A reader sent in a larger version of the above photo to the Brazosport News. It shows the first giant presidential heads in place at Pearland’s new Presidential Park. Eventually, the remaining 37-member contingent of very-white sculpted U.S. presidents will join them, and the surrounding swampland will be transformed into a lovely green space, separated from a new shopping, retail, office, and hotel development by . . . a watergate! For now, though, the scene sure does look like only a few presidential giants have managed to keep their heads out of the mud.

The winners of an online vote to select which five of sculptor David Adickes‘s giant busts should be the first to move to the park were Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Kennedy — even though more recent Oval Office residents had far better ballot position. But democracy has its limits: Richard Browne, developer of the adjacent Waterlights District, decided to include the statue of former president George H.W. Bush in the first group anyway. All six made their head-turning trip down 288 from Adickes’s First Ward studio on Presidents’ Day.

Missed your chance to participate in the online presidential headcount? A separate ballot asks you to select which chain restaurants you want to appear in the Waterlights District, though its unclear if polling has already been closed.

Read on for a sketch of the Waterlights District, and another view of ex-presidents keeping their noses clean. Plus: a dated image of President John F. Kennedy, cut out of our version of the photo above . . . because he was too far to the right.

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Details on Pearland’s coming 1.9 million-square-foot Waterlights District:

residential condos, brownstones, luxury apartments, office buildings, retail boutiques, a fresh market, 10 restaurants, two luxury hotels, conference facility, a water wall and public park along a Grand Canal waterway.

In the meantime, rising above the swamp . . .

And here’s that section we sliced off from the top photo:

• Big fat presidential heads [The Brazosport News]
• Who’s ahead in this presidential race? [Inside Pearland]
  
• Waterlights District
• The Presidential Park & Gardens [Waterlights District]
• David Pryor Adickes [Dunbar Galleries]
• Larger than life [Houston Chronicle]

Photos: Brazosport News reader Harley the Hog (top and bottom) and Flickr user .imelda (middle)