The Free-Will Church, Federal Hill, Providence

The last meetinghouse of a defunct light-fearing cult, its sealed steeple room holding a strange stone artifact and the skeleton of whoever was locked in with it last. The neighborhood's habit of avoiding the building turns out to be better evidence than anything in the historical record.

Whereabouts: A derelict church on Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, shunned by the surrounding neighborhood for reasons older than any living resident.

Access: On foot and by streetcar within the city — Blake, a resident writer, simply walks over out of curiosity after noticing the building from his apartment window.