Reviving Vineland, NJ's Palace of Depression

by KYW’s David Madden A long gone piece of New Jersey history, albeit from the bizarre page, could soon be back in downtown Vineland, if an on-going labor of love is ever completed by two men devoted to bringing back the “Palace of Depression”. The original palace was erected during the Great Depression of 1929 by bankrupt gold trader George Daynor and his wife on what was a junk yard. They used everything they could find in that yard to build the place, according to Vineland native and artist Jeffrey Tirante: “A lot of the rooms were actual car and truck bodies just pieced together and billboards put over top of them to create the caverns and little alleyways all through it.” The place fell into disrepair shortly before Daynor’s death over 40 years ago. In the last few years, Tirante and Vineland code officer Kevin Kirchner... [read full story]