"Our Hero Inc."

                "What is it they say about myths" ?,

 I've been with the "P.D.R.P" for almost 7yrs now, during which, I got to hear many

 differant recollections reguarding George Daynor,(his wife & her roll with the

palace) & the Palace.

                I'm beginning this page with the "basis" of  George's

story he would tell,as I finish with this, most of which We all have, heard & read

by now,

I will move on to what I have learned  over the years about  Palace, the Angel, &

 George.

              "As my mom used to say"...

Often, there are to sides to every story, it's in the "middle" we'll likely find some

truth.  

               J.R.Tirante, "O.H."inc

                     "As he told it",......

The Alaskan Gold rush had made George Daynor a rich man, years of prospecting had paid thier worth, & now

 George, "his posterity assured", set off to to register his claim, but,... if finding the gold wasn't hard enough

work, the trek to the claims office would prove to be every bit as challenging!,...the office , at best was a 5 to 6

day 100+ hike on a trail swarming with  "bush-wackers & thieves" & it's not long till they catch up with George &

he's robbed!...But this wouldn't be the first nor last time George's ingeniuty would save his hide,

  "as he tells it"

 the joke was on the robber's!, my claim was in a code I invented, & I sent my dog ahead to the claim's office with

the cypher so when I got there I could prove what was mine by de-coding it! 

    Overcoming this "1st Adversity", George makes his way towards the west coast till  he reaches the city of San

Francisco, settling there, he begins to  build the "house of his dreams" while investing the rest of his fortune in the

 "stock-market".....

              "When the San Francisco earthquake" 

 was through with George, claiming home, & possessions, he barely has time to dust himself off to face this

"2nd Adversity" 

When our entire country is shaken to it's very foundation, & the Great Depression begins. 

      George loses everything but the clothes on his back, & the change in his pockets to the Stockmarket crash, 

 facing this "3rd Adversity", dispondant, & with no prospects, George begins to Drift,  making his way towards the

eastern coast, & unknown to George at the time,

"Good Fortune!"

        "As George tells it"...

 He was walking along a road one night, when I was almost struck down by a car !, what could have resulted in

catastraphy, was indeed George's luck returning, the driver stopped to apologize, offering George a lift for his

troubles, Upon hearing George's tale,  the driver offers George a deal on some site-unseen land, so, closing the

deal with the last 4 dollars in his pocket, George went on to inspect his investment & found he now owned a swamp,

 with a junk-yard smack in the center!, at the bottom of the city of Vineland, N.J.  

     "Adversity #4?!" Taking up residence in an abandoned truck body George began trenching & dredging the

swamp, George dragged the truck body & others into the trenches & as the ground stablized covered over these

as well, to create an underground dwelling. 

    George has a dream, "as he tells it,"

an Angel came to him one evening & promised his posterity would be assured  if in return for the vision she brought

 to him of a Fantastic Castle, he would complete it with 18 to 22 spires on the roof tops for the angels to rest on

as they traveled around the earth, George agreed, & with renewed vision, pulled himself up by the boot-straps

and vigorously set about the task at hand, using a large copper kettle to gather & sort through the junkyard for

useful items George worked day & night, & on Christmas day 1932, George opens his doors to the public &

welcomes all to the Palace of Depression.

           "As word began to spread"

through radio broadcasts, news paper articals,word of mouth & eventually film,folk from all over came to see the

Palace of Depression, George would delight the young & old with his tales of prospecting & sailing,from his perch

on the grand chimney of the palace, George would explain, how he won, & lost three fortunes, how, at his most

darkest hour, an Angel came to his aid & showed him what he could do in the face of his adversity,thus, providing

him with the plans for the Palace. 

    George would continue the tour, taking folk through many rooms, the " sun-set kitchen " crafted from the very

junk others had discarded, & painted with powdered brick, & paint George scraped from car bodies, more tales

could be heard as George acompanied himself on his prehistoric music rack, fashioned from car & machine parts

that hung from the living room ceilng, or for those that still hadn't recovered from the Depression, George would

suggest a trip to his knock-out room where he would seat you in a booth, & pulling a lever, drop a rock on your head

with the assurance that this, will indeed erease all the bad memories! 

   Your tour through the Palace wasn't complete though, even after a visit to the wishing well & tea with the

mermaid, that George would caution everyone to be very quiet as he crept ever deeper into the depths of the

Palace to see if the Jersey Devil  was in his den! 

    George, overcoming his adversities had gone from a drifter to the most photographed man in the world!, & the

Palace of Depression became so well known over the next 20yrs, a landmark for the city of Vineland, an icon on

everything from roadmaps, to commemoritive plates!, & unknown to George at the time, it would come to pass that

he would be reconized as a self-taught artist & a pioneer in the art known today as crockaloge & brickaloge as well

as other alternative building methods, the Castle of Junk that began as a simple home for George, now an

inspiration to craftsmen, builders, & artists for years to come.

                   "1956", George ever the shameless self-promoter, crosses the line, in an attempt to draw

attention back to his Palace as it's popularity declined, George tells the local authoities that the kidnappers of the

 Wienburger baby had contacted him about hiding out in the Palace while he negotiated the ransom for them, the 

 FBI finally gets George to admit this is yet another of his publicity stunts (we'll get to those, & more of the

"Myths" later... J.D'vil )  George is sent to jail for a year.

         The Palace  left  unprotected is ransacked that very evening  by local vandals,  all but burned to the

ground.   

  George, returning to the Palace closes it's door to all but a few close friends and fans,  to spend the remainder

of his days there attempting to undo the damage. 

         "One rainy Febuary night" George is found by a friend who encounters him  sweeping  Mill rd.

George is taken to a Hospice & remains there till his passing in 1963, never to see the palace again.

  "By the late sixties"

with no one to look after it , the Palace Depression  with no real foundation other than the old truck & car bodies

began  decay, as moisture returned to it's tunnels, & loosened Daynor's  mortar , the palace began to collapse into

 its self, a serious threat to looters & adventurers alike, a point driven home when the Volunteer Fire Dept.

searched through the Palace for a missing child, finding they could simply push through the walls in some of the

tunnels as well as the planks & old signs Daynor used to cover the "alleys" between the truck bodies to create his

famous caverns .  

         "1967" &  in one last attempt did friends & local artists  open the Palace

Depression  as an  "Arts & cultural center" complete with a cafe' &  gallery, with

the hope of a wing built off the "back of the Palace" to expand the gallery & learning

center, sadly, though it made it on paper, never came to pass, the repairs exceeding

any hope of returning the Palace to it's original glory, & in "1969", more trash  than

treasure , the Palace Depression was bull-dozed to the ground, leaving only

                     the  ticket booth, benches, and patio, to Little Robin's creek" 

                                      Vineland turned the remaining grounds into a city park, complete

                                      with Bar-b-que pits & picnic tables that where soon vandalized &

                                       destroyed as well.  

                   Left to over-grow, the original walk to the ticket booth now

      blocked from traffic, the Palace to this day, remains a place, for

      those who wish to come & sit for a bit, & think about what they may do,

       taking one's self up by the bootstraps & overcoming your advercities.                                                

              "Gentle readers",

       I will begin"filling in the blanks" here in a few days, I have been

peicing the "Palace Tale"together for some time now, & at the very least  would like

to share this in an effort  of good intention,

 Daynor, Florance, & the Palace will make for you & yours an interesting read....

 Good night for now... Jeffrey R Tirante.