On Corry Street, on Madison's East Side, there's a phone booth where every call is a surprise and nobody is on the other end. Lift the receiver and the line comes alive with randomly selected audio — more than ten hours of it. One pick-up might give you friends chatting, another a comedy routine, a family gathering, music, or some utterly ordinary moment recorded years ago. Hang up and try again, and you'll get something else entirely.
The booth is a memorial to Nicholas Bennett Weerts, who died unexpectedly in 2017. Among his quirks was a lasting fascination with payphones, and nearly a decade after his death that obsession became the seed for this strange, affectionate tribute. The Nick Weerts Memorial Phone Booth opened as a free public installation, clearly visible from the street at 209 Corry Street.
The concept echoes Japan's well-known "wind phones" — disconnected handsets that mourners use to speak symbolically to people they've lost. This booth flips the direction of the conversation. Visitors don't talk to the past; the past talks to them. It's a small idea, but it changes the whole experience: instead of a solemn place to grieve, it becomes a place to listen, and to wonder what's coming next.
It isn't frozen as a shrine to one man, either. The project was conceived as a living community art work, with plans for visitors to eventually add their own recordings. Over time, the archive could grow into an accidental audio portrait of this corner of Madison — a neighbourhood's voices, jokes and everyday moments layered on top of the memorial that started it all.
For travellers, it's the kind of roadside oddity worth a detour: free, quick to visit, and genuinely unpredictable. There's no right way to use it and no way to know what the next call holds. You just pick up the receiver and listen. If you like it, QR codes inside the booth accept donations to keep the project running and growing.
Practically speaking, the booth sits near the Capital City Trail, a handy landmark for cyclists and walkers. Coming from the trail, turn left at Corry Street if you're heading northeast, or right if you're going southwest. Pair it with a ride or stroll along the trail and you've got an easy, offbeat stop on any Madison itinerary — proof that the best memorials don't always ask for silence.
Story via Atlas Obscura.
