What do you want to know about one of Central Pennsylvania’s icons — the Haines Shoehouse
-
Scott LaMar
PLBthetoonist/Wikimedia Commons
Airdate: March 23, 2023
The Haines Shoe House in York County is one of the region’s most iconic landmarks. Since it was built in the 1940s, the house shaped like a shoe or boot, has served several purposes but today, it can be rented for overnight stays.
Naomi Brown and her husband purchased the Haines Shoe House last year. They’ve made some updates to the structure but it maintains that history that travelers along Route 30 in Hellam Township have seen for decades.
Speaking on The Spark Thursday, Brown talked about the history,”1949 was when it was constructed. And at that time it was built to be sitting on a hill above the old original Lincoln Highway. So Route 30 did not exist yet. It was built to set up along the highway for people as they were driving by. And the gentleman who built it just had a large chain of shoe stores. And he was all about promoting his shoe brand any way he could. So this was just another extension of promoting the shoe brand and a fun and creative way to do it. So he constructed it with that original intent of offering stays inside the shoe house. And to our knowledge, never actually lived in it.”
Brown said those who have rented the shoe house seem to enjoy it,”A lot of the guests that we’ve had already are just people who live in this area but have very fond memories of it as I do, and wanted to come and stay. And even though they’ve probably been to the shoe house many times for tours, it’s a whole different experience to get to sleep inside. So it’s just been such a joy to see people come in and be able to share their memories and create new memories by getting to stay and sleep there as well.”
Brown indicated what may surprise visitors is how big the interior of the shoe house is,”It’s bigger than you think it would be. At least that’s what was what my impression was. Because you come in and there’s actually three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen dining area, and then a full rec room down in the sole of the shoe at the bottom of the shoe. So there’s quite a bit of space put into that. And it’s it’s surprising when you look at it from the outside how much space there is inside. But it’s just because it’s the what the way it’s laid out, it’s so unique. You know, you have multiple levels of stairs because you got to go this way in the shoe and then you got to go that way in the shoe. So it’s kind of like a little discovery journey going through.”
