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  #41  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2021, 9:44 PM
Manitopiaaa Manitopiaaa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by edale View Post
Looks like the top of Louisville's tallest building:

It reminds me of the Jewelers Building (also in Chicago):



^^ This is another hidden gem (Chicago's secondary Art Deco buildings deserve way more attention than they get).
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  #42  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2021, 9:54 PM
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^ the jewelers building is neoclassical, not art deco.

but she's certainly a noteworthy beauty from a bygone era:


source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35_East_Wacker
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  #43  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2021, 10:59 PM
edale edale is online now
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I seem to remember hearing on a Chicago River architecture cruise that Al Capone operated a speakeasy in that domed area, or is that another building?
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  #44  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2021, 11:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by edale View Post
I seem to remember hearing on a Chicago River architecture cruise that Al Capone operated a speakeasy in that domed area, or is that another building?
That's an urban legend (and one often repeated by lesser river cruise tour guides).

You have the right building, but the story simply isn't true.

The building did once have a restaurant up in the dome called the Stratosphere Club, but it didn't open until 1937, long after prohibition had ended and after capone was in prison.

decades later, famed chicago architect Helmut Jahn once had his showroom inside the dome.


a true fun fact about the building: it once contained an interior elevator for cars that served the first 23 floors and facilitated safe transfers for jewelry merchants and their precious merchandise.
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Mar 25, 2021 at 11:24 PM.
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  #45  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 12:05 PM
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hauntedheadnc hauntedheadnc is online now
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I've mentioned here before that there are plans to move the Supreme Court of the United States to Asheville in the event Washington, DC is ever rendered incapable of functioning as the national capital. What I didn't know is that the contract detailing this arrangement, drawn up April 3, 1956, is framed and hanging on the wall of the Grove Park Inn, where the court would take up residence.

This news article has photos and discusses the arrangement: Answer Man: If the U.S. is attacked, Asheville's Grove Park Inn could host the Supreme Court
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  #46  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 12:11 PM
Rywiga Rywiga is offline
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Originally Posted by muppet View Post
Royal Holloway College 1881, London outskirts. Most Londoners have never heard of nor seen this place.


Oh that would make a great second home.
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  #47  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 12:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc View Post
I've mentioned here before that there are plans to move the Supreme Court of the United States to Asheville in the event Washington, DC is ever rendered incapable of functioning as the national capital. What I didn't know is that the contract detailing this arrangement, drawn up April 3, 1956, is framed and hanging on the wall of the Grove Park Inn, where the court would take up residence.

This news article has photos and discusses the arrangement: Answer Man: If the U.S. is attacked, Asheville's Grove Park Inn could host the Supreme Court
Not that this will ever happen, but if it does, the Supreme Court will have some absolutely gorgeous grounds to take in during time outside hearings and deliberations. I love the Grove Park Inn, and due to various reasons it will always have a place in my heart.

Aaron (Glowrock)
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  #48  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 1:04 PM
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I'm not telling...


Church+Secret
by bpawlik, on Flickr
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  #49  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 6:11 PM
Manitopiaaa Manitopiaaa is offline
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For Washington, D.C. Part 1

Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, Virginia (the 'Temple of Aviation' among plane enthusiasts and far better than the National Air and Space Museum Mall Campus, but gets far less crowds):



American Art Museum (my favorite Smithsonian, but gets lost within the pack. Also suffers from not being on the Mall, though locals do frequent it):

Smithsonian American Art Museum by angela n., on Flickr

National Building Museum:


Library of Congress - not really a hidden gem, but I've met dozens of tourists who go to the Capitol (used to do tours there as an Intern) but don't cross the underground walkway to the Library of Congress, which is just as - if not more - impressive



Arts and Industries Building - scuttlebutt is that it's the front-runner to become the new National Museum of the American Latino:



Arts of War and Arts of Peace, just behind the Lincoln Memorial



Blind Whino Arts Club



Eisenhower Executive Office Building, an enormous French-style structure that dwarfs the White House. Most tourists pass by on the outside, but the inside is also stunning:





Tea at Hillwood Estate. Gorgeous gardens, European luxury and rare faberge eggs.

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  #50  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 6:19 PM
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Washington, D.C. Part 2

House of the Temple - mysterious Scottish mason structure



Glenstone Museum - America's new "modern jewel" modeled after the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen and the Imhotim in Brunandinho, Brazil



Phillips Collection - any Amelie fans will recognize the painting



Department of Agriculture - it takes 30 minutes to walk around this beefy boy



The Peacock Room and the Freer and Sackler Galleries



Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception - the largest Catholic Church in North America, lives in the shadow of the Washington National Cathedral





Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle - where Kennedy's funeral took place

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  #51  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 7:16 PM
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Maybe not gems but still cool spots in Chicago and sorry for the lack of pictures.

The eastern bank of Northerly Island is strewn with debris from the Chicago fire.

Steelworkers park on the southside has some cool tunnels to explore.

Lakeshore east park seems to be unknown to most people, even longtime downtown workers.

Oasis Cafe, hidden inside an indoor jewelers mall on wabash.

In the Bay there's Alviso in San Jose but more importantly the ghost town of drawbridge just beyond Alviso.

Also the ferry from SF to Vallejo doesnt seem to be super frequented by tourists but its a beautiful ride into the north bay and theres a restaurant and a brewery at the vallejo ferry stop.
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  #52  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 10:43 PM
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What constitutes as a hidden gem? Basically anything that a typical tourist wouldn't think to visit I guess?

For Salt Lake, one that stands out is the surreal Gilgal Gardens, located in the central city neighborhood of the city. The park was built as an homage, I guess, to the LDS Church. Very weird but not meant in any offense:





Also, SLC has a pretty large Masonic Temple, which is a pretty cool building:



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  #53  
Old Posted Oct 7, 2021, 11:06 PM
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Denver has been changing so fast that anything I would have considered a "hidden gem" five years ago probably no longer qualifies. So I'll go with another city I know and love...

Rome's Rose Garden, situated just above the Circus Maximus on the Aventine Hill became one of my favorite places in the city. It is peaceful and hauntingly beautiful, having been the site of the city's Jewish cemetery prior to its relocation during WWII. In the 1950s, it was turned into the rose garden and its paths laid out in the shape of a menorah.

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  #54  
Old Posted Oct 8, 2021, 10:18 AM
Binour Binour is offline
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Montréal
The Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph site: A heritage jewel and exceptional identifying place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wlV6PaYwOE
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  #55  
Old Posted Oct 8, 2021, 11:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Comrade View Post
What constitutes as a hidden gem? Basically anything that a typical tourist wouldn't think to visit I guess?
Anything really interesting or cool that most people don't know about or would think to visit is how I define it. Think of Atlas Obscura only more SSP-ier.

For instance, no tourists are going to be visiting this but I still think it's cool: the South Carolina Inland Port. My husband recently bought a car, and here there are two main areas where the car dealerships are located. At one of those areas test driving the cars will usually take you around the inland port, and it's just cool to see, marooned here two hundred miles from the ocean, an actual port. It has cargo containers and cranes and everything. Trucks and trains deposit goods here before more trucks and trains take them down to the seaport in Charleston. The BMW plant is next to this facility as well, and there are warehouses full of brand new BMW's waiting to be loaded and shipped off.

I just think it's neat.
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  #56  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2021, 4:04 PM
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I suppose the entire city of Boise qualifies as a secret since so few outsiders know much about it.

but here's a secret that few Boiseans know about:

The Morrison Center for Performing Arts, on the Boise State University campus, was built to resemble the shape of Idaho, which can only be seen from the air (in this image, the bottom of the state is on the left, the panhandle on the right):

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  #57  
Old Posted Oct 17, 2021, 11:46 AM
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Lost among the office blocks of Victoria is London's Roman Catholic cathedral, a Byzantine clusterfuck of a building.

Westminster Cathedral (not to be confused with Westminster Abbey, which is at the other end of the street):






https://architecturephotography.nu/w...gb-2016-03.jpg


The interior is spooky AF - they ran out of funds so only the ground level has been pannelled in the hundreds of different types of stone and marble they originally intended - the rest bare brown brick:


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/34...5752414f2c.jpg


It's a shame as the areas that are finished are glorious

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  #58  
Old Posted Oct 17, 2021, 11:58 AM
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Alexandra Palace - one of the 'People's Palace's' from the Victorian era (the mostfamous one being the crystal Palace). Just after completion it burned down a week later, only to be painstakingly rebuilt on a new plan.


https://www.venuefinder.com/gallery/0231712PIC.jpg


A vast complex that noone knew what to do with by the 20th Century -and to this day are still stumped (a part-time concert venue, exhibition hall and ice rink on only one section). It's just too massive.











Many of the ruined sections are slowly coming back into use, such as the theatre hall:





A big bone of contention is the art deco radio mast that got plonked at one end - wrecking the building but of high historic value as it was the first place that regular tv was ever broadcast from (yes the Brits invented TV).

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  #59  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2021, 2:26 PM
mrnyc mrnyc is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muppet View Post


A big bone of contention is the art deco radio mast that got plonked at one end - wrecking the building but of high historic value as it was the first place that regular tv was ever broadcast from (yes the Brits invented TV).

don't tell that to the uzbeks. this is after the brits, but there seems to be some contention.


'When writing the paper, the author studied historic documents of Central State Archive, and also other reliable documents. The 26th of July and the 4th of August in 1928 were the dates which initiated a brand new era in the history of mankind—an era of television.

At the corner of the Sayilgoh street and Sh. Rashidov avenue was installed a transmitter, and a receiver was also installed on the wing of the cinema “Khiva”, and the operator of Uzbek newsreel put the video on a moving tram.

The moving Tashkent tram was for the first time seen on the screen, in that way the first television set appeared in the world with electronic-beam tube and the first in the world television transmission.

That was the birth of electronic telecast—the prototype of modern television.'


http://www.davidpublisher.com/Public...3ae8fb982b.pdf
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  #60  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2021, 2:45 PM
mrnyc mrnyc is offline
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for cleveland it might be the schvitz and the chalet toboggan run


https://forward.com/articles/152601/...eland-schvitz/
https://www.clevescene.com/cleveland...nt?oid=2355330


Craving steak and nakedness? Time to find the Schvitz
By Douglas Trattner


It's a Tuesday night in the dead of winter, and there isn't an empty chair to be found — in fact, there's a short wait for a table. Those lucky enough to have a seat are sipping wine, nibbling cheese and crackers, and slicing into fat steaks. The scene is no different from what takes place in countless restaurants around town, except for two things: Everybody here's a dude, and everybody's naked.




Thrill seekers flock to Ohio’s only public toboggan chutes, at Cleveland Metroparks’ Chalet


By Chris M. Worrell, special to cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Although the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually all activities, thrill seekers can still get a full shot of adrenaline -- in a safe, outdoor setting -- at Ohio’s only public toboggan chutes.

The twin, 700-foot-long refrigerated chutes -- located at The Chalet in Mill Stream Run Reservation, 16200 Valley Parkway in Strongsville -- require no snow and can operate up to around 50 degrees.

https://www.cleveland.com/community/...ks-chalet.html
https://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/...ion/the-chalet

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