https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sutton-ditz-house

The Sutton-Ditz House in Clarion, Pennsylvania, is a home that has been lovingly preserved and turned into a small museum. The 2½-story, revival-style brick house was first built in the 1840s by local attorney Thomas Sutton, Jr., one block south of the Clarion courthouse. In 1909, local hardware store owner John A. Ditz bought and renovated the house, inspired by late Victorian and early Arts and Crafts movements. Ditz added the impressive columned porch and balcony, as well as handmade woodwork and lighting fixtures. 

Today, the house is home to the Clarion County Historical Society and its collections. Inside, you’ll find themed rooms, bedecked in era-specific decor, with both permanent and temporary exhibits. These rooms include the Military Room, the DAR Women’s History Room, the “General Store” Room, and the Business & Industry Room, all of which give visitors a deeper look at Clarion County’s community history. 

Some believe that there are other “historical” features of the house—namely, ghosts. Three years after Thomas Sutton built the house, he and his six-year-old son both died there. According to Mary Lea Lucas, director of the Historical Society, the house welcomed paranormal investigators a few years back, who brought a “spirit box” to help them communicate with potential spirits. The box—which kept bringing up the word “bear”—led the investigators and museum staff to discover a silver Art Deco ring trapped inside the lining of a brown bear fur coat from the 1920s. 

Lucas has also experienced her own hauntings in the house: Once, while staying late to prepare for an exhibition, she randomly stopped on the second floor and asked aloud if anyone wanted to communicate. Later, she heard a never-used antique phone (with an unlisted number) ringing from the kitchen. When she picked it up, she heard a small child’s voice calling for his mother. She later learned that Sutton and his son had died on the same calendar day that she’d heard the call—March 24. Others have claimed to see a young, sick boy roaming the house. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sutton-ditz-house

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/shek-o-bus-terminus

After the journey through the winding roads of Hong Kong Island's verdant south side, the first sight that greets visitors to the popular beach town of Shek O is the much-loved bus terminus. Though many beachgoers will make a beeline straight for the golden sands of Shek O beach, the delightful terminus building is worth more than a mere glance.

The building was designed by Su Gin Djih of Hsin Yieh Architects & Associates. Su was part of the first wave of Chinese architects to study in the U.S., and the influence of the American modernist movement can be seen in the terminus building's clean, straight lines and horizontality.

Completed in 1955, the design of the two-storey building features its signature cantilevered balcony running the full length of the upper level. On the lower level, the recessed waiting area is on one side, the old stationmaster's office on the other, defying the commonly held architectural notion that symmetry equals beauty.

In 2013, despite having fallen into a state of decay and disrepair, the bus terminus was granted Grade 2 historic building status by the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO). Deeming the building worthy of 'special merit', owing to its status as a rare, surviving building from the 1950s and its design in a style seldom seen in modern day Hong Kong.

Finally, in 2020, having consulted with the AMO on how to correctly carry out the restoration works to uphold the building's authenticity, the New World First Bus Company began the process of renovating the terminus building. During the renovations, an old well that was originally used as the building's water supply was discovered, as were several vintage bus stop signs.

In the lightning paced, ever-evolving metropolis that is Hong Kong, little attention is paid to conservation. Shek O town and the bus terminus continue to serve as reminders of past eras and to reinforce that Hong Kong doesn't consist solely of glass, steel and concrete reaching skyward.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/shek-o-bus-terminus

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/merchants-exchange-building-philadelphia

The Philadelphia Merchants’ Exchange Building is a prominent site in American history. Once the location of the nation’s first stock exchange, one of Philadelphia’s early post offices, and the headquarters of the Philadelphia Board of Trade, the marble building also served as a common space for civic and industry business. 

Prior to the erection of the stately Greek Revival structure in the late 1890s, negotiations and transactions took place in coffee houses and taverns. But without widespread telephone adoption, this nodular setup made coordination and communication difficult. 

In 1831, a group of citizens led by prominent banker and philanthropist Stephen Girard envisioned a civic space that would contain multitudes, cohering Philadelphia’s business processes—from contracting to commodities trading—in a single space. They tapped Philly architect William Strickland, who designed many of the city’s most notable buildings, for the job. 

Strickland was apprentice to Thomas Jefferson’s architect of choice, which afforded him a strong reputation among early Philly’s movers and shakers. When he was appointed to the Merchants’ Exchange job, he was faced with the uncommon architectural challenge of designing a rectangular-footprinted building on a triangular plot of land. The back side of the Greek Revival structure demonstrates his solution: a semicircular façade that follows the curved line of Dock Street to the building’s rear. 

Today, the Merchants’ Exchange serves as headquarters of Independence Historical Park, a campus of historical sites and buildings in a federally protected historic district of Philly’s Old City. On a visit, check out architectural details like imported Carrera marble from Italy alongside local Pennsylvania blue marble, an ornate Corinthian portico inspired by Athenian architecture, and the cornerstone that was laid to commemorate the 100th anniversary of George Washington’s birth.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/merchants-exchange-building-philadelphia

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/old-jewish-cemetery-riga

For the first two centuries of its existence, the story of Riga’s Old Jewish Cemetery was like the story of any other Jewish cemetery in Europe.  The cemetery was established in 1725 at what was then the outskirts of Riga, and it was desperately needed by the local Jewish community, who previously needed to transport people 40 km to the nearest Jewish cemetery in Jelgava.  The cemetery saw a lot of use over the centuries, and it was even expanded twice in the 19th century.

Then, with the advent of World War II, the history of the cemetery became complicated. Following the invasion by German forces in 1941, the cemetery was incorporated into the Jewish ghetto used by the Nazis to control the movement and activities of Riga’s Jewish population.  At this point, the location ceased to function as a normal cemetery.  The occupying forces burnt down a prayer house and mortuary within the cemetery and proceeded to use it for mass burials.

After the war, when Latvia had been incorporated into the Soviet Union, the cemetery’s grave markers were either taken away to be used as construction material or were otherwise allowed to crumble.  Eventually, the cemetery was converted into a park with the name “Park of the Communist Brigades”.

In 1992, after the Soviet Union had collapsed and Latvia had regained its independence, the park was renamed as the “Old Jewish Cemetery” (or “Vecie ebreju kapi” in Latvian), and a few small commemorative monuments have been placed in the park.  Otherwise, no sign of the old cemetery remains in this small patch of trees in Riga’s southeastern suburbs.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/old-jewish-cemetery-riga