To hell and back!

Well, not exactly.

Atlanta has been my home for all my decades on this planet but somehow I am clueless to some of the treasures that Atlanta has to offer.  I am the first to admit I do not like driving to or in Atlanta, I do not like it one bit!  The driver's that navigate Atlanta daily are a special breed I think with all the one way streets, traffic, horses and carriages, and the massive number of people on the streets.  It is not something I enjoy so there has to be a good reason to get me to do agree to that.

Cabbage Town graffiti wall directly in front of The Masquerade.

We recently went to see another youtuber/viner concert which was supposed to be the focus of this blog post but I became so fascinated by the place we went, I got distracted.  The place is called The Masquerade.  I will come back to the concert in a minute.

When I looked it up online, nothing I saw impressed me about this place, and I actually felt uneasy going there after I saw the pictures.  The appearance is old, dingy, unsafe, dirty, and gloomy.  It also has the appearance of the kind of place you go to do things you might not need to be doing and no one will know you there so you go.

At any rate, with much pleading on the part of my girls, I said the same day, I would give it a try just this once and if I did not feel okay there, we are heading back out.

I am really glad I did!

Turns out this place has an amazing historical story behind it. The building was constructed between 1890 and 1895 and was part of the Old Forth Ward Neighborhood North Avenue.  It was formally a wood wool establishment, Dupre Excelsior Mill (excelsior is a fancy word for wood wool).  Wood wool are shavings from logs used for packaging.  By the 1960s the demand for wood wool was fading out and by 1977, the business closed.  There are numerous documentations of multiple structural collapses of the building, tuberculosis outbreaks from employees of the mill, fires, collapsing stairs resulting in death for a few mill workers, and another freak accident resulting in the death of mill worker/manager, G. Hubert Neal.  Mr. Neal died in 1899 in a horrific accident in which he was caught by a conveyor belt.  The details of this accident were quite disturbing in my opinion.  There have been multiple claims that a vampire lives in the building.  I am not so sure about that one but I like it!  There have been many reports of supernatural activity in the building as well.

Purgatory.

Does Mr. Neal haunt The Masquerade?  The people who died when the stairs collapsed? No one is sure but there have been numerous reports by staff and patrons of seeing an apparition of a tall, black man.  There are also reports of screaming, cold spots, random voices, and footsteps.  Some say they felt like they were being watched.  Much of this happened closer to the middle of the night and witness claim to have seen white fog appear and disappear on the second floor.

Heaven.

Between 1977 and 1978 the building was turned into a pizzeria and hang out that provided entertainment such as music and Shakespearean plays.  The pizzeria had a ten year run before it closed down.  In 1989, the building re-emerged once again as The Masquerade (a night club and concert venue).

The Masquerade is home to three stages named for the afterlife: Heaven (where the bands play), Purgatory (Goth hangout), and Hell (music and dancing).  It is said that this facility can have concerts/events on all three levels without interference from each other.

This is HELL.

The whole time I was in the building, I just felt weird.  Not because it was 98% full of mostly teenage girls and loud band/music/talking because I am used to that.  We are a concert-going family, this was different, there was just a weird vibe about the place.  I should have picked up on it when I saw the dead blackbird out front.  I would have never picked this as a place to go but I am really glad we got the chance to learn the history of another cool thing that is in the ATL.

So back to the original topic which is Taylor Caniff.  He is a youtuber/viner, and one of my daughter's latest obsessions.  He and a few other youtubers/viners put on a great show.

Their concert was in the HELL section hence the title of this post.  They were loud, funny, and obnoxious.  They were very entertaining.  They were really into the crowd.  They took pictures, answered questions, and signed autographs.

Taylor

They seem like pretty nice kids.  Everyone walked away happy except one parent who kept making it known how upset she was about everything.  You just can't please everyone.  I mean she went to a concert in HELL so what did she expect?

We will have to look back through our pictures and see if we can spot any orbs.  I hope the ghost of Mr. Neal did not come home with us.

Check out The Masquerade at their website.
America's most haunted restaurants and bars.