OT: What historical place(s) do you bike/live near?

[crazycanuck]

I'm bored

I thought of this today & I swear there's a thread lurking out there with the same question. I'll ask it again

What historical place or places do you live near?

I know the ladies in Boston,Washington, Albeqerque & SF live near some pretty cool historical places but what about the rest of you?

The only historical things I live near (that people outside of Aust would know of) are:
Fremantle where the America''s cup was held in 87 and the Rabbit Proof Fence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_proof_fence)

So, do tell.

C

[missymaya]

I live near Ft. Christmas (an old fort from when Florida was first settled), Eatonville (oldest incorporated black community in the US and birth place of Zora Neal Hurston) and where I grew up, I lived near St. James Landing (now incorporated Geneva) where back in the day, the settlers built a train line to the St. John's river and logged Cypress and sold it. The bank vault still stands, which is pretty neat to me. There's St. Augustine further up the coast, but that's not that close to where I live, but a pretty cool place. That's it so far. I'm sure there's some other places but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

[missymaya]

Oh and there's a weekend ride that goes out to Ft. Christmas and we break there for food and liquid. We eat right on the porch of one of the old homes that's been restored. Kinda like stepping back for a brief moment.

[Cyclo Kitty]

I'm lucky, I live in Providence and I work at a historic site so my daily commute takes me to College Hill and around the Brown University campus. I get to see Benefit Street (one of the oldest intact historic districts in the US; the Stephen Hopkins house--one of RI's signers of the Declaration of Independence--and China Trade mansions like the Sullivan Dorr house (his son fomented rebellion here in 1842 for expanded voting rights).

On Power Street is the house that Edgar Allen Poe's lover Sarah Whitman lived in. The Athenaeum Library where they used to meet is on Benefit Street (they have a bike rack). Across from that is the Rhode Island School of Design founded in 1877 and housed in a mixture of historic and modern buildings.

Weekends, I ride down to the head of Narragansett Bay at Fox Point, where China trade ships came in (the first from RI was 1788) and where slave ships docked as well. Down South Main to the site of Sabin's Tavern where the Gaspee plot was hatched, and then down the bay to Gaspee Point, where the HMS Gaspee was run aground and burned in what they like to call the first act of open rebellion in the colonies, June 10 1772.

The East Bay Bike Path runs from East Providence to Bristol, and from it you can see lighthouses, old men's clubs, historic homes and the old fishing/trading ports of Bristol and Warren. You can also ride past the Herreshoff Marine Museum, where Nathanael Greene Herreshoff designed some of the fastest America's Cup yachts.

There are lots of historic sites to ride past and to here, and you can do alot of it in one day. It's a great place to visit, but you do have to look out for the drivers!

[SheFly]

Living in New England is great! Just on Sunday, we rode past Walden Pond, where Hawthorne lived and wrote. Downtown Concord and Lexington have historical monuments and buildings from the revolutionary war. Then there is Alcott House in Concord, the Old North Bridge, Sleepy Hollow Cemetary (with author's row - Alcott, Hawthorn and a monument to Poe), Minuteman National Historic Park...and that doesn't even begin to get you into downtown Boston....

I LOVE live here for the rich history.

SheFly

[mimitabby]

um, we have Bruce Lee's grave and Jimmy Hendrix's grave. And I work right next to the historic building where they built the B52 bombers in WWII.

Not real exciting compared to you east coast folks, I guess.

[mimitabby]

I'm bored

Fremantle where the America''s cup was held in 87 and the Rabbit Proof Fence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_proof_fence)

So, do tell.

C

Is it really rabbit proof? We saw the movie Rabbit proof fence, it was excellent.

[Tri Girl]

Not too much historical in Oklahoma City (would love to live in Boston, tho- oh the history). There are a lot of neat places that date back to early statehood (early 1900's- I know you east coasters and Europeans are thinking- whoop dee doo- but it's all we have ).
If this counts as historical (can 12 years ago be "historical?"). I live near the Murrah Bombing Memorial. Beautiful, peaceful place. http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

[Veronica]

The town I grew up in has the Kate Douglas Wiggin House. She wrote Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. It's owned by the former postmaster of our town (just coincidence) but he's also the dad of a good friend from high school.

Sometimes I miss small town life. Couldn't stand it when I was younger.


The town I live now use to be the site of a coal mine. The coal mines are now a regional park. Great mountain biking there!


V.

[Tuckervill]

Not too much historical in Oklahoma City (would love to live in Boston, tho- oh the history). There are a lot of neat places that date back to early statehood (early 1900's- I know you east coasters and Europeans are thinking- whoop dee doo- but it's all we have ).
If this counts as historical (can 12 years ago be "historical?"). I live near the Murrah Bombing Memorial. Beautiful, peaceful place. http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

Well, that is definitely historic. I visited it last year, but I couldn't describe it as beautiful, so much. It's too sad. Refined and elegant and respectful. I really don't feel a sense of peace there, either. It just reminds me of pain and suffering. It is very touching, though.

Karen

[Tuckervill]

I live on the edge of former "Indian territory" (Oklahoma), right next to the Cherokee Nation, whose headquarters is located in Talequah, OK, about 40 miles southwest. (There are many other nations nearby.) My town was once on the edge of the frontier, but didn't exist before the Trail of Tears. A link to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas' entry on the founder of our town: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.ne...=1&entryID=353

My two older sons are directly related to Chief John Ross, who led the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. One of his wives and children died in Little Rock and their graves are in Evergreen Cemetary.

Also, I live about 30 miles from each of two Civil War battlefields, Prairie Grove and Pea Ridge. http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/pr...vebattlefield/

Pea Ridge: http://www.nps.gov/peri/

Both of these parks have paved trails which you could ride, but they're not very long.
Karen

[Fredwina]

a bit more modern, perhaps
Rancho Cucamonga is where Frank Zappa record his first album:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pal_Recording_Studio
Riverside is home to first navel orange in the US and the Mission inn
San Bernardino is where the site of the first McDonalds
http://www.route-66.com/mcdonalds/history.htm
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.js...81474977006745
and I only live a block from Route 66:
http://www.wigwammotel.com/
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/CA-InlandEmpire.html

[Tri Girl]

Well, that is definitely historic. I visited it last year, but I couldn't describe it as beautiful, so much. It's too sad. Refined and elegant and respectful. I really don't feel a sense of peace there, either. It just reminds me of pain and suffering. It is very touching, though.

Karen

I guess I find it beautiful and peaceful because I remember the chaos, carnage and devastation of that morning. When I go there I sit and look at the reflecting pool, and hear the birds and the water and find peace. Strange to some, I guess...

[Kimmyt]

The Philadelphia Art Museum, beautiful greco-roman architecture and yes, a very pivotal scene from Rocky.


Boathouse Row, site of the annual Dad Vail Regatta (and near where I will be swimming my tri)

And lots of pics of where I am lucky enough to do the majority of my hill riding and running, Valley Forge National Park, site of the winter headquarters of the American troops during the Revolutionary war, chocked full of really cool historic buildings and a nice warm bathroom in the visitor's center which I like to make use of


war monument


I think this is a view of Gen. Washington's headquarters...


Some cool soldier's huts that you can walk into

[bmccasland]

Riding the Mississippi River levee on the east side of New Orleans proper then up river to the end of the path (total of approximately 20 miles), will take you past a couple of plantations - Ormond and Desterhan (the upriver end). This part of the river is a "working" river, not much for historic anything.