RoadsideAmerica.com

Newseum, Washington, DC

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:45:00 +0000

Feature: Whether you love it or hate it, the media deserves credit for building an impressive museum to itself. ...

Parking Spots: House of Cars

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:54:37 +0000

The National Building Museum could use a jazzier name (Architecturama?) and their new exhibit, "House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage" (October 17-July 11), takes on a generally less-than-scintillating subject. But the curators may have a point: this overlooked and much maligned practical urban necessity deserves a spot on the exhibition roster. For, as the press release states, "In a world without parking garages, parking lots would sprawl across our cities." And that would be yucky.

Tilton Arch: Unoccupied Tomb, Northfield, NH

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:46:04 +0000

Feature: Charles Tilton was a member of the 19th century wealthy class. ...

Monument to The Paper Boy, Modesto, CA

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:57:49 +0000

Feature: A life-size paperboy on foot, "an enduring symbol of initiative and pluck," according to the plaque on the statue. ...

Flamingo Flap

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:43:10 +0000

The proud pink flamingo which adorned a steel fire escape above Baltimore’s Cafe Hon has triumphed in its bureaucratic battle with city officials. Back in early October — after the decorative bird had spent about seven years minding its own business — city inspectors made a big stink over the giant pink waterfowl. A governmental brouhaha [...]

Tip O’ The Hat ‘N’ Boots

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:41:23 +0000

overs of down home colossal kitsch are kicking up their heels upon receiving news that the restoration of Seattle's iconic Hat 'n' Boots is nearing completion. The well-loved, once derelict Western Wear trio is all spruced up and ready to serve as the centerpiece of Oxbow Park in suburban Georgetown.

Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum - The Spruce Goose, McMinnville, OR

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:57:58 +0000

Feature: Howard Hughes's "Spruce Goose" is so big, a special hanger had to be built to shelter it. ...

Reach Party (or: Johnson & Johnson & More Johnson)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:36:26 +0000

A second casting of J. Seward Johnson’s undeniably eye-catching 4,100-pound struggling sculpture, “The Awakening,” has been permanently installed in a grassy expanse in Chesterfield, Missouri. The grasping giant was added to Chesterfield Arts‘ public art collection and will be available for perpetual public gaping and climbing, forever frozen in an angry state, quite annoyed at [...]

Walking Tall: Latest In Lofty Thrills

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:57:26 +0000

Do you enjoy peering over railings? Do you like to feel gusts of unobstructed wind shoving you toward doom’s abyss? Then you’ll love the new World’s Highest and Longest Pedestrian Bridge in Highland, New York. Foreign countries may have the tallest observation decks, but America has moved beyond cheap thrills — or at least it expects to [...]

Museum of Death, Hollywood - Los Angeles, CA

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:55:40 +0000

Feature: A grisly romp through funeral customs, celebrity murders, freak animals, and artwork of the condemned. ...

The Urge To Burj

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:30:14 +0000

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, is set to open to the public on December 2, 2009. This titan of towers is the centerpiece of a 20 billion dollar development project that is bizarrely ambitious and ostentatious even by Dubai standards. Other record-setting features of this enormous undertaking include Dubai Mall (”the world’s largest shopping [...]

Playland Not At The Beach, El Cerrito, CA

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:27:54 +0000

Feature: San Franciscans go ape pining for their lost amusements; this museum is a packed shrine to the leisure past. ...

Safest Place To Be During A San Francisco Earthquake, San Francisco, CA

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:25:01 +0000

Feature: When the earthquake of 1906 leveled San Francisco, a stone and marble portico -- once part of a mansion -- was the most famous thing left standing on Nob Hill. ...

Shrine to Tacoma's Super-Salesman, Tacoma, WA

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:35:56 +0000

Feature: Tacoma would be nothing if not for the ideas that poured from this man's brain. ...

Cholera Cross, Breese, IL

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:23:54 +0000

Feature: Who would take a big road trip detour just to see the Cholera Cross? ...

Christ, Born Again in Gatlinburg

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:28:54 +0000

Early 2008 was bad for Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Long-time attraction Christus Gardens closed. The property was sold to a condo developer. Everything in the attraction — the murals, the wax dummies, the famous marble face of Jesus with-the-eyes-that-followed-you, even the name “Christus Gardens” — had been sold to an outside Christian group. Rumors had them moving [...]

Chupacabra On This!

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:57:49 +0000

Creationist realtor John Adolfi has been trying to open his Lost World Museum in Phoenix, NY for years, seeking to undermine evolutionary science through the exuberant fun of an old-fashioned sideshow chock full of entertaining oddities. Now it looks like a mysterious blood-sucking monster has come to the rescue (A dead, stuffed one, admittedly). The Chupacabra [...]

Gettysburg Electric Map: No Address

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:23:03 +0000

The Battle of Gettysburg saved American civilization from certain destruction. Now free Americans want to see the battle as they had done so for decades: at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center, on a big Electric Map. Unfortunately, it’s gone — split asunder. Or, at least in storage. The map was a marvel of [...]

Twin Arrows Restored, Route 66 Fans Rejoice

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:57:49 +0000

We’ve watched with resignation the gradual decay of the Twin Arrows east of Flagstaff, Arizona. The two big shafts — telephone poles, actually — were left to rot when the trading post that owned them closed in 1998. It wouldn’t be long, we thought, before they collapsed in a puff of desert dust, and then [...]