WII-17 Really Big Shoe
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Wayfarer II
N 35° 21.981 W 119° 01.142
11S E 316572 N 3915541
Shoe-shaped Building
Waymark Code: WM2X0
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 10/20/2005
Published By:Groundspeak Charter Member Max Cacher
Views: 106

    Passersby on Bakersfield's main drag do a double take at Big Shoe Repair, a building shaped like shoe.  Or at least, what a shoe looked like when it was built in 1947 - a white low-top with a black lace and a thick orthopedic heel.

    The 30-ft. long, 20-ft. high plaster and wood frame construction started as Deschwanden's Shoe Repair shop.

    After 1992, when the owner died and it no longer operated as a shoe repair shop, you could still see piles of unclaimed shoes through the windows.  The instep was damaged when a car collided with it in 1997, but the intrusion was repaired.  The Deschwanden family put the shoe and an adjacent house on the market in early 2000, and it was open for business -- as a shoe repair shop, naturally! -- in 2003.  It's now called Big Shoe Repair.

    Though only a one-story shoe, it offers as its main virtue a quick photo opportunity.  And while there are at least two other shoe dwellings in the United States, this is the only one with a shoe lace, a 50ft. long black rope.

Building Address:
931 Chester Avenue
Bakersfield, CA USA
93304


Is it open to the general public?: yes

When was it built? (Approximate if you must.): 01/01/1947

What is the name of this building?: Big Shoe Repair

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