Virginia's giant president's heads are getting a new park
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The busts in 2019. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The broken remains of 42 giant presidential busts that once comprised the short-lived Presidents Park just outside of Colonial Williamsburg will soon reopen to the public.
Why it matters: For more than a decade, the decaying, 10-foot-tall sculptures of every president from George Washington to George W. Bush have been an unofficial tourist attraction for their surprising presence in the 600-acre concrete recycling plant where they were moved after the park closed.
Driving the news: James City County businessman Howard Hankins has been in possession of the busts since 2012 when he salvaged them after he was contracted to destroy them.
- Now, he’s opening a new attraction around the massive sculptures, WTKR in Hampton Roads reports.
The newly dubbed The Ruines at Hankins Folly will launch new tours and an "immersive experience" Memorial Day weekend.
- The last of the informal pop-up tours under the old, no-name umbrella (which happened infrequently) end next month, and there are slots available April 8.
- In the coming years, The Ruines' owners say they'll begin adding a winery, brewery, amphitheater, horse trails and other amenities.
Those plans haven't been filed with James City County yet, but the owners have been in touch about zoning, Paul Holt, the county's planning director tells Axios.
Worth noting: The busts will be displayed in their current state of partial disrepair as Kintsugi, a Japanese art concept that highlights imperfections, per The Ruines' website.
What they're saying: "You look around at these guys, it's almost like they're alive. Every one of ‘em's got a different story and contributed to a different era of our history," Hankins told WTKR.
Catch up quick: Presidents Park opened in 2004, a $10 million project from Haley Newman, the land developer behind Water Country USA, and Houston-based sculptor David Adickes, who was inspired by Mount Rushmore, per Smithsonian magazine.
- But the park ran out of money quickly due to a weak economy, the price tag of adding new presidents ($60,000 for Obama) and the cost of upkeep for the existing sculptures (Reagan got hit in the face by lightning), per DCist.
Presidents Park ultimately closed in 2010 and seemed destined for the history books until the public started stumbling upon the ruins.