In this GQ thread, the OP asks how the purpose of ancient monuments such as the Pyramids was forgotten. The OP then goes on to ask what it would take for society to forget the purpose of modern structures and/or monuments, such as Mt. Rushmore.
I’m wondering if there are any structures or monuments, less than, say, 200 years old, whose purpose, builder(s), or history remains a mystery.
In that thread, I mentioned a clock in Neosho, Missouri. It’s right there in the middle of the city’s downtown park, but no one seems to know who built it, or when or why. Trouble is, Neosho has only been settled for about 200 years or less.
I suspect that the floral clock is not going to turn out to be that mysterious. There are dozens of them across North America and they were a moderately popular mode of “civic expression” in the first half of the 20th century. It is possibly true that the current city council (and, possibly, newspaper staff) don’t know the origins of that particular clock, but it is probably described in the morgue of the paper. (And if Neosho’s paper ever threw out its morgue, a check of the papers of surrounding communities might turn up an article on it.) Failing that, anyone with a shovel (and permission from the park district) could probably find enough ironwork in the ground to develop a good idea of who built the machinery and when.
There are a number of odd sculptures around the country, often built by closed-mouthed eccentrics who died before they explained their works. I suspect that many of those that survive might tantalize future researchers. (And, of course, with the move to non-representational art, we are creating a lot of things in stone, concrete, and iron that will probably confuse future generations nearly as much as they confuse us, today.)
There’s a stone structure in Minneapolis/Roseville which is ringed by statuary straight out of Batman–huge, gothic angel figures holding great swords, standing vigilant, facing outwards from the structure.
Isn’t there a mausoleum or some such in England with a “mysterious coded message” carved into it? I recall reading about a (husband & wife?) team of codebreakers announcing that they were working on a solution to it a few months back…
There’s the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. We know who built it and why in the general sense, but darned if we’ll ever know what was going through her mind regarding various aspects of the design.
Centuries later, after the painted stripes wear away, will anybody figure out our giant parking structures? Especially the fancier ones with curving ramps, or the intertwined helix types.
Nope. Someone or several someones will erect a sculpture in a park in the middle of the night. It’s only happened a couple of times so far and no one knows who does this. The public always like the sculptures but the city always wants to remove them for “public safety.” The last one, at Magnusson Park, they let stand for a week or so before they planned on taking it down. If I remember correctly, it disappeared as mysteriously as it arrived.
My 1st year in college 1968, I was appointed to the “Campus Beautification Committee”, which had a budget of $1000. Some guy on the committee had access to a bunch of big boulders, about 4’ in diameter, and it was decided to have the boulders hauled onto campus and dumped at random locations.
Fast forward 35 years. I’m visiting my brother-in-law, who’s taking a couple of classes at that college. We’re strolling around campus when I see one of the boulders and tell him my story. He was amazed. It turns out the boulders are a big campus mystery. No one knew where they came from or why they were there.