Guidebooks are annoying. Just because some editor who doesn’t know me tells me which restaurant is the best or what attraction is a must-see doesn’t make it a must-see attraction. Sightseers’ Delight is dedicated to the weird, the quirky and the fun. After all, traveling is fun.
If it’s not, you’re doing it wrong.
All of the places highlighted in this ever-growing database are great. Sightseers’ Delight has visited them all. We think you should make a point to see every one of them. But, this is not a guidebook. Just a webpage to help you plan your next adventure.
Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, lived in a house at 907 Whitehead Street from 1931 to 1939. Asa Tift, a marine architect and salvage wrecker, built the house in a French Colonial estate style. Construction on the house started in 1848 and completed in 1851. When Pauline first saw the house in deep disrepair, she labeled it a “damned haunted house.” However, she convinced her wealthy uncle to buy it for $8,000 for her and her husband as a wedding present. Today, the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida, is equal parts shrine to Hemingway and a historic house. The house, a National Historic Landmark, showcases Hemingway’s possessions, including his writing desk, hunting trophies and books. It is also famous for its resident cats, many of which are descendants of Hemingway’s original pet cats and are said to have six toes.
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The 445-acre Hermann Park is one of the most visited public areas in all of Houston. The park sits in the middle of Texas Medical Center, Rice University and the Museum District. The park is named for George H. Hermann, who gave the land to the city in 1914.
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Highland Cemetery was established in 1908 and is the final resting place of many early Okemah, Oklahoma, leaders. It also contains the family burial plot of the family of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie. Although he is not buried here, a cenotaph is located in Highland Cemetery in his honor. Guthrie’s mother, Nora Belle Sherman Guthrie, and father, Charley Guthrie, are buried here, as is his sister, Clara Edna Guthrie, brother, Lee Roy Guthrie, and one of his sons, Bill Roger Guthrie.
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The High Museum of Art, the premier art museum in the South, is in the midst of a multi-year partnership with The Museum of Modern Art. Through 2013, the partnership will bring many international exhibitions to Atlanta and past exhibitions have included masterpieces by Claude Monet and Leonardo de Vinci.
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Built after World War II, the museum is dedicated to the atomic bombing of the city and to the war. Though the museum presents history from a Japanese perspective, it includes exhibits and information detailing Japanese aggression throughout Asia leading up to World War II. The museum also includes copies of letters the city’s mayors have written to leaders of various countries, opposing their successful tests of an atomic weapon. The mayors are advocates for an atomic bomb-free world.
The historic Montgomery County Courthouse in downtown Clarksville, Tennessee, dates to after the city’s great fire of 1878. Depending on the source, it is either the county’s fourth or sixth courthouse. It was built in 1878-79 to replace an edifice destroyed in the fire, which destroyed much of the city. The “new” courthouse was damaged several times, including during a 1900 fire and a 1999 tornado. Following the tornado, court operations moved to a temporary location on Legion Street (now Strawberry Alley) before moving into its current location. Today, the historic courthouse houses county government offices.
The Historic Railpark and Train Museum is located in the historic former railroad Louisville and Nashville Railroad station in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1979.
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The Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Belfast was commissioned on Aug. 5, 1939, and built by Harland and Wolff shipyard in its namesake city of Belfast. This is the same company that built another famous ship, the Titanic. The Belfast saw action during some of the most pivotal battles of World War II, including the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.