Boston: land of baked beans, cobblestones, and colonial cosplay. A city where history slaps you in the face at every corner—and sometimes, it slaps you with a taxidermied lion, a spine-chilling medical oddity, or a ten-foot bronze baby head.
Yes, Boston wears a three-cornered hat of weirdness, and underneath it? A treasure trove of attractions so odd, so curious, so “Wait… what?” that they’ll stick with you long after the Freedom Trail blisters fade.
Here are eight weird, wonderful, 100% visitable spots in Boston that prove this city is more than tea and revolution.
The Skin Book at the Boston Athenaeum
Let’s start with the pièce de résistance of Bostonian weirdness: a book bound in human skin. Housed in the private-but-tourable Boston Athenaeum, this 1837 volume—Narrative of the Life of James Allen, alias George Walton—is wrapped in the skin of a man who specifically requested it.
You’ll need to join a guided tour or arrange access with staff to glimpse it, but the payoff is worth it. The rest of the Athenaeum is a Victorian fever dream, filled with ancient tomes, secret staircases, and velvet-draped reading rooms that whisper ghost stories.
🧠 Weird Factor: 10/10
📸 Pro Tip: No flash photography. You don’t want to anger the biblioghost.
Museum of Bad Art (MOBA)
Yes, this is art. And yes, it’s intentionally bad. The Museum of Bad Art proudly curates works that are “too bad to be ignored”—a glorious celebration of sincere artistic effort gone horribly, hilariously awry.
Today, you can find MOBA inside Dorchester Brewing Co., a short ride from downtown Boston. Wander in for free and find paintings with eyes that follow you… because they were accidentally painted that way.
🧠 Weird Factor: 9/10
🎨 Don’t Miss: Lucy in the Field with Flowers. She’ll haunt you.
The Ether Dome at Mass General Hospital
Once upon a time (1846), a man had surgery without screaming—thanks to the first public use of ether anesthesia. The operation took place in a Greek Revival surgical amphitheater called the Ether Dome, still open to visitors today.
Inside? Marble walls, oil portraits of Very Serious Men, and a real Egyptian mummy in a display case because… medicine, apparently. It’s free to visit on weekdays, though it’s best to check ahead since the room is occasionally closed for hospital use.
🧠 Weird Factor: 8/10
☠️ Bonus: The mummy is completely unexplained. Like a 2,500-year-old roommate.
The Skinny House (a.k.a. The Spite House)
Measuring just 10.4 feet wide at the street, this house is Boston’s most passive-aggressive property. Legend has it that a soldier returning from war squeezed it onto leftover land to spite his greedy brother. Historians note the story is probably more folklore than fact—but it’s too good not to tell.
You can’t go inside (it’s privately owned), but gawking from the street is strongly encouraged. Stand there. Point. Pettily.
🧠 Weird Factor: 7/10
🏠 Local Lore: Neighbors say it blocks sunlight like a champ. Mission: Petty. Accomplished.
Giant Baby Heads at the Museum of Fine Arts
Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy fine art, you encounter two enormous disembodied baby heads at the MFA. These sculptures—Day and Night by Spanish artist Antonio López García—flank the museum’s Fenway-side entrance.
They’re bronze. They’re bald. One’s sleeping. One’s just… watching. Why are they here? No one really knows. But they’re Insta-famous and deeply unsettling in a “giant toddlers might take over the Earth” kind of way.
🧠 Weird Factor: 9/10
👶 Creep Level: Depends on your childhood trauma.
Warren Anatomical Museum (Harvard Medical School)
Do you like skulls? Specifically, ones that have had metal rods blasted through them? Welcome to the Warren Anatomical Museum, where the crown jewel is Phineas Gage’s actual skull and iron tamping rod, which blew through his frontal lobe in 1848—and somehow, he lived.
Today, the collection is shown in a small public gallery inside Countway Library, open for limited hours. Displays include preserved brains, wax models of skin diseases, and Victorian-era surgical tools that scream, “You’ll feel a pinch… followed by death.”
🧠 Weird Factor: 10/10
⚠️ Warning: May turn you into a historical hypochondriac.
Crypts Beneath the Old North Church
“One if by land, two if by sea… three if by 1,100 skeletons in the basement.” That’s right—the most famous church in Boston is also home to an underground crypt filled with the remains of over 1,100 colonists. Some in coffins, some in stacks, some… well, unconfirmed.
You can take a guided tour of the crypts, complete with creaky stone staircases, eerie candlelight, and stories about how families stored their deceased loved ones like wine in a cellar.
🧠 Weird Factor: 8.5/10
🕯️ Vibe: Revolutionary Ghosts R Us
Mapparium: The Inside-Out Stained Glass Globe
Imagine walking inside a three-story stained-glass globe, lit from within and frozen in the 1935 version of the world. Welcome to the Mapparium, where geography stands still and acoustics go bananas.
Whisper at one end and be heard perfectly across the bridge—a phenomenon so surreal it feels like you’re talking inside someone’s dreams. The globe hasn’t been updated since WWII, so it’s also a time capsule of forgotten nations and long-dead borders.
🧠 Weird Factor: 7/10
🌍 Audio Trip: Echoes, reverberations, and geopolitical ghost towns.
