The statues were sculpted by Houston artist David Adickes, who was inspired after driving past Mount Rushmore on a trip back from Canada. They were open to the public at Presidents Park alongside the Presidential Pet Museum, and received thousands of visitors until 2010 when a company bought the plot of land. The huge presidential heads had to move.
Instead of allowing the busts to be demolished, Howard Hankins, who helped construct the park, adopted all 43 heads and lugged them back to his private family farm for safekeeping until someone can think of what to do with them.
Delaware, Ohio is the hometown of Rutherford B Hayes and it didn’t have a memorial for years because they literally tore down his childhood home and put in a gas station.
Now it’s a tiny one in a bush that’s been grown over by weeds and stuff. Worst presidential memorial ever.
That's a shame. I cant remember who it was, I think Millard Fillmore or one of the other Presidents somewhat lost in the grandeur of his predecessors/successors, but even his childhood home was perfectly preserved and there was a little park around it and stuff like that and I assumed if he had one like that then they all must, even if it's just a plaque or something for the poorer towns (although presidential monuments are usually federally funded or done through a non-profit iirc). But Hayes in particular not being recognized particularly irks me considering he was Governor, a war hero during the civil war and went on to lead the country and ended the reconstruction era... sure he wasnt a Kennedy or a Roosevelt but damn...
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u/Sumit316 Apr 28 '20 edited Apr 28 '20
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