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email: roadarch@outlook.com |
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| Cow Heads |
(hit "refresh" to get the most recent version of this page; click on photos for larger images)
| Ira Wilson & Sons Dairy Building Detroit, MI |
Purple Cow Corral Waynesboro, VA |
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The Ira Wilson & Sons Dairy Building features a 12-foot-tall cow head on its roof. The cow was meant to resemble "Elsie" the Borden Cow. I believe the cow was built in 1963 by the Naegle Outdoor Advertising Company. The former ice cream stand has been closed for many years but was restored for the filming of "8 Mile" in 2002. It has remained vacant since then. The building was painted black in 2023. Wilson's Dairy had another location with another cow head which is gone now. For more, see these websites: 1, 2, and 3. [map]
The Purple Cow Corral was known as the Skyview Ice Cream stand when it was built in 1964. The cow came from a dairy in Charlottesville, VA. It's not known what happened to the rest of the body. The cow head has been around since at least the 1970s. I believe this place is now closed. The street it is located on is known as Purple Cow Road. For more, see this website. [map] |
| Cow Heads St. Paul, MN |
Cow Heads Des Moines, IA |
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These Cow Heads, aka the "Golden Guernseys," in St. Paul are located at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. These cows were designed in 1954 by Bob Johnson. A mold was made and for the 10-foot-tall fiberglass heads produced by the Naegle Outdoor Advertising Company. The heads were installed across the street from the Ewald Bros. Dairy in Minneapolis. At least one other pair was installed on billboards downtown. That pair wound up at a Grandma's Saloon in Duluth, MN but those are gone now. The Ewald Dairy closed in 1982 and the cows were moved to the Fairgrounds the following year. In 2017, there was a fundraising effort to restore the St. Paul cow heads but I don't know if that ever happened. [map]
The Cow Heads in Des Moines are installed on the side of a building at the Anderson Erickson Dairy. [map] Similar fiberglass Guernsey cow and bull heads were originally installed in 1955 on a Carlson Frink Dairy billboard in Denver, CO. Those heads are now in a private collection. |
| Cow Heads [gone] Puyallup, WA |
Cow Head Yakima, WA |
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These Cow Heads in Puyallup were installed at the entrance to the Western Washington Fairgrounds. There were three of them. These photos are from 2008. They were still there in 2012 but were removed soon after that when the entrance was remodeled.
The Cow Head in Yakima is now installed inside the Yakima Valley Museum. It was originally located at the Country Store in Yakima. |
| Holland Farms Bakery & Deli Yorkville, NY |
Perkins Restaurant Tunkhannock, PA |
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The first Holland Farms Bakery and Dairy Bar opened in 1955. In 1966, the company moved here. This billboard sign was built in 1956 and is located in the store's parking lot. The cows on the sign are known as Cupcake and Chuckie. In 2017, the heads were removed, restored, and reinstalled. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. [map]
This Perkins Restaurant is located on the site of the former Shadow Brook Farm Dairy Bar which opened in 1955. The cow heads sign was part of a sign installed on the roof of the dairy bar. The sign was there by around 1960. It was similar in design to the Holland Farms and was probably built by the same sign company. Perkins opened here around 2002 and kept the cow heads. For more, see this website. [map] |
| Crystal Springs Dairy Bar Ware, MA |
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| The Crystal Springs Dairy Bar features this billboard style sign on the roof. [map] |
| Cow Head Wausau, WI |
West's Hayward Dairy Hayward, WI |
Orange County Fairgrounds [gone] Middletown, NY |
Buckhorn Museum & Saloon San Antonio, TX |
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The Cow Head in Wausau is located at Walters Farms.
West's Hayward Dairy installed this cow head on the side of the company's ice cream shop in 1969. [map] The Orange County Fairgrounds cow head seemed to be a different shape from the others shown here. I have no idea how old it is/was. This photo is from 2010. The head was gone by 2017. It was determined to be "too far gone" and destroyed. The Buckhorn Museum & Saloon building features seven animal heads including cattle, elk, and buffalo. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. [map] |
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More Cow Heads:
Bama Bob's BBQ (Mobile, AL) BlondZee's Steak House (Lake Havasu City, AZ) Mayfield Dairy Farms (Marietta, GA) El Rancho Motel (Gurnee, IL) [map] Frame Center (Hanover, MA) J.P. Licks (Boston, MA) Gulf Hill Dairy (Mattapoisett, MA) [vintage; gone] Farmers Dairy (Hazleton, PA) [vintage; gone] Kelly's Real Deals (Troutville, VA) Dairy Barn (Clintonville, WI) [vintage; gone] Neon Factory (Winnipeg, ON) [gone] former Elmhurst Dairy (Montreal, QC) |
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Cows (page 1) |
Cows (page 2) |
Cows (page 3) |
Head Bump Cows |
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Left Leg Forward Cows page 1 |
Left Leg Forward Cows page 2 |
| Bulls | Animal Statues Main Page |
| RoadsideArchitecture.com |
Copyright. All photos at this website are copyrighted and may only be used with my consent. This includes posting them at Facebook, Pinterest, blogs, other websites, personal use, etc. Tips & Updates. If you have suggestions about places that I haven't covered, historical info, or updates about places/things that have been remodeled or removed, I'd love to hear from you: roadarch@outlook.com. |