Haddon Heights’ quirky circus

A supersized rooster, an extremely long-horned steer, and a bright pink pig stare down from the roof of Del Buono’s Bakery in Haddon Heights.

Around the parking lot, two handsome equines overlook the Black Horse Pike, along with a hippo, a lion, a panda, a penguin, a gorilla, a triceratops, a turtle, and a rainbow-colored calf, among many others.

And fittingly enough for a bakery nearing its 100th birthday, a statue of a doughboy — vintage slang for World War I soldiers — also is part of the eclectic collection of realistic and fanciful critters and human figures that make Del Buono’s a local landmark.

“When I tell people I work here, they say, ‘Oh, that’s the place on the pike where all the animals are,’” said operations manager Joe March, who sees some of the pieces as symbolic, or inspirational.

“They’re beautiful,” Tom Whitman, the owner of the business, said.

“They’re part of Del Buono’s identity. Part of our culture. And most important: Our customers love them.”

The outdoor array at Del Buono’s is a throwback to the roadside advertising that became popular during the explosive growth in car travel in the U.S. a century ago.

Del Buono’s is included on the Roadside America website, which also features towering human figures such as that of the woman outside Werbany Tire Town in nearby Hilltop. She holds aloft a tire about 10 minutes southeast of the bakery on the Black Horse Pike.

“Oversized and other statues like these flourished during the age of the automobile. They were unique in their ability to attract customers,” said Paul Schopp, assistant director of the South Jersey Culture and History Center at Stockton University.

Lucy the Elephant, built as a real estate promotion, is an earlier example of the oversized animal as an attention-grabber, he said.

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Whitman, 61, bought the bakery and the statues 11 years ago from Nino Del Buono, whose dad founded the business on the 400 block of Emerald Street in South Camden in 1926. The bakery moved to Haddon Heights in 1963.

An actor who has appeared in such movies as Witness and American Gangster, Del Buono lives next door to the Haddon Heights headquarters.

He said the collection was born after he ran out of gas on the White Horse Pike in Atco, Camden County, while on a date in the 1970s.

“I was with a lady and we were walking in the dark to find a gas station,” he said.

His companion noticed what appeared to be a man staring at them from outside a house. They walked over and realized it was a statue, and the property owner called out to them from a window.

The statue, of molded cement, was a detailed likeness of former President Woodrow Wilson.

“The owner offered to sell it to me along with three others,” said Del Buono.

He said the owner told him that she needed the money. So he viewed buying the statues as a charitable act.

But soon after he put the four pieces — including the president, the doughboy, a sailor, and the Coast Guard member — on display outside the bakery, the phone started ringing.

Owners of miniature golf courses, boardwalk businesses, and carnivals called with offers to sell or donate statues.

“They just accumulated,” Del Buono said. “It’s not like it was my intention to create a museum. But I thank God for the statues.”

Whitman grew up in nearby Mount Ephraim and remembers Del Buono’s and the statues from his childhood.

He worked in marketing for the Domino’s pizza chain before buying Del Buono’s, is proud of growing the company, and has plans for further expansion. The bakery acquired Carmen’s, a small local chain, seven years ago; those delis continue as stand-alone locations and or as part of a Del Buono’s retail operation.

The entire company has about 135 employees; Whitman’s son, Charles, serves as director of operations.

At the Haddon Heights headquarters, customers and visitors take photos of their kids, or themselves, in front of favorites like the pair of Blues Brothers-inspired dudes sitting on either side of the main entrance.

“The kids love them, and their mothers and fathers take pictures and show them around,” said Charlotte Santanelo, 75, of Oaklyn, who works in sales at Del Buono’s.

“It’s good advertising for us.”

“Every one of the statues has been refurbished,” Whitman said. “We have a guy, Billy K., who works full time taking care of the statues for us in the wintertime. He’s very passionate about it.”

Billy K. — the initial stands for Kropilak — is also a DJ, a sign painter, and a self-taught sculpture conservator.

“Some of them, I look at them on location, where some of the work can be done. But others have to be brought to the shop to be sanded down for painting,” said Kropilak, 59.

Weather takes a toll, as do admirers, including kids who want to sit or play on them, he said, adding that a particularly challenging repair job involved the longhorn steer on the roof.

“The horns went missing and I climbed up on the roof looking for them,” Kropilak said. “I ended up having to re-create the horns.”

Such tasks are all part of keeping the collection “a wonderland where people take pictures of their kids, and take selfies,” Kropilak said.

“We are looking to open up more retail locations in the South Jersey area,” said Charles Whitman, 25.

“We are also looking to [add] an oven, freezer capacity, and integration with nationwide cold-chain shippers,” he said.

Asked what role the statues will play in the Del Buono’s future, Tom Whitman said: “They are a part of our family. We would keep them whether we love them or not. And we love them.”