People Who Work In Historic Buildings Share Secrets The Public Never Gets To See

An Underground Tower

I work for a company known for its cavern system and one of the coolest areas is a chamber that's a bit of a walk and about 15 feet further underground than the public gets to go. There's an absolutely huge, gorgeous column that's mostly white calcite, whereas most of the rest of our cavern formations are largely orange because iron oxide is a thing.

It's literally one of the tallest formations in the US but nobody ever gets to see it.

u/PuppetShowJustice

Location, Location, Location

Used to work on a very high floor in One World Trade Center (freedom tower) in NYC. You may or may not be surprised to hear that a large number of tenants are startups getting great deals on rent because people/companies are superstitious about the building and they've had a really hard time finding tenants. Also, it's so high you have to change elevators at the 64th floor to get to many of the offices.

u/steep4minutes

For that middle-of-the-2nd-movement poop

Some famous cathedrals have a bathroom secluded in the tall bell tower directly above the large organ in the rear.

It's not used by the public, but principally by the head verger and cathedral musician.

u/Back2Bach

It Ain't Magic

To me it's just the shear amount of work/money that goes into preservation of a building over the course of decades. Often times a visitor will comment how "lucky" we are that a building has survived and is in good condition. And while I'm not discounting luck entirely, it really leaves out just how much people need to care for a building to be kept up and how expensive that can become.

u/WBStilwell

Take One Last Look, Kid

I worked at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, and there's a sealed-off presidential suite I'm certain is haunted. It's shown to staff during orientation, but oddly, rarely spoken of thereafter. It's very creepy.

u/hammetar

Bird's Eye

The US capitol dome is actually hollow, there's an interstitial space between the outer layer and the older inner layer that was the original dome. Inside that space is a winding staircase that takes you up to the balcony, parapet that is right underneath that statue on the very top of the dome.

You need to be escorted up by a member of Congress or senator or if the house/senate is adjourned your chief of staff can take you up.

No elevator so many of the older members/chiefs just refuse to do it lmao. My photo up there is fire, great views of the national mall all the way out to the Washington monument and beyond.

u/T_1246

The Height of Luxury

On the top (50th) floor of the US Bank tower in Los Angeles is a toilet with a panoramic view looking toward Hollywood.

Source: was my boss's office. I took a couple dumps in it.

u/I0I0I0I

Pretty Exciting Entrance to Only Get the Snack Machine...

Beamish Museum in north east England is a living museum that has a recreation of a masons lodge from the 1910s. Knocking on a certain door three times gets you access to the modern staff area which lies underneath it. Have to think someone had a sense of humour for putting the staff room in that building!

u/emmach17

No Wool At Work!

I had an office in the Burnham Center, one of the older historical skyscrapers in Chicago.

It was a static electricity nightmare. You could jump a static spark almost 5 inches off a filing cabinet. It was really bad in the winter.

u/scott60561

Lest We Forget So Much History is Ugly

I am a curator at a government building. There is a very faint outline of the word "Colored" on the wall that you can't see unless you move so the light reflects just right. It's not something we point out on tours but those who know it's there know. It was where a water fountain used to be.

u/_saffronsick0_