  We report the discovery of mesoscale regions with distinctive magnetic
properties in epitaxial La$_{1-x}$Sr$_{x}$MnO$_{3}$ films which exhibit
tunneling-like magnetoresistance across grain boundaries. By using
temperature-dependent magnetic force microscopy we observe that the mesoscale
regions are formed near the grain boundaries and have a different Curie
temperature (up to 20 K {\it higher}) than the grain interiors. Our images
provide direct evidence for previous speculations that the grain boundaries in
thin films are not magnetically and electronically sharp interfaces. The size
of the mesoscale regions varies with temperature and nature of the underlying
defect.
