The Shoe House, Hellam, Pennsylvania

Mahlon Haines called himself “The Shoe Wizard” and built a successful chain of shoe stores and shoe factories that was once the largest retail shoe chain in the U.S.

^{Advertising fan for the shoe company; Haines in stained-glass in the door of the house.}

And, near his home base in York, Pennsylvania, he built a five-story house that was shaped like a shoe. Good advertising, he believed, good publicity. Adding to the publicity, he made it available for weekend vacations for 38 elderly couples each year, and also offered it as a honeymoon spot for employees.

After Haines’ death in 1962, the house passed through a number of owners who variously lived in it, ran tours in it and operated an ice-cream parlor in it. None of those attempts was commercially successful, likely in part because it’s way off any serious road and there’s nothing else commercial near it.

The present owners bought it in 2015 and have extensively restored it; unfortunately, it was not open for visitors the day I was there.

For those looking for a nice piece of trivia, The shoe house is located in Hellam Borough, Pennsylvania, once a part of the now-adjoining Hallam Township. The difference in spelling has persisted for well over 200 years, and no one seems interested in changing it.