So recently I was traveling through central Virginia, and I knew that there was one place I needed to stop.

1313 Pier Street in the city of Lynchburg, which is about two hours west of Richmond.

When we pull up to the curb, we see that the house is in the middle of an active residential street.

Neighbors are mowing their lawns or hanging out,

and so are their pets. Cats. Number 1313 is a brown house with green shingles. It's really pretty.

But I'm actually here to see what's tucked behind the house, the garden. This garden was the muse and refuge of Harlem Renaissance

poet Anne Spencer. It was the place that she hosted the great minds of her day, Langston Hughes,

W.E.B. Du Bois. And it was also the place where she wrote much of her poetry. So what I'm about to do feels a little surreal.

I go right up to this house and let myself into the backyard.

Ooh, wow, look at this.

I'm Amanda McGowan, and this is Atlas Obscura,

a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

I love visiting the homes of artists and writers because it kind of feels like the chance to walk around inside of their brains.

And today, we're taking you to the backyard of 1313 Pierce Street in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Because if there's anywhere to get the feeling of walking around inside Anne Spencer's incredible mind, it's here.

That's after this. Oh, wow, it's big. When I enter Anne Spencer's Garden, one of the first things I see is the birdhouse on a tall, skinny post, far taller than me.

Nearby is a speaker with a button on it, so obviously I pressed it.

This is the garden of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer.

It served as her refuge from the injustices of the segregated times

in which he lived. It was also a source of inspiration or a poetry. Looking around, you can see why

this space would be an inspiration. Everything is a rich, lush green, and when I visit in summertime,

there are pops of pale pink, too, some lovely roses in bloom.

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