San Antonios giant cowboy boots got their start in Washington, D.C.
Forty years ago, Texas-based artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade built a pair of nearly 40-foot-tall cowboy boots at the northwest corner of 12th and G Streets NW. Back then, downtown D.C. was wilder than the Wild West, Wade says.
“There were crazy people hanging on the fence, whole busloads of tourists coming by, [then-second lady] Joan Mondale stopped by, we had a guy dressed as Uncle Sam doing crowd control — it was just perfect,” Wade says, recalling what it was like to build the boots.
Wade, now 76, was known for oversized work. In 1976, he created the “Bicentennial Map of the U.S.A.,” which was larger than a football field.
According to a 1979 Washington Post article, Wade was chosen by Al Nodal, who at the time was the director of the Washington Project for the Arts, to create a large, temporary sculpture on what was then an empty lot. (The spot, across from a Metro Center entrance, now houses a Macy’s.)
“I got to thinking that a pair of cowboy boots would fit that spot perfectly. It was 1979, and Western chic was a huge trend,” Wade says.
Many of the materials for the boots were donated — or scavenged. Wade said he used large pieces of steel found around the city from demolished buildings.
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Once completed, the sculpture was slated to stand for about five months and then be taken down to make way for new public art.
As the deadline for moving the boots loomed, Wade grew increasingly anxious — he had no idea what to do with the huge sculpture. So he was thrilled when he got an eleventh-hour call from a property management company that wanted the boots for a shopping mall in Texas.
In January 1980, Wade returned to D.C. and watched as workers disassembled the boots and loaded the pieces onto three flatbed trucks — one of which got stuck underneath a low overpass.
“They had to get a crowbar and pry the thing out,” says Wade, who adds that he later commemorated the experience in a country song, “Too High, Too Wide and Too Long.”
The rest of the journey went smoothly, and the boots were installed by San Antonio’s North Star Mall, where they still stand today. Since then, the boots have lived a quiet life, except for one notable incident in the early 1980s, when people observed smoke billowing out of the top of one of the shoes.
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“There was a guy living in there and cooking on Sterno cans. People thought the whole boot was on fire,” Wade recalls.
Wade’s boots even hold the Guinness World Record for the largest cowboy boot structure.
And the boots are a beloved San Antonio landmark, so they will probably never return to their birthplace, Wade says.
“The fact that they ended up in Texas is quite something,” he says. “I never would have expected that.”
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