When it comes to event settings that are really out of the ordinary, few ballrooms can compete with a haunted mansion, a subterranean cavern with a waterfall or a prairie palace topped with minarets and covered with corn-made murals.
Here are some of the oddest—and most enjoyable—venues around for groups to explore and discover.
Architecture Gone Wild
Mitchell Corn Palace
Drawing up to a half-million visitors a year to the South Dakota prairie town of Mitchell, the Mitchell Corn Palace is a fascinating amalgam of Russian-style onion domes, Moorish minarets and intricate murals composed of thousands of kernels of locally grown corn. Originally built in 1892 to showcase the fertility of the surrounding farmland and encourage settlement, the building was recently outfitted with a new lobby and its domes were equipped with LED lighting.
The Corn Palace is a versatile venue that hosts headliner concerts, basketball games, festivals, exhibitions and private events for up to 800 people, says former director Dan Sabers.
“We have great areas where groups can enjoy seated events with food and live entertainment—we recently had a large party that brought in dueling pianos,” he says.
Many visitors choose to experience the Corn Palace during the frequent daily tours that showcase the corn murals, which are created by local artists and changed each year to reflect a different theme.
“People are really amazed by the murals,” Sabers says. “When you stand back, you can’t tell they’re made of corn. They look like real pictures.”
City Museum
Housed in the former International Shoe Company factory in downtown St. Louis, the City Museum is a veritable funhouse of architectural relics and salvaged objects that intrigue visitors at every turn.
On the ground floor, an aquarium of exotic sea creatures is set among floors and columns laid with mosaic tiles and ceilings hung with fiberglass icicles. The center core of the 10-floor museum is devoted to the Enchanted Caves and Shoe Shafts, spiral paths fashioned out of the original factory shafts that feature multi-story slides, creepy creatures and a musical background emitted from a 1924 Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. Rooms throughout the museum showcase vintage opera posters, antique doorknobs, pinball machines and thousands of other items. On the rooftop are such diversions as a vintage Ferris wheel, grain silo and a yellow school bus extending halfway over the roof’s edge.
PageBreak
The City Museum is a popular spot for events, offering a wide array of settings to choose from, including the magical aquarium area that seats up to 100 people. The Vault Room hosts elegant receptions amid twinkling lights, salvaged architectural treasures and a hallway of mirrors. Groups of 40 or less can gather at Cabin Inn the City, a 19th century frontier log cabin that was once home to the son of Daniel Boone.
Winchester Mystery House
Believing herself to be haunted by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifles manufactured by her late husband, Sarah Winchester kept craftsmen busy around the clock for 38 years building new additions to her Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion until her death in 1922. As legend has it, Sarah thought the spirits could be warded off by the unceasing construction. Today, the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Calif., stands as a magnificent but bizarre visitor attraction and event venue, resplendent with 160 rooms, gardens, ornate detailing and such oddities as twisting hallways, secret passages and stairways that lead only to solid walls.
Along with touring the mansion and grounds, groups can hold events in such areas as the Front Gardens, which can accommodate up to 500 guests in a setting of stately palms, statues and fountains, or the elegant Venetian Dining Room, with its detailed redwood paneling and leaded glass cabinets. With permit approvals recently granted, the Winchester Mystery House is currently exploring options for visitors to spend the night in outbuildings on the grounds.
Signs Of The Times
Neon Museum
The days when the Rat Pack ruled the Las Vegas Strip and luminescent signs lit up the desert come back to life at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas. The museum includes a distinctive shell-shaped visitors center converted from the former mid-century La Concha Motel lobby, as well as a two-acre exhibition area known as the Boneyard where more than 150 vintage neon signs are on display. Along with docent-led tours, visitors can take a self-guided walk to enjoy signs that once graced places like the Lucky Cuss Motel, The Silver Slipper and Binion’s Horseshoe.
The museum offers several spaces for private events, including the visitors center and the new 3,500-square-foot North Gallery, where neon signs form a colorful backdrop for outdoor receptions.
PageBreak
American Sign Museum
Neon is also in its glory in Cincinnati, where prime examples are the focus of the American Sign Museum. Events take on the feel of an outdoor block party in a dazzling exhibit area that resembles a classic Main Street lined with vintage signs. The museum, which accommodates up to 350 for catered events, is located in a former parachute factory in the city’s historic Camp Washington district.
The property, which has an extensive collection of historic photographs and documentation, is also a place to learn about the history of sign making and its significance to American culture. Museum visitors can also watch neon craftsmen demonstrate their art.
GOING UNDERGROUND
Ruby Falls
Deep within the interior of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn., is a spectacular cave and waterfall that has been a prime roadside attraction since 1928. Getting to the waterfall is part of the adventure, which begins with an elevator ride that descends 260 feet and continues with a walk along a subterranean trail lined with stalactites and whimsical rock formations with names like “Dragon’s Foot” and “Totem Pole.” At the trail’s end is a large vaulted dome room known as “Solomon’s Temple,” where the centerpiece is a 145-foot waterfall bathed in colorful light displays.
During October, the attraction takes on an eerie atmosphere when the Ruby Falls Haunted Cavern adds some thrills and chills to the tour. On weekend nights, lantern tours, a trek to the falls using only hand-held electric lanterns, are another option.
Groups can rent the attraction during evening hours, including for receptions and banquets held in the waterfall room. There are also several outdoor areas with spectacular views from Lookout Mountain.
Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour
Winding beneath the streets and sidewalks of Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour follows passageways that were once the main roadways and first-floor storefronts of the original city. Modern Seattle was largely rebuilt on top of these sunken ruins in the early 20th century. Bill Speidel, a local newspaperman, started the tours in 1965 as part of his campaign to save the historic buildings of Pioneer Square from demolition.
The tours begin above ground in Doc Maynard’s Public House, a restored 1890s saloon that is available for private events, and then explore several underground sections of early Seattle. Along the way, guides regale visitors with the history of the area, once a hive of brothels and opium dens.
