The holidays are here, are you ready for takeoff?
The Haines Shoe House was built in 1948 as an advertising gimmick by "Colonel" Mahlon N. Haines, the self-styled shoe wizard of York, Pennsylvania. It still stands today.
An ice-cream booth modeled as a giant milk churn set off a busy southern Californian highway, photographed in the 1950s.
Silent film actress Esther Ralston (1902–1994) stops for a snack at Barkies, a sandwich shop built in the form of a huge puppy in Hollywood.
Two young women enter the Zep Diner, a diner shaped like a Zeppelin airship, in 1930's Los Angeles..
A coffeepot-shaped drive-in restaurant near Los Angeles, pictured in 1939.
This root beer stand in Kansas City, Missouri is built in the likeness of a Native American chief.
An early 1940s eatery shaped like a chili bowl serving burgers, spaghetti, and other dishes to hungry passers-by near Los Angeles.
There's no mistaking what you can purchase here. Pictured is a 1965 exterior view of customers standing at the counter of the Big Donut Drive-In, which features a giant donut on its roof.
The huge, seven-story basket-shaped Newark, New Jersey headquarters of the Longaberger handcrafted baskets company.
Bangkok's Elephant Building consists of three towers—the back and front legs of an elephant, and a trunk complete with eyes and tusks. It's one of the strangest examples of modern architecture in Thailand.
A familiar site on America's iconic Route 66, the high-peaked sombrero with neon embellishments tops the entrance to the retro-looking La Cita Mexican restaurant in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Resort in South Florida is the world's first guitar-shaped accommodation.
Novelty architecture, also called mimetic architecture, is a unique type of building known for its unusually literal appearance. These buildings often commemorate an event or serve as an advertisement. They can also copy other famous buildings without any intention of being authentic. The style generally became popular in the United States in the 1930s, though some examples date back to the very beginning of the 20th century. Today, novelty buildings can be admired throughout the world, and serve as visitor attractions in their own right.
Click through the following gallery and admire some of the most unusual architecture ever designed.
Located on the south side of Ontario Highway 401, the Big Apple is a bakery, restaurant, and roadside attraction in Colborne, Ontario, Canada.
Tree Mystery is a park and tourist attraction set near the coastal town of Klamath, California. It's noted for its giant statue of Paul Bunyan and the statue of his companion, Babe the Blue Ox.
The world's largest baseball bat is an architectural showpiece of the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in Louisville, Kentucky.
Inaugurated in 1971, the Big Pineapple is an entertainment complex located near Woombye in Queensland, Australia.
The Spittelau incinerator in Vienna, Austria is famous for its contemporary and colorful architecture representing a symbiosis of technology, ecology, and art.
Constructed in the 1930s to help its owner's duck farming business, the Big Duck was originally used as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs. It nests in Flanders on Long Island, in New York.
The BMW Tower in Munich, Germany is built to mimic the shape of four cylinders in a car engine, with the museum (right) representing a cylinder head.
Constructed of wood and tin sheeting in 1881, Lucy the Elephant in Margate City, New Jersey has served as a restaurant, observation deck, and lately an Airbnb property.
Built in 1949 and trademarked "The World's Largest Catsup Bottle," the lofty landmark still stands south of Collinsville, in Illinois.
The enormous Kiwi360 stands as an attraction at the Te Puke Kiwifruit Center in New Zealand. One side of the Kiwi360 is green, and the other side is yellow.
The "ear of corn" water tower can be admired in Rochester, Minnesota.
Wigwam Motels, also known as the "Wigwam Villages," is a motel chain in the United States built during the 1930s and 1940s. Two of the motels are located on Route 66, in Holbrook Arizona, and Rialto, California.
A former gas station built in the shape of a teapot located in Zillah, Washington state, this quirky example of novelty architecture was constructed in 1922.
Built in the shape of a pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg), this museum in Kolomyia, Ukraine is the only one of its kind in the world dedicated to the pysanka.
Famous for its use as a wedding venue, this novelty church (which has no religious function) is located in Budai Township, Chiayi County, Taiwan.
Located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, this bright and breezy service station, shaped as a giant scallop shell, has stood since 1930.
The odd appeal of novelty architecture
Mimetic designs that stand out from the crowd
TRAVEL Mimetic architecture
Novelty architecture, also called mimetic architecture, is a unique type of building known for its unusually literal appearance. These buildings often commemorate an event or serve as an advertisement. They can also copy other famous buildings without any intention of being authentic. The style generally became popular in the United States in the 1930s, though some examples date back to the very beginning of the 20th century. Today, novelty buildings can be admired throughout the world, and serve as visitor attractions in their own right.
Click through the following gallery and admire some of the most unusual architecture ever designed.