Ordway Observatory: The Facility Layout and Surrounds
Originally Published by Jason Cochrane on Oct 12, 2016 at 07:12 AM
The Ordway Observatory (OO) once stood as a lonely five story landmark but suburbia has grown around it. The OO finds itself on a crossroads with shops and local commerce on all bar the western side of the property. The OO is bordered by a small car park to the east and south and a set of shops to the north. Primary vehicle entry to the OO is by the eastern car park entrance (with easy access to the workshop). As the only local five story structure it is the tallest building in the neighbourhood.
All the remains of the OO’s once generous grounds is a tree dappled park backing onto the west side of the Observatory. Wildey Park is popular with locals and visitors alike and provides a steady source of patronage for the Wicked Witch Café. Wildey Park features a basketball court which, by happy coincidence, can just accommodate an AEGIS VTOL Interceptor. While this is a tight fit, impromptu landings have happened on a number of occasions much to the delight of locals (particularly children). The park also contains a marker commemorating the battle of Inquisitor Grayve and the Witch of the Western Forest. The accuracy of the placement of this marker is highly questionable but is generally accepted to be “in the general vicinity”.
The entrance to the OO workshop faces east and is accessed by two very large (2 stories in height) vertical lift, two panel folding garage doors. These doors fold outwards and when open these doors provide an effective awning stretching over 2.5 metres out from the building itself. During the OOs time as a market these were left open for easy egress of patrons. A reinforced personal access door is located in the northernmost corner of the north door. The enormous doors are extremely thick and heavy (past attempts at ram raids have not even buckled the doors). The doors are held raised, lowered and open by massive counterweights in the basement. When the connecting chains broke after the Terminus Incursion the doors were held open by the psychic hero Miss Mindful until the new chains could be fitted to the mechanism. The workshop roof has a retractable clamshell set of doors similarly arranged and geared. Opening or closing the workshop side doors or the roof doors is extremely noisy and impossible to conceal.
The Wicked Witch Café is based in the OO tower which is situated on the southernmost part of the facility. Half the ground floor is given over to the Café which was two entrances – one to the south west (towards Wildey park) and one to the south east (towards the facility car park). Large arched windows are placed alternating between support buttresses. The frequency and size of these windows provide considerable light and fresh air but also makes the café chilly in the colder months. Even when the windows are closed the large space heaters (which are used to complement the aging heating system) cannot completely warm the café (although the rest of the tower fairs much better).
The café counter is in the middle of the room. The floors are naturally distressed timber. The walls are variously exposed brick and plaster. The ceiling is largely composed of exposed wooden beams with a lacework of piping and wiring. Lighting is by a combination of pendant lights and free standing lamps. The walls of the Café are decorated with both superhuman and local historical memorabilia – all donated to the Café (and often begrudged by the local historical society who would prefer it not be displayed in a private commercial enterprise).
During the truck stop years the floor was linoleum. There was a false ceiling fitted with fluorescent lighting and the internal walls were fully plastered. All this changed with the refurbishment from truck stop to café. Mr Tonka Snr indicated to the local press at the time that the changes were to “restore a unique character” although the current décor was never previously a characteristic of the OO.
The Wicked Witch Café currently holds both a food and liquor licence which allows it to function as a café during the day and small bar in the evenings (notably there is no alcohol “on tap”). The venue is available for parties and functions and has hosted the infrequent and exclusive “erotic review” (often featuring mysterious Arcadian local beefcake Mr Ashley Maddison).
The seating at in the café is best described as comfortably crowded yet casual. There are 3 sets of two lounges for groups to relax: one in each of the corners (eastern and western) and the most sought after, highly visible and largest of the lounge arrangements in the southern end of the room opposite the counter, in front of the large central arched window and between the two entrances. This final lounge area is sometimes roped off for the exclusive use of Café VIPs like visiting heroes, law enforcement or guests of the Tonka family. On Friday and Saturday nights one of the 3 lounge areas is dismantled for open mic night featuring variously solo performances (the area is quite small and only suitable for a sole performer), stand-up comedy and karaoke. Mr Adrian Hooper and Ms Cara Avonmora, both of AEGIS, formerly of Claremont Academy, and well known associates of superheroes, are regulars at open mic nights plying their musical talents.
Notable patrons of the café (in addition to colourful locals) include a range of staff from law enforcement such as AEGIS and STAR Agents, academic staff from Claremont Academy and Arcadia Technical University, researchers from ASTRO Labs and various heroes who “drop in”. Recently there have been frequent appearances by the distinctive G’Em of the Lor Republic who seems to have taken an interest in the superhuman memorabilia on display.
In addition to the three lounge areas there are 2 sets of wall benches and 3 stools. There are 4 sets of two seater tables and chairs and 3 sets of four seater tables and chairs.
A dozen 4 seater table and chair sets are located outside the café for al fresco dining. Most of these tables are clustered to the south west where they adjoin and overlook the Wildey park.
In total the Café can officially seat 42 patrons inside and another 48 patrons outside.
On the ground floor behind the café is the rest of the main facility. The remainder of the ground floor tower contains range of facilities. Café facilities are separated by Tonka private areas by two locked antique concertina grills in the scissor style – one serving as door to the antique central elevator and one as a partition separating the hall into café and private rooms. These grills would offer only limited resistance to a persistent individual.
The second floor of the tower is living space –known to be the residence of current proprietor Mr Thomas Tonka (Jnr). The third and fourth floors of the tower have been refurbished so often that the current configuration beyond the central elevator and stair is unknown to the public. It is known that the third floor has an access point to the workshop for the projectionist to use when the OO was used as a movie theatre.
The fifth and final floor of the tower is the old observation room itself. The dome structure still sits on well oiled rails and is rotated with surprisingly little difficulty or noise by manual crank. The dome also contains a personal access door to the widow’s walk. The dome itself can be opened where the now long gone telescope would have resided. This is rigged similarly to the dome’s rotation mechanism. The observation room, and its spectacular night view, was once an extremely popular part of the Haunted Arcadia Tour before the Tonka family withdrew permission for the tour to use the now private parts of the OO. The Tour still frequents Wildey park and the Wicked Witch Café (which opens in the midweek for the tour to make a brisk trade).
The OO workshop stands at an impressive three stories tall. The two side entrances are both two stories in size.
There is an extensive basement under the OO (along with rumoured, but never found, catacombs and an abandoned lair). This was the second most popular part of the OO with Haunted Arcadia before permission was withdrawn to access the area.
Originally Published by Jason Cochrane on Oct 12, 2016 at 07:12 AM
The Ordway Observatory (OO) once stood as a lonely five story landmark but suburbia has grown around it. The OO finds itself on a crossroads with shops and local commerce on all bar the western side of the property. The OO is bordered by a small car park to the east and south and a set of shops to the north. Primary vehicle entry to the OO is by the eastern car park entrance (with easy access to the workshop). As the only local five story structure it is the tallest building in the neighbourhood.
All the remains of the OO’s once generous grounds is a tree dappled park backing onto the west side of the Observatory. Wildey Park is popular with locals and visitors alike and provides a steady source of patronage for the Wicked Witch Café. Wildey Park features a basketball court which, by happy coincidence, can just accommodate an AEGIS VTOL Interceptor. While this is a tight fit, impromptu landings have happened on a number of occasions much to the delight of locals (particularly children). The park also contains a marker commemorating the battle of Inquisitor Grayve and the Witch of the Western Forest. The accuracy of the placement of this marker is highly questionable but is generally accepted to be “in the general vicinity”.
The entrance to the OO workshop faces east and is accessed by two very large (2 stories in height) vertical lift, two panel folding garage doors. These doors fold outwards and when open these doors provide an effective awning stretching over 2.5 metres out from the building itself. During the OOs time as a market these were left open for easy egress of patrons. A reinforced personal access door is located in the northernmost corner of the north door. The enormous doors are extremely thick and heavy (past attempts at ram raids have not even buckled the doors). The doors are held raised, lowered and open by massive counterweights in the basement. When the connecting chains broke after the Terminus Incursion the doors were held open by the psychic hero Miss Mindful until the new chains could be fitted to the mechanism. The workshop roof has a retractable clamshell set of doors similarly arranged and geared. Opening or closing the workshop side doors or the roof doors is extremely noisy and impossible to conceal.
The Wicked Witch Café is based in the OO tower which is situated on the southernmost part of the facility. Half the ground floor is given over to the Café which was two entrances – one to the south west (towards Wildey park) and one to the south east (towards the facility car park). Large arched windows are placed alternating between support buttresses. The frequency and size of these windows provide considerable light and fresh air but also makes the café chilly in the colder months. Even when the windows are closed the large space heaters (which are used to complement the aging heating system) cannot completely warm the café (although the rest of the tower fairs much better).
The café counter is in the middle of the room. The floors are naturally distressed timber. The walls are variously exposed brick and plaster. The ceiling is largely composed of exposed wooden beams with a lacework of piping and wiring. Lighting is by a combination of pendant lights and free standing lamps. The walls of the Café are decorated with both superhuman and local historical memorabilia – all donated to the Café (and often begrudged by the local historical society who would prefer it not be displayed in a private commercial enterprise).
During the truck stop years the floor was linoleum. There was a false ceiling fitted with fluorescent lighting and the internal walls were fully plastered. All this changed with the refurbishment from truck stop to café. Mr Tonka Snr indicated to the local press at the time that the changes were to “restore a unique character” although the current décor was never previously a characteristic of the OO.
The Wicked Witch Café currently holds both a food and liquor licence which allows it to function as a café during the day and small bar in the evenings (notably there is no alcohol “on tap”). The venue is available for parties and functions and has hosted the infrequent and exclusive “erotic review” (often featuring mysterious Arcadian local beefcake Mr Ashley Maddison).
The seating at in the café is best described as comfortably crowded yet casual. There are 3 sets of two lounges for groups to relax: one in each of the corners (eastern and western) and the most sought after, highly visible and largest of the lounge arrangements in the southern end of the room opposite the counter, in front of the large central arched window and between the two entrances. This final lounge area is sometimes roped off for the exclusive use of Café VIPs like visiting heroes, law enforcement or guests of the Tonka family. On Friday and Saturday nights one of the 3 lounge areas is dismantled for open mic night featuring variously solo performances (the area is quite small and only suitable for a sole performer), stand-up comedy and karaoke. Mr Adrian Hooper and Ms Cara Avonmora, both of AEGIS, formerly of Claremont Academy, and well known associates of superheroes, are regulars at open mic nights plying their musical talents.
Notable patrons of the café (in addition to colourful locals) include a range of staff from law enforcement such as AEGIS and STAR Agents, academic staff from Claremont Academy and Arcadia Technical University, researchers from ASTRO Labs and various heroes who “drop in”. Recently there have been frequent appearances by the distinctive G’Em of the Lor Republic who seems to have taken an interest in the superhuman memorabilia on display.
In addition to the three lounge areas there are 2 sets of wall benches and 3 stools. There are 4 sets of two seater tables and chairs and 3 sets of four seater tables and chairs.
A dozen 4 seater table and chair sets are located outside the café for al fresco dining. Most of these tables are clustered to the south west where they adjoin and overlook the Wildey park.
In total the Café can officially seat 42 patrons inside and another 48 patrons outside.
On the ground floor behind the café is the rest of the main facility. The remainder of the ground floor tower contains range of facilities. Café facilities are separated by Tonka private areas by two locked antique concertina grills in the scissor style – one serving as door to the antique central elevator and one as a partition separating the hall into café and private rooms. These grills would offer only limited resistance to a persistent individual.
The second floor of the tower is living space –known to be the residence of current proprietor Mr Thomas Tonka (Jnr). The third and fourth floors of the tower have been refurbished so often that the current configuration beyond the central elevator and stair is unknown to the public. It is known that the third floor has an access point to the workshop for the projectionist to use when the OO was used as a movie theatre.
The fifth and final floor of the tower is the old observation room itself. The dome structure still sits on well oiled rails and is rotated with surprisingly little difficulty or noise by manual crank. The dome also contains a personal access door to the widow’s walk. The dome itself can be opened where the now long gone telescope would have resided. This is rigged similarly to the dome’s rotation mechanism. The observation room, and its spectacular night view, was once an extremely popular part of the Haunted Arcadia Tour before the Tonka family withdrew permission for the tour to use the now private parts of the OO. The Tour still frequents Wildey park and the Wicked Witch Café (which opens in the midweek for the tour to make a brisk trade).
The OO workshop stands at an impressive three stories tall. The two side entrances are both two stories in size.
There is an extensive basement under the OO (along with rumoured, but never found, catacombs and an abandoned lair). This was the second most popular part of the OO with Haunted Arcadia before permission was withdrawn to access the area.
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