American cities, on the whole tend to be very different from those of Europ: one of the main ways in which they differ is that in manyAmerican cities, the town centre has become a vapid, empty financial hub of banks and other institutions, with the funkier, more human aspect of the city having moved a long time ago to the outer periphery.  Phoenix, AZ is a good example, having virtually nothing of interest to the casual visitor in its centre, but having a fine choice of microbreweries, shopping and other interests in the outlying neighbourhoods (Scottsdale being my favourite).

It has been greatly interesting to recently visit two American cities where there are many things to intererst Opus Diaboli and which, unlike many US cities, are are easy to get around on foot.

Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, might seeman odd choice, but scratch the surface and there are a wealth of attractions for the seekers of the unusual.

The Rodin Museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway features the largest number of Rodin sculptures outside of France, including the impressive Gates of Hell, a massive double door in bronze that features the torments of the damned in lividly imagined detail.  

This can be enjoyed for free in the grounds of the museum – an excellent place to enjoy a brown-bag lunch on a nice day in autumn.  However, for a very few dollars you cango inside and enjoy other pieces such as Woman in the Hand of the Devil and Hand Rising from the Grave.

A short bus ride away from the downtown area takes you to a slightly downbeat residential area. Nestling incongrously with the shabby modern buildings is the last standing house that Edgar Allan Poe lived in at Philadelphia.

Statue of The Raven outside the Poe House

The house is now a museum and is currently being refurbished for the coming Poe bicentennial, so there is little to see other than the house itself and that has had nearly all of its original decorations and fixtures removed.  Like Poe himself, the museum is something of a mystery.  Admission is free, although you can make a donation.

Across town on the East side is the Mutter Museum which, like Amsterdam’s Vrolik Museum, is a medical exhibit of birth defects and abnormalities.  The museum costs $14 to enter, but allow a good two hours to view it, there is an awful lot to see.  Exhibits include a death cast of the original Siamese Twins, wax reconstructions of syphillis chancres and a tumour removed from John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin.  However, where the Vrolik Museum is simply a clinical array of specimens, the Mutter Museum takes pains to ensure that its exhibits retain their human story, which makes the display all the more poignant.

The Devil in New York

From Philadelphia’s 30^th Street station, New York City is just under two hours away by train, so on one of the last sunny days of September, I found myself walking out of Penn Street Station and heading for Broadway.

The Strand bookshop’s stacks of roughly-built bookshelves will be familiar to you for the many times it has been used as a movie location, and you can enjoy a happy hour of wandering the aisle (the occult and philosophy sections can be found in the basement). I found a discounted copy of the rare Devil Worship in France by AE Waite and went off to celebrate with a bagel at Eisenberg’s.

On Sundays New York can become one enormous street market, and at one stall a charming lady sells me a $5 bag of incense. On Colombus, the wholestreet is given over to Colombus day celebrations and I find a scrying crystal on a Chinese antique stall.

Colombus intersects with 72^nd Street, and the pedestrian can walk a short way to its corner with Central Park, there, impossibly grand, is the Dakota building. Many go to take pictures outside its imposing main gate because John Lennon lived there (he was shot outside); but for Opus Diaboli, it is a place of pilgrimage, not only for its New York Gothic splendour, but also because it was the location for the shooting of Rosemary’s Baby.