Rhode Island is known for life-size Potato Heads. Back in 2000, 37 of the six-foot tuber people were installed throughout the state as a tourism promotion. It makes sense when you consider that Pawtucket is home to Hasbro Inc., where Mr. Potato Head and family were invented in the early 1950s.
Not all of the original Potato Head statues remain today, but there’s still a glammed-up version of Mrs. Potato Head in Westerly, complete with a sequined bikini. In West Greenwich, a friendly firefighter Potato Head at the Lake Mishnock Fire Department waves to passersby.
Standing in front of Hasbro’s Pawtucket headquarters is the state’s most official Potato Head statue. Visitors from far and wide often stop to take selfies with the company’s iconic mascot, named the “official family-travel ambassador of Rhode Island” by Visit Rhode Island in 2000.
