Biggest Shoe House
In 1948 eccentric millionaire Colonel Mahlon M. Haines built
the world's biggest shoe house in York County, Pennsylvania. The
story goes that Haines handed an architect an old work boot and
told him to build him the biggest shoe house in the world modeled
after the boot (pictured below, top).
At that time the millionaire owned 40 shoe stores in Pennsylvania
and Maryland. The incredible shoe home is located (of course)
up Shoe House Road and the home even has a doghouse shaped like
a shoe.
The Haines Shoe House is built near the highway and is better
advertising than most billboards. Elderly couples and newlyweds
alike have been invited to stay in the biggest shoe house in the
world.
Now days, there is no old woman who lived in a shoe with so many
kids she didn't know what to do, but rather a tour guide brings
interested people inside to view the structure including fine
stained glass windows.
To switch gears a moment, there is a picture of a stone shoe
house on this page (or haven't you noticed?) and not much is known
about this oddity (pictured above, bottom). What is known is that
this stone shoe house is in South Africa and was not used in the
World Cup Soccer Tournament in 2010. There is, however, a museum
inside.
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The other Mother Goose runner up is the
last photo on this page which is a shoe house museum that
contains over 9,000 shoes from the collection of Mildred
Fiksdal O'Neill. A library with books and videos tell all
about the shoes.
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So, that about covers the biggest shoe house in the world (or
at least the USA - the votes are still coming in from Holland).
I hope you've gotten a kick out of the wacky shoe homes on this
page. If you haven't then simply give this page the boot and try
another one.
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