One-Line Adventures [August 7]

Our team at Atlas Obscura is always exploring the overlooked and unexpected, whether in our own backyards or in far-flung locales. In One-Line Adventures, we send out some quick dispatches of recent discoveries.

“I made friends with this beautiful beast at the wonderfully strange Warehouse Cafe in Port Costa, where they have over 200 beers from around the world on offer, and every cocktail is a double unless ordered otherwise.” — Annetta Black [Senior Editor/Obscura Society Mastermind]

“Over the weekend the Obscura Society of New York visited Hempstead House, the former home of Daniel and Florence Guggenheim that became an orphanage for British children displaced by World War II. This is one of the many huge empty rooms overlooking Long Island Sound.” — Ella Morton [Head Writer, Book Team]

“While touring the Whipple Company Store — reveling in one of the only presentations of coal mining’s history not subsidized by the state of West Virginia — I begged my guide to show me the off-limits third floor ballroom that had been used for parties by the mine owners’ wives; I found its walls covered in the original, crumbling ‘old gold’ paint, complete with a suspended dance floor, white lace curtains, and this hand-operated freight elevator.” — Sarah Brumble [Tumblr Editor]

“The Exploratorium at Pier 15 in San Francisco has a temporary exhibit called The Changing Face of What is Normal: Mental Health, featuring collections of patient belongings salvaged from the now defunct Willard Psychiatric Center of New York.”
— Beth Abdallah [Field Agent, San Francisco] 

“Attending Old Fort Macarthur Days is like time traveling, because you see units representing different eras of history — from the Roman Legion all the way to modern combat; this is the largest gathering of living history groups west of the Mississippi.”
— Robert Hemedes [Field Agent, Los Angeles]

One-Line Adventures are snapshots of some recent explorations from the Atlas Obscura Team. Click here to see more >