About an hour’s drive NW of my home is the site of Washington-on-the-Brazos, where Texas declared independence from Mexico. About 30 minutes east of my home is the San Jacinto Battleground, where Sam Houston kicked Santa Anna’s ass.
About 15 minutes from me is the house where John and Joan Hill lived. Joan’s death under suspicious circumstances led to John’s arrest and trial for murder by negligence. Following a hung jury, he was murdered in the doorway of his house by a hitman supposedly hired by Joan’s stepfather. The entire scandal is the subject of an excellent book by Tommy Thompson called Blood and Money (later made into a horrible movie called Murder in Texas with Farrah Fawcett).
The family on “Full House” (see the picnic at the end of the theme song.)
As for me, the first things that come to mind: I work around the corner from where the famous shot of the grate blowing up Marilyn Monroe’s skirt was taken. And I live in walking distance of where they film “Sesame Street”. (Both are more cool in theory than in actuality, since there’s nothing to really see related to either, but hey - cool is cool.)
Just up the street from my house is a hospital where a guy went on a shooting spree last year. Nothing nationally famous but it was the first homicide in town since 1983.
I live about a mile from hundreds upon hundreds of significant places: where Bill Clinton didn’t inhale; where Margaret Thatcher came to her political conclusions; where Bob Hawke beat the world record for drinking a yard of ale; where Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley were burned at the stake; where the four-minute mile was first run; where Radiohead first performed; where Lord of the Rings was written; where the Narnia books were written; where those authors used to meet and drink together; the setting of His Dark Materials and those books’ author’s home; and many, many more. I work about 2 miles from Tolkein’s grave, too.
I live five minutes walk from one of the largest municipal parks in North America - larger than Central Park. It’s Wascana Centre, and is a beautiful place for walking, year round.
The provincial Legislature is also in the park, and it’s a very impressive building.
I work a block away from the place where Louis Riel was hanged in 1885.
I’m a short walk away from what may be the longest (5,327.625 feet) and highest (314 feet) railroad trestle in the world: the High Level Bridge in Lethbridge, Alberta. I say “may be” because I can’t find definitive cites to this fact. Still, it is quite an engineering achievement–it’s a hundred years old, and it still carries a number of trains a day.
On two of the other four corners of the intersection where my office is located are the courthouse where Claus von Bulow was tried and the colonial era building where Seth MacFarlane got his start. A block away is the First Baptist Church in America which is, as the name describes, the first Baptist church in America.
When I was about two years old I lived in the oldest frame house in America - the Wycoff House in Brooklyn, NY. This was before it was restored and made into a museum.
Nothing now, but the apartment in Fremont, CA, where I lived for seven years, was a couple of miles from the building that was used as Cyberdyne Systems (and blown to smithereens) in Terminator II. It’s clearly visible from 880.
I live near the Saugus Iron Works, the oldest iron works in the U.S. (Not to be confused with the Oldest Iron Works in the US down in Quincy, MA, or the OLdest Iron Works in the US down in NJ)
(so do some other Dopers)
Just stopped in there on Sunday on my bike ride. Always interesting to see.
The photo at the bottom of this page used to practically be the view out my window (except for the two guys holding the bumper sticker)
The photo at the bottom of this page shows a reverse view
You can see the Space Shuttle take off from the back windows of my mother’s house. I worked at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida when I was in college. Professional wrestler and noted alcoholic Scott Hall lives about two and a half miles down the road.
That is awesome (where?).
We have whooping cranes too, but people don’t stop for ours. Instead, the birds themselves wander into the road. :smack:
I went to Malvern College, and spent afternoons staring out of the same library window which C.S. Lewis stared out of while he pondered the existence of God (and became an atheist for a while). There’s a little plaque there, until which you can probably still see my initials in Tipp-Ex. Anyway, Oxford is cheating.
I’m a 90-second walk from the rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe on Bankside, and three minutes from the pub where Samuel Johnson used to drink when he was writing his dictionary. I can see St Paul’s, the Gherkin and rest of the City of London from my office, but they’re across a river!
I live about 3 minutes away from the BBJ, right there in Monroe, and came into the thread specifically to mention it. Prior to the erection of the statue, the church had a giant neon lined and ultra-bright sign right off of the highway that I thought was tacky. Apparently understatement is not the strength of the Solid Rock Church.
It’s really a shame, because Monroe itself is a nice little small town, and most people see that hideous thing and associate it with the city.
