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The busts were originally the centerpieces of a $10 million park that in 2010 went bankrupt after six years. MUST CREDIT: Max Posner\/For The Washington Post<\/p>\nBy Danielle Paquette
The Washington Post<\/p>\n
CROAKER, Va. \u2013 George Washington\u2019s chin is crumbling. His cheeks are streaked with sooty grime. His blackened nose is peeling, an apparent victim of frostbite and sunburn. Still, America\u2019s first leader looks nicer than usual. In the winter months, wasps aren\u2019t nesting in his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust beautiful,\u201d observed Cesia Rodriguez, a 32-year-old massage therapist gazing up at the Founding Father \u2013 or what remained of him.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d pulled on rain boots, driven about an hour and trudged through the mud of what her tour guide called \u201can industrial dump\u201d early Saturday with dozens of other tourists to see \u201cThe Presidents Heads,\u201d a private collection of every ex-POTUS\u2019s sculpted likeness from Washington to George W. Bush. They\u2019re arranged in haphazard rows, with Andrew Jackson occupying a prime front spot simply because the owner likes his hair. The vibe is Stonehenge-meets-\u201cThe Walking Dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before they started sinking into the ground, the busts fashioned from concrete, plaster and rebar \u2013 was that Styrofoam poking through some cranial holes? \u2013 stood about twice the height of a basketball hoop. They each weighed at least five tons. Time has not been kind. Chester A. Arthur\u2019s entire jaw is missing. Ulysses S. Grant has lost a chunk of his right eyebrow. And Franklin D. Roosevelt was \u201cscalped\u201d in transit, the tour guide noted, by a Route 199 overpass.<\/p>\n
These commanders in chief weren\u2019t supposed to spoil. They were carved with patriotic love by a Texas sculptor who studied in Paris under a French modern master. They were the polished centerpieces of a $10 million park that in 2010 went bankrupt after six years. Not enough admirers wanted to see them back when they were pristine.<\/p>\n
Now the wait list stretches into the hundreds. Demand didn\u2019t spike, their owner said, until the heads were rotting. Not that their misfortune attracted haters. Quite the opposite. In the wreckage, guests said they could see their country and themselves with more tenderness than judgment. \u201cThat one\u2019s me,\u201d a 20-something chirped at jawless Arthur.<\/p>\n
The busts were originally the centerpieces of a $10 million park that in 2010 went bankrupt after six years. MUST CREDIT: Max Posner\/For The Washington Post<\/p>\n
Rodriguez didn\u2019t mull the symbolism when she learned about the spectacle on Facebook. Seeing spooky historical art, she figured, was a fun way to spend Presidents\u2019 Day weekend. Up close, though, the oddities stirred something familiar.<\/p>\n
She thought of the America she loved: her clients, who came from everywhere with stiff necks and bad backs. The nurses, teachers, soldiers and everyone else on her massage table, resting up to go at it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the imperfections, for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The late sculptor, David Adickes, was an Army veteran who\u2019d wanted his stony visages to gleam. On an early-aughts trip to Mount Rushmore, he\u2019d contemplated the granite mugs of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln and thought: Why stop at four?<\/p>\n
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The presidential busts\u2019 popularity grew after they began decaying. Some visitors say they can see themselves \u2014 and the nation \u2014 in the imperfections. MUST CREDIT: Max Posner\/For The Washington Post<\/p>\n
Adickes, who died last year at 98, hoped the 42 statues he chiseled at his Houston studio would land in the nation\u2019s capital, he said on a 2022 podcast, but real estate was too costly. So in 2004, he and a business partner settled on a plot near Colonial Williamsburg, aiming to draw history buffs and stroller-pushing families. The Great Recession, overpriced tickets and poor marketing dashed that vision.<\/p>\n
After the busts went bust, a rental car company purchased Presidents Park and hired local builder Howard Hankins to help flatten it into a parking lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just couldn\u2019t see crushin\u2019 \u2019em,\u201d Hankins recalled.<\/p>\n
Instead, he loaded the abandoned dignitaries onto a fleet of flatbed trucks and escorted them (minus their pedestals) to his farm-slash-industrial dump. Storing them in a muddy field was meant to be temporary, he insisted. A presidential fanatic, Hankins envisioned building a new museum. But the 11-mile move alone cost him $50,000, he said. A decade and a half later, the idea exists only on drawings.<\/p>\n
By 2019, Virginia photographer John Plashal caught wind of what was disintegrating on Hankins\u2019 out-of-the-way acres. He pitched himself as a tour guide to the introverted contractor, and the two hatched a fresh back-road attraction. A few times per year, guests can pay $28.35 to marvel at what the website deems \u201cneglect and decay.\u201d As word spread on social media, Ozzy Osbourne stopped by. So did producers of a certain hit zombie series (though they filmed nothing on-site). And the heads just kept deteriorating.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow they look like they\u2019ve got leprosy,\u201d Plashal told the Saturday crowd. \u201cIn the summer, they all have an active wasp nest in their eyeballs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet the place, he continued, has only grown more popular. Nearly 600 people showed up over the weekend, coming from as far as Germany and the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n
So what, he asked the group, is the rationale for rolling in now?<\/p>\n
Up shot the arm of 10-year-old Evelyn Price.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they are falling apart,\u201d the Norfolk fourth-grader offered, \u201cbut, um, life is kinda like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mess is part of our heritage, her mother added, so wading through muck to engage with the past felt right.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica is really, really good at getting things very, very wrong,\u201d mused 41-year-old Treloar Price, a clinical psychologist, \u201cand then working hard to try to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The behemoth noggins reflected the transience of American power to Doug Tempest, a 46-year-old Navy veteran from Richmond.<\/p>\n
Dictators overseas have clung to power for decades, but here, so far \u2013 though our current leader has riffed about a third term \u2013 no president has defied the Constitution or the will of voters to stay in the White House. Every four years, a new victor can shake things up, while the old Oval Office occupant\u2019s influence tends to fade.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the superpowers that our country has is we can change direction,\u201d Tempest said.<\/p>\n
For Caren Bueshi, a 62-year-old retired teacher from Naples, Florida, witnessing the sculptures sag into the dirt conjured what she feared the nation was losing. Constitutional literacy, for one. Recent reports of federal agents detaining immigrants with the right papers and clean criminal records disturbed her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re forgetting the foundation,\u201d she said, wandering past Jackson\u2019s splintering mane. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always is,\u201d interjected her mother, 91-year-old Pat Duke, clutching her arm. \u201cFrom the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom leaned right. Daughter leaned left. But they didn\u2019t want to get into politics. The nonagenarian looked at the presidents and saw men. She saw mortality.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life is getting short now,\u201d she said, \u201cso I\u2019m just enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few heads over, Andrea Cote, a 44-year-old consultant, tried to turn the eerie scene into a history lesson for her 9-year-old daughter, June.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Chester A. Arthur missing his jaw,\u201d she said, pausing in front of the gaping mouth. The rebar inside looked like rusted braces without teeth.<\/p>\n
\u201cScary,\u201d June said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Thomas Jefferson was the one who didn\u2019t like to publicly speak,\u201d Cote deadpanned.<\/p>\n
Jokes aside, the derelict skulls touched her. So many families braved the chill that day, she noticed, for a glimpse at American history, no matter what shape it was in. They were interested. They cared. They were coming together.<\/p>\n
So Cote smiled when a fellow tourist with a fancy camera approached.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you squat right here,\u201d he told her kid, \u201cyou can get a picture of the sun coming right through his mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
June grabbed her mom\u2019s phone and aimed it just so.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoa!\u201d she squealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee,\u201d he said, \u201cnow there\u2019s something positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Fred Schneider addresses Saturday\u2019s visitors to the current site, where there\u2019s now a wait list. MUST CREDIT: Max Posner\/For The Washington Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Danielle PaquetteThe Washington Post CROAKER, Va. \u2013 George Washington\u2019s chin is crumbling. His cheeks are streaked with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[181,23,1524,2581,100,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-180582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-nation","tag-national-news","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}