Bakersfield, California: Big Shoe Repair - Shoe-shaped Building

Building shaped like a shoe where you can still get faulty footwear fixed.

This place is in an extremely scurvy neighborhood. Hoodlums lounging all over the place. Was told by the gentleman inside that this was a nasty place at night. He said I shouldn't be bothered while getting pictures, but I got my pictures quick and got out.

The Shoe House in Bakersfield, CA is for sale. Remnants of Deschwanden's Shoe Repair, the last business that inhabited the shoe nearly a decade ago, can still be spied through the windows....

The old Shoe Repair Shoe is still standing. It has a piece of plywood covering the damage that was caused by a car ramming it. But its chain laces are still intact and I think there's some talk of saving the old shoe.

The huge Bakersfield gateway sign that spans all six lanes of Union Avenue (old Highway 99) is facing a mixed future. The city is trying to find funding before CalTrans tears the thing down. It's anchored on one side by a burned out hotel and the other by a ran down nursing home. Plus as an added bonus, hookers are available underneath the sign. What a way to promote Bakersfield.

Bakersfield also has a satanic Carpeteria Genie on "F" St.

I live in Bakersfield and drive past the shoe building frequently. There are some new developments. The original owner passed away a few years ago, and the shop has been closed ever since, though through the window you can still see a pile of unclaimed shoes.

According to the local newspaper, the heirs who still own the property are ambivalent about the building's future. It's on prime commercial property on Bakersfield's main north-south drag, so redevelopment is a definite possibility.

Worse still, a car recently ran aground and damaged the side of the building, near the instep. And so it remains, with the damage unrepaired as of yesterday, when I most recently drove past it.