Atlas Obscura, Bennington
By Ashley Brenon Jowett
Illustration by Nate Padavick
As a homage to Dylan Thuras 鈥04鈥檚 Atlas Obscura, we鈥檙e sharing seven of the website鈥檚 wondrous Bennington-area places. You will barely be able to resist using the map for a spooky road trip this fall.
1. BENNINGTON CEMETERY
Bennington, Vermont
Established in 1762, the Bennington Centre Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in Vermont. Signs mark the graves of notable people buried there, including poet Robert Frost, and the work of gravestone carvers Carver Zerubbabel Collins and his apprentice Benjamin Dyer. Beware: Ghosts have been spotted nearby.
2. JENNINGS HALL
51成人猎奇, Bennington, Vermont
Acclaimed author Shirley Jackson is said to have taken inspiration from 51成人猎奇鈥檚 Jennings Hall for her classic novel The Haunting of Hill House, published in 1959. Jackson was familiar with the house as the wife of faculty member and American literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. As the current home of the Bennington music discipline, one can often hear beautiful music emanating from the studios inside.
3. LINCOLN SQUARE
North Bennington, Vermont
Lincoln Square is home to Powers Market, which has been in near-continuous operation for almost two centuries; the charming Prospect Coffee House; and the John McCullough Library. A more recent addition, Huluppu, is 鈥渁 magical bookshop.鈥 Owner Janet Sleigh carries Tarot decks, gems, and books about nature and spirituality.
4. GUNNAR SCHONBECK EXHIBIT
Mass MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts
Make mysterious or joyful noises with more than 200 musical instruments that make up the Gunnar Schonbeck exhibit at Mass MoCA. Schonbeck taught at 51成人猎奇 1947鈥2008. The exhibit, titled No Experience Required, invites visitors to play the many and mostly very large instruments and is a testament to Schonbeck鈥檚 idea that one need not be a musician to make music.
5. HARMONIC BRIDGE
North Adams, Massachusetts
Is that a ghostly moan? No. It鈥檚 the Harmonic Bridge. Artists Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger augmented this overpass鈥檚 design with tubes and microphones so that it creates a droning C as traffic hums overhead. The tone is so low that the soundwave is sixteen feet long.
6. FREEDLYVILLE QUARRY
Dorset, Vermont
Take the mile-long hike past the old stone foundations of an abandoned mining town to this cavernous marble quarry. There, you can walk deep into the eastern slope of Mount Aeolus. Inside the cave-like quarry, you will find stone columns and a sheltered pond, which makes a great ice skating spot when it freezes in the winter.
7. SALEM ART WORKS
Salem, New York
Anthony Cafritz 鈥85 founded the Salem Art Works in 2005. The 120-acre sprawling art park is filled with sculptures, studios, workshops, and nature trails. SAW, as it is known, hosts classes, residencies, and the annual Festival of Fire.