I took a day trip up to Poughkeepsie, NY, over the weekend, as a continuation of my exploration of Hudson River towns and the Hudson Valley in New York State. I had never been to Poughkeepsie before, so I was curious to check it out. As I pulled into town, my GPS sent me in the direction of Main Street, and I turned left off of Route 9 North and found myself by the Poughkeepsie train station, which you can see above.
But as I was looking around in this immediate area, I noticed something in the street, something embedded into the surface, as I’ve marked in red in the picture above. At first glance, I thought “hey, this is a Toynbee Tile!” I have seen some Toynbee Tiles in NYC over the years, and after learning about what they were, also saw a fascinating movie called “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles” (2011) – you can see the trailer here. A fascinating movie, by the way.
But, a closer look gave some clues which led to an investigation that suggests that this is not a Toynbee Tile. I’ve seen more than one Toynbee Tile, and they usually say “Toynbee” in them somewhere, but this one has the inscription “HOH22.” Doing a search for that, it seems to be from a series called “House of Hades,” with “22” being a reference to the year in which it was made. I’m seeing a fair amount of coverage of House of Hades from Pittsburgh Orbit, a website that seems to cover things off the beaten track in Pittsburgh. As they reported, the style of House of Hades is exactly the same as the Toynbee Tiles: it’s made of linoleum tile and embedded as a mosaic into a tar base that is applied directly to the road surface.
So, is House of Hades a new series by the maker of the Toynbee Tiles? Is it another artist who is working in the style of Toynbee, or doing these as an homage? What about the name? “House of Hades” is the name of a book by American author Rick Riordan, but in Greek Mythology, it is the land of the dead – the final resting place for departed souls. In The Iliad, the realm is a damp and moldy place hidden inside the hollows of the earth. The newly-dead would have to cross a river, pass through gates guarded by the Hound, and present themselves before the king and queen of the underworld, Haides and Persephone.
But back to the street art – I’m still digging around online to see if I can learn more – I do see that in addition to Poughkeepsie and Pittsburgh, House of Hades street art has also been found in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, NYC, Buffalo, and other locations. From what I’ve seen so far, the actual artist is anonymous and has not yet been identified – if you know anything more or can help fill in details, please share info in the comments section below.