Why Roxborough-Manayunk residents are obsessed with 300-pound concrete dinosaur statues

Roxborough-Manayunk residents have ushered the latest tale into the Philadelphia canon with the proliferation of 3-foot-tall, 300-pound concrete Tyrannosaurus rexes on neighborhood lawns. Or “Tyrannosaurus Rox,” as some say.

People outside the neighborhood may have heard of the lawn ornaments after the toppling and decapitation of “Bridget the Dino,” one of the community’s favored dinosaur statues. Last year (a new dinosaur, Manny, soon took over Bridget’s watch of the Manayunk Bridge Garden).

But questions remained about why the neighborhood is drawn to these toddler-sized lawn creatures, leading one Mount Airy resident, Liz Pride, to undertake an unofficial survey of dozens of dino statue owners in Northwest Philadelphia.

“Going into this project, I was just really curious about the people who own the statues,” Pride said. “I think one of the things I was surprised by is that children were not a big factor in people deciding to get one.”

Of the 40 dino statue owners who responded, 19 live in Roxborough and six in Manayunk, with a handful more from East Mount Airy, East Falls, Germantown, and the Philly collar counties, giving Pride a geographical range. Her survey also got responses from Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and even as far as Massachusetts.

Pride soon found that the dino statues connect neighbors through an inside joke shared on morning commutes and afternoon walks as they pass painted and costumed dinosaurs, whether it’s Hans and Roberta one day, or Steve and Sir Salvatore Rexington another (yes, those are real names of Roxborough dinos).

Dinosaur owners are committed to the bit, since each statue costs roughly $200, depending on the model.

“The statues seem to bring joy to everyone that comes across them to either snap a pic or make them a part of their daily walk. It’s kids, their parents, adults, and dogs alike, all love them,” said Melissa Hojnacki, who has a Roxborough-style dino at her Bridgeport home.

Just over half of respondents said they knew someone else with a dino statue, and at least a third said they were pressured into it by a friend or gifted the statue, Pride found, which she detailed in her newsletter blog “Ur Fictional Boyfriend” (a nod to her viral Tumblr post that garnered its own Wikipedia page covering the joke).

Becca Didio, a Manayunk resident and parent to Roberta, a T. rex draped in a hula skirt, coconut bikini top, and flamingo sunglasses, said she got Roberta simply because she loves dinosaurs. In her kitchen sits a dinosaur cookie jar containing tea bags named “Tea-rex” and a salt-and-pepper shaker set with bow tie-wearing T. rex.

“It’s just something fun and goofy,” Didio said. “It’s become a thing that Manayunk-Roxborough is known for, so much so that it’s a coveted thing now.”

The dinosaur has grown to become a symbol of neighborhood gatherings, like the logo for Roxyunk Porchfest. During holidays, dinosaurs become draped in spooky Halloween costumes and Santa Claus outfits. But, most importantly for the support of Philly sports teams, the dinosaurs will often wear Eagles and Phillies jerseys, Didio said.

These stubby-armed, toothy-grinned statues with a thousand-mile stare largely come from one place: Holod’s Garden Center on Ridge Pike in Lafayette Hill.

Many of Pride’s survey takers recounted a commonly told myth of how Holod’s acquired these beauties: “Legend has it that Holod’s ordered birdbaths and got a whole stack of dinosaurs instead. They became popular because we’re a fun bunch here,” one respondent wrote.

While Roxyunk residents are indeed a fun bunch, “That’s urban legend,” said owner Louis Holod, named after his father, Louis Holod Jr., and grandfather, Louis Holod Sr., who founded Holod’s in 1958 as a roadside gas station.

However, the dinosaurs’ backstory is much simpler and dates further back than what most locals remember.

In 2009, when the Holod family opened its gift shop, Louis Holod Jr. knew to trust the lawn ornament sales reps at trade shows better than his own tastes, his son said, and asked for their top sellers. The T. rex just happened to be one of them.

When the first shipment of lawn ornaments came in, two T. rex statues came with it. When those sold, they ordered four more, and so on, until today, 17 years later, when they order them by the hundred.

Holod is happy to see the mythos grow with a neighborhood that embraces the dinosaurs as something more.

Now the dinosaur statues — and the latest set of baby dinosaur statues, so lawns, Holod said, can have “a whole dino family” — are an integral part of the brand. Don’t miss out on the annual Halloween costume contest.

“BB and Thooey” won last year for their Candy Corn Farm outfits.