Happy Presidents Day.
Americans have always had a love/hate thing with their chiefs of state.
While they’re in office people are quick to criticize their every move, but once they leave office, people turn them into monuments – sculptures, paintings, video game characters, and occasionally giant heads.
Now the most famous giant president heads are the ones on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, but many president buffs also swear by the ones that were part of a place known as President’s Park in Williamsburg, Virginia, though those heads have definitely had a rough go of it.
The extra large presidential busts are the work of sculptor David Adickes, who said his inspiration came from driving by Mount Rushmore on a road trip.
He decided to make 42 sculptures out of concrete and plaster, representing all the presidents up to that point.
And, being a Texan, he wanted to make his works big.
At first he thought they belonged in Washington, DC, but as that city is somewhat particular about its monuments, he instead teamed up with developer “Haley” Newman to bring them to a new spot called Presidents Park in Williamsburg.
The park opened in 2004, but it closed in 2010, in part because of the Great Recession.
A few years later, the company that bought the property hired commercial recycler Howard Hankins to remove and destroy the big president heads.
Hankins’ reaction when he saw the big heads in person: “how can you destroy these things?”
Hankins removed the heads from the former park, but installed them on his own property.
But while he kept sculptures from being destroyed, that doesn’t mean they stayed in great shape.
A few took damage during those moves, but the main problem is that they’ve been sitting out in the elements for years.
Photos of the heads are a little unsettling: Woodrow Wilson seems to have come down with some kind of facial disease, while Chester Arthur’s mouth and chin are just gone.
But giant heads of historic figures that end up abandoned and deteriorating have a way of winning fans online.
Hawkins started allowing tour groups to come see the heads, and now there’s another effort to give the sculptures a new home.
The “President’s Walk” would refurbish the old heads, add a few more to complete the set of presidents, and maybe even allow visitors to scan a QR code with their phones to hear real or simulated voices of the presidents.
So maybe another chapter in the wild story of these heads?
Today in 1987, the CBC had a story about some grocery stores in Alberta.
The chain is known as Superstore, and as you might guess from the name, it could take a while for price checkers to get from the checkout area to the aisles.
So they put the price checkers on roller skates.
I imagine it worked fine as long as the skaters were able to stop well.
Inside Virginia’s Decaying President Heads: Where They Came From, Where They Are, How to Tour (Roadtrippers)
#TBT: Remember when Superstore had price checkers on roller skates? This goes all the way back to 1987. (CBC Edmonton via Facebook)
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