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HJHausman
Hi there! I am a third-generation New Yorker, in love with the city's hidden history and neglected neighborhoods. Some of my other obsessions include the birth of cinema, optical toys, hilarious disasters from Old Hollywood, and all things animal-related. I spent the past decade inexplicably drawn to the horrible case of Topsy, the elephant. It has left me squarely on Team Tesla.
| 30 days |
All time |
| New places added |
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19 |
| Edits to places |
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Recent Activity
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May 2, 2012
HJHausman
added Albert Szent-Gyorgyi’s Grave
Final resting place of a pioneering scurvy researcher
The term, “antiscorbutic,” refers to foods that cure scurvy. For centuries, people knew that there were certain foods that seemed to stave off the disease, but had no understanding of why. Cut to... »
Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries, Dead Explorers | Edited by HJHausman
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April 24, 2012
HJHausman
added Museum of Unnatural History
Giftshop catering to cryptozoologists and anyone with a sense of humor
This is not your run of the mill museum giftshop; that is of course, unless you consider a can of “primordial soup” a typical souvenir. The merchandise spans the imaginary past to the possibly... »
Purveyors of Curiosities | Edited by HJHausman and Rachel
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April 24, 2012
HJHausman
added Ann Arbor’s Fairy Doors
Whimsical portals to another world
In 1993, While Jonathan B. Wright was renovating his century-old home, his young daughters made a delightful discovery: itty, bitty, six-inch doors scattered throughout the space. When opened,... »
Small Worlds and Model Towns | Edited by HJHausman, Rachel and others
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April 11, 2012
HJHausman
added Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair
Trade in that pesky human soul for cold-hard circuits
The Robot Supply shop caters to the whims of even the maddest of scientists. Sick of humanity? Well, their robotics kits will help you build your own robot army. In order to help your droids pass... »
Commercial Curiosities, Purveyors of Curiosities | Edited by HJHausman and Rachel
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April 11, 2012
HJHausman
added The Boring Store at 826CHI
Also known as the Not-A-Secret-Agent-Store
Don’t be fooled by the giant, bright orange awning screaming, “The Boring Store!”...Or the signs telling you not to bother entering...or the ones telling you how “characterless,” “dreary,” and... »
Commercial Curiosities, Purveyors of Curiosities | Edited by HJHausman and Rachel
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March 5, 2012
HJHausman
added Green-Wood Cemetery's Brooklyn Theatre Fire Memorial
Mass grave for victims of one of the city’s worst fires
On December 5, 1876, a lantern on the stage of the Brooklyn Theatre would cause a horrific fire that would leave 278 dead. The building was considered to be up to safety standards, even though all... »
Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries | Edited by HJHausman and Annetta
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March 5, 2012
HJHausman
added The Evergreens Cemetery
Final resting place for the Triangle Shirtwaist fire’s unidentified victims
Opened in 1849, The Evergreens Cemetery is a nonsectarian graveyard that runs along the Brooklyn/Queens border. It houses everyone from Civil War soldiers to an assortment of vaudevillians to... »
Memento Mori, Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries | Edited by HJHausman and Rachel
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February 21, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Gratitude Garden at ArtiSun Gallery
An art instillation for the sake of "raising vibrations."
Tucked in the historic Iron Horse Station building in Hot Springs, North Carolina, the ArtiSun Gallery and Marketplace is home to a Gratitude Garden. This installation was constructed by... »
Curious Places of Worship | Edited by katiebaker4, Annetta and 2 others
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February 20, 2012
HJHausman
added St. Raymond’s Cemetery
Final resting place of Typhoid Mary
Located in the the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx, St. Raymond’s is the borough’s only Catholic cemetary. It also gets a staggering 4,000 new residents each year, but neither of these... »
Catacombs, Crypts, & Cemeteries | Edited by HJHausman and Dylan
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February 15, 2012
HJHausman
added Meserole Theatre
Historic Greenpoint theater housing a generic pharmacy
The Meserole was a silent movie house opened in 1921. It was named after one of the original farming families that settled Greenpoint in the 1700s. Unfortunately, that pioneering spirit has... »
Architectural Oddities | Edited by HJHausman and Rachel
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February 15, 2012
HJHausman
added Boardwalk Empire Set
HBO series' stage tucked away in a Greenpoint lot
Although Martin Scorsese’s hit Prohibition-era series, Boardwalk Empire, is set in Atlantic City, much of the show is shot in Brooklyn.
The actual boardwalk lives in a huge lot in Greenpoint,... »
Intriguing Environs, Architectural Oddities | Edited by HJHausman and Rachel
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February 14, 2012
HJHausman
added St. Valentine’s Shoulder Blade
Relic hidden in a Prague church basement
In 2002, while sorting through the basement at the Church of Saints Paul and Peter in Prague, members of the church stumbled upon several relics. One of which was labeled as the shoulder blade of... »
Memento Mori, Relics and Reliquaries | Edited by HJHausman and Annetta
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February 14, 2012
HJHausman
added St. Valentine’s Bones, Glasgow
Glasgow’s piece of the patron saint of love
In 1868, a wealthy French family made a donation to the the Franciscan church: a small wooden box labeled "Corpus Valentini Martyris," or ‘the Body of Saint Valentine.’ The church sent the relic... »
Memento Mori, Relics and Reliquaries | Edited by HJHausman, Rachel and others
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January 30, 2012
HJHausman
added Juliet's Balcony
Pilgrimage site for star-crossed lovers
Even though Juliet Capulet is a fictional character created by Shakespeare, millions worship her as a love goddess. Every year tourists from around the globe, flock to Verona just to see the... »
Curious Places of Worship | Edited by HJHausman
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January 27, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Museum of Sex
A semi-scholarly approach to sex
It's amazing that it took so long for New York to catch up to the rest of the world. Sex museums were popular in Europe in the 1960s, and a museum dedicated entirely to sex first premiered in... »
Museums and Collections | Edited by Henry, HJHausman and others
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January 26, 2012
HJHausman
added Pratt Institute Engine Room
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January 25, 2012
HJHausman
added Rat Island
Legendary private island in the Bronx...devoid of rats
Located in the waters north of Manhattan lies two and a half acres of barren rock with a distasteful history that matches its uninviting name. Welcome to Rat Island.
Rat Island is part of a... »
Watery Wonders | Edited by HJHausman, Annetta and 2 others
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January 25, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital
Crumbling Hospital from 1850s on Roosevelt Island
Few diseases have had a greater impact on the history of human civilization than smallpox.
The bubonic plague certainly wins for its baroque presentation. Malaria and HIV are concurrent with... »
Incredible Ruins | Edited by M Rebekah Otto, ShaneStringer and 2 others
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January 19, 2012
HJHausman
added Masstransiscope
In the midst of all the muke and mire of the subway, lies a brilliant piece of artwork only accessible to the lucky straphangers on the B and Q lines. It is Masstransiscope, a modern... »
Outsider Art, Subterranean Sites | Edited by HJHausman
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January 18, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Soudan Underground Mine State Park
Minnesota's oldest and deepest mine is now an underground physics laboratory
Cutting 2,341 feet into the earth, Soudan Underground Mine is the deepest mine in Minnesota, and one of the only mines in the world that also plays host to a physics laboratory.
Opened in 1882... »
Instruments of Science, Retro-Tech, Subterranean Sites | Edited by atimian and HJHausman
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January 18, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Low-Impact Woodland House
One family's environment-friendly hobbit-house in Wales
Using only £3000, a chisel, a chainsaw and a hammer, Simon Dale and his father-in-law raised this cozy, woodland home up from the ground in just four months.
Despite not having experience as a... »
Architectural Oddities, Outsider Architecture | Edited by atimian and HJHausman
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January 18, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Hong Kong Cage Homes
Appalling and degrading form of low-income housing in one of Asia's richest cities
In a series of massive, Brutalist high-rises, thousands of Hong Kong's poorest residents call wire cages home.
Packed 20 cages to a room, and often stacked three high, the wire cubicles barely... »
Architectural Oddities, Outsider Architecture | Edited by atimian and HJHausman
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January 18, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Gifts
Hub of Scandinavian culture in a Minneapolis deli
When Charles Ingebretsen emigrated from Norway to the Midwest in the early 1900s, he had no grand plans to create a hub of Scandinavian culture in Minneapolis. But as his small store on East Lake... »
Commercial Curiosities | Edited by atimian and HJHausman
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January 18, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Treehotel
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January 18, 2012
HJHausman
updated the Dwarf Empire Amusement Park
Theme park offers a new life in mushroom castles for China's little people
Dwarf Empire seems like the most exploitative amusement park on earth. Yet despite the political incorrectness of this modern day "freakshow," it offers its little people a chance to start over in... »
Cultures and Civilizations , Architectural Oddities | Edited by atimian and HJHausman
