Downton Abbey in the Bronx

Bartow-Pell mansion is the last of her kind. Tucked down a narrow drive in the far reaches of Pelham Bay in the Bronx, the 348-year-old estate was once one of many retreats built for affluent New Yorkers to hang up their top hats, and relax in Downton Abbey-level splendour. As with many old American mansions,…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXXXIII)

1. Inside a 1926 Rolls Royce Found on Mansions of the Gilded Age. 2. This Rare Midcentury Beauty for Sale Only seven of the fibreglass caravans – designed by industrial engineer Chuck Pelly in 1962 with an original price tag of $8,500 – were ever made and only two thought to still exist. Following its…

12 Places in New York To Celebrate New Year’s Eve Like A Local

For most of 2018, it’s been all about New York City at Messy Nessy Chic, as we gear up for the release of our second book in 2019, Don’t be a Tourist in New York. So when it comes to making plans for New Year’s Eve in the Big Apple– we got this! Using our…

Tracing the Real Betty Boop back to a Notorious Bootlegger’s Club in 1920s Harlem

The 1920’s in Paris may have been roaring, but over in Harlem, they were stomping. New York’s playground was not short of an underground boozer, but there was one place in particular that dominated the scene; The Cotton Club. Patron Saint of jazz, notorious bootlegging and the home of the original Black Betty Boop. It…

She’s Building a Pinterest-Perfect Miniature Village

First of all, you need to be prepared to accept, as have I, that your own home may never be as perfect or “Pinterest-Ready” as this dollhouse built for miniature people. Then you need to be okay with the fact, as am I, that you may be tempted to steal decorating ideas from said dollhouse…

Oh, Just an Abandoned Real-Life Gingerbread Castle to Haunt your Christmas

Because why bake a gingerbread house this holiday season, when a real-life abandoned one can haunt your dreams? Let’s head out to Hamburg, New Jersey, where a local landmark is in dire need of a little TLC from Hansel & Gretel. Since the late 1920s, the now-crumbling structure was known as The Gingerbread Castle, a…

Stop Everything, it’s a Historic Bookshop For Sale with Everything Inside it

Every once in a while, the Internet gods deliver us a property listing that hits every MessyNessy sweet spot. Quaint antique architecture? Check. Unexpected links to remarkable figures and inventions throughout history? Double check. Make it a library, and you’ve dreamt up our perfect spot, aka Clough’s Bookshop in Cherry Valley, New York. The 178-year-old…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXXXII)

1. This Incredible antique lover’s Parisian atelier is for sale Listed here, found via The Spaces. 2. An art deco-inspired business jet Found on Design Boom made by this private jet company (interesting to see how the other half go private airplane shopping). 3. A woman wears scraps in an aircraft manufacturing site like…

Inside a Secret Paris Atelier of Curiosities

Behind what might be the narrowest door in Paris, at the back of a peaceful courtyard, I could hear the faint sound of a radio crackling as I approached the end of a corridor, hoping I’d found the atelier of Maïssa Toulet. I had found a photograph of her work on Tumblr and tracked her…

The Vault

The Picasso of Circus Art

History didn’t know what to do with Fred G. Johnson. On the one hand, he was just another hard-working Chicago teen in the signage business, and far from a classically trained portrait artist. Yet, there weren’t many in the sign painting game making banners for “Bearded Brenda” or “Huey the Pretzel Man”; “Josephine the Electric Girl”…

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