3 Questions with Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura

Philly has a lot of well-known landmarks and attractions, but there’s plenty of unexpected spots to uncover. City Cast Philly recently spoke to Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura, about all the weird and wonderful things to explore in our city 👀

If you had 12 hours in Philly, where would you go?

“Philly has a huge underground music scene. You can find a great basement show. So go to a basement show, or go to the First Unitarian Church and see a show there. And then if you wanna chill out, maybe it's like the next day, there is a Quaker church, I believe it's called Chestnut Hill [Friends Meeting], and they have something called the James Turrell Skyspace. It's this beautiful art exhibit, basically kind of like a little square of light on the ceiling, and it's just this beautiful, very meditative experience.”

What’s one of Philly’s best outdoor spaces?

“I'm a big fan of Bartram's Garden, it’s such a beautiful place. It dates back to the 1700s.  That's the thing about Philadelphia: the history is so deep. And so much of it was preserved and managed to not be just paved over. Bartram's Gardens is this famous botanical garden and  a national historic landmark. It has the oldest ginkgo tree on the entire North American continent, so you can go check that out.”

Where should you go to explore Philly history?

“If you’re interested in history, the downtown branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia has a taxidermied raven called Grip. It’s in the rare books room. It’s a long, complicated story, but it was Charles Dickens' pet raven.”

Find more cool and unusual things to do across the city. [City Cast Philly 🎧]