The President Heads
The abandoned Presidents Heads busts in Croaker, VA
Updated February 17, 2020 | By Matthew Christopher
Inspired by Mount Rushmore, Presidents Park was built for $10 million by Everette “Haley” Newman in 2004 so visitors could walk among 20-foot tall busts of the presidents while learning more about them. The busts themselves were created by modernist sculptor David Adickes. Doomed by a poor location and lack of visitors, the park went under in 2010.
The busts were supposed to be destroyed but Howard Hankins, a man whose construction company worked on the park, suggested moving them to his farm in Croaker, Virginia instead. As per Smithsonian Magazine's article on the location, "so began the laborious process of moving 43 giant presidents, each weighing in between 11,000 and 20,000 pounds, to a field ten miles away. Hankins estimates the weeklong process cost about $50,000—not including the damage done to each sculpture during the move."
Presidents Park in Williamsburg, VA when it was open.
Photo credit: William Bird, Flickr gallery here
Holes had to be smashed into the top of each head to attach them to the cranes that lifted them onto flatbed trucks, and several were badly damaged in the process. Nevertheless, they made the move to Hankins' field, where they now reside. According to the same Smithsonian article as above, Hankin's hope is to include them in an even more grand reimagining of Presidents Park, including an "Air Force One fuselage, Secret Service museum, First Lady memorabilia, Wounded Warriors room, interactivity and more."
At the moment, however, the busts continue their quiet deterioration; Hankins is rumored to be rather aggressive in chasing off unwanted visitors (in part because his construction equipment is stored nearby), and as of 2019 I was told that the plan was to move them some time in 2020. Whether this happens remains to be seen, as moving the heads will only become more difficult the longer they decay - but they still present quite the spectacle now, an unintended memento mori reminding us that even those who are most enshrined in our collective history crumble over time like everyone else.
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