstay: The Dream and the Reality, which explores how various immigrant groups came to work in the slate quarries
• Visiting Exhibit: _Slate as Muse_—a collection of sculptures, photographs, and watercolor paintings by 19 artists who used slate as medium and subject
• While You're in the Neighborhood: take a self-guided driving tour through local quarries and other slate-industry sites