Now this is a marketing challenge! The picture is big, but it's the only way to get the full impact of what this St. Paul, Minnesota, house looked like when it went on the market in December, 1998. After 72 days it had not sold and went off the market. Every inch of siding is covered with old shoes! Not new ones, old ones! It was part of the artist Tyree Guyton's Heidelburg project.
Tyree Guyton believed in community development by getting the community involved in art projects. The Shoe House was one such project. Tyree was hired in 1996 to come to Frog Town to create this artistic project. Lots of neighbors helped attach the shoes to this house. To Tyree the "soles" were symbolic of the "souls" that had worn them.
Because the Shoe House was a community development project, the shoes could not be removed until special sanction was awarded by the city. The shoes were not to be removed because they were a work of art! I remember driving by the house once and circling the block to slowly cruise by a second time. I couldn't believe my eyes.
My question . . . how does one market something that is beat up and smells on the outside!? If you represented the buyer, what kind of contingencies would have to be written into the purchase agreement? Eventually the house did sell and this is more how it looks today!
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