Haines "Shoe House", Hellam, PA, USA

Built in 1948 by Mahlon N. Haines or, as he was often known, the "Shoe Wizard of York" the "Shoe House" was an outlandish example of mimetic architecture. Born in Ohio in 1875 Haines moved to York, PA when he was in his twenties and from small beginnings he built a shoe sales chain of more than 40 stores. He died at the of 87 in 1962. Haines was an enthusiastic philanthropist and lived by the mantra "I came into this world with nothing and I'd like to leave the same way." The "Shoe House" is ...

Bob's Java Jive, Tacoma, WA, USA

Bob's Java Jive in Tacoma, Washington was built back in 1927 by Bert Smyser and started out its life as the "Coffee Pot Restaurant". We don't know if it is the largest "coffee pot" in the world but at 25 foot tall it must have a look in for the record. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the world's largest "coffee pot" at 4' 1" high but that is clearly a "real" coffee pot as Bob's has it beat by a cool 21 feet. Over the years the building, which started out as a drive-thru restaurant, has morphed ...

The Beer Can House, Houston, TX, USA

It has been estimated that there are over 50,000 beer cans adorning this Texas oddity. John Milkovisch started his mammoth redecorating project in 1968. It is said the motivation for him to start using huge numbers of marbles, rocks and pieces of metal to create landscaping features to adorn the yard was that he simply "got sick of mowing the grass". Eventually the yard, both front and back, was entirely "hardscaped" so he moved on to the house. Over the course of the next two decades he covered ...