"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 manydifferant 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

 tothe 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 broughtto 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 deep 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 theWienburger 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 boot 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 piecing 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.