One of the most esoteric memes in recent years is “The Backrooms,” or the concept of liminal spaces more broadly. Having strayed far from the original definition as spaces in between two different destinations, liminal spaces now refer to abandoned and/or seemingly haunted vast empty rooms.
The Backrooms is the most famous example of what people now mean when they refer to liminal spaces, and it’s one that can be traced back to 4chan in 2019. It really exploded in popularity, however, in 2022, after YouTuber Kane Parsons uploaded a series of short films about The Backrooms which proved so successful, A24 decided to bring Parsons in to turn his work into a feature-length film.
When people picture The Backrooms, they typically picture a cavernous empty room with yellow wallpaper, fluorescent lighting, dirty beige carpets and no identifiable features; this is what the rooms in the earliest Backrooms photos look like, and what the rooms featured in Parsons’ short films look like.
MY FRIEND FOUND THE BACKROOMS LOCATION ITS IN WISCONSIN AND THESE PICS ARE FROM 2003 pic.twitter.com/2tqrRf9XNm
— the goofball (@tjxz_z) May 29, 2024
For dedicated fans of The Backrooms, the location shown in the earliest Backrooms images has always been a mystery, although countless lookalikes and other liminal spaces have been located and shared widely. Fortunately, one dedicated investigator went to great lengths to locate the OG Backrooms, and they finally succeeded, sharing their results with the r/Backrooms community over on Reddit.
here's some new info that i uncovered - before it was a hobbytown, the space that was the backrooms was a furniture store called rohner's for decades, and here is a photo of what i believe is the room as it appeared from an ad from 1977. the ceiling lights are a match https://t.co/iMoJ23oe74 pic.twitter.com/9P9Pz6bf6b
— Viathan ️ (@VermilViathan) May 30, 2024
Locating The Backrooms involved a lot of trawling 4chan archives and examining metadata for information about when and where the photos were taken, which finally led them to discover that the original Backrooms can be found inside a HobbyTown in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
They even located a photo of what the store looked like when it was Rohner’s Furniture, and it’s amazing how much less creepy a large room looks once it’s filled with furniture and looks significantly less abandoned.
FWIW, I've probably found the source image here: https://t.co/qYWubUwVvw EXIF says it's from 2002.
— rk⚡fg (@rkfg_me) May 19, 2019
Hilariously, a Twitter user made the exact same discovery back in 2019, but their tweet didn’t get enough attention to make sufficient waves. This is why self-promotion skills are important, folks.
HobbyTown still owns the building, and they turned The Backrooms into an RC car racetrack, obviously unaware of the crucial piece of internet history they possessed. Unfortunately for lovers of liminal spaces, the space is now far from abandoned, haunting or remotely creepy, and definitely not worth venturing to Wisconsin on a pilgrimage to see.
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