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Save Tillie updated May 12, 2008 ASBURY PARK REDEVELOPERS DISREGARDING HISTORIC ART It's simple, really. You own property close to the shore. You want to build. Because the shoreline is regulated, you seek a permit. New Jersey says: meet these conditions, and you're good to go. If your construction project is worth, say, $750 million, chances are you'll make sure those conditions are met. Unless your name is Asbury Partners or Madison Marquette. For the past four years, Asbury Park's developers have played fast and loose with a state requirement to preserve artifacts from the historic Palace Amusements, artifacts that were given protection as a condition to rebuilding the city's waterfront. The Palace was one of the few National Register of Historic Places structures in Asbury Park, once home to a classic 19th century carousel, a roundabout that carried passengers above the rooftop, and wall murals, the memories of which still connect generations of visitors to the community. New Jersey's historic preservation director said the Palace could become the centerpiece of renewed tourism. Yet from his first day in town, Asbury Partners' Larry Fishman couldn't wait to tear it down. When the state issued its waterfront permit, it told Fishman that if he preserved Palace artifacts for use in a new building, he could demolish the arcade. Asbury Partners drew up a list of 33 artifacts, including three large wall murals. The city signed off, and Fishman sent in the bulldozers. The basic techniques of historic preservation are widely understood. Preservation means to maintain in safety and to keep in an unaltered condition. To the developers, however, "preservation" seems to mean something quite different. First, they stuck the Palace murals in two poorly constructed outdoor storage sheds, built without the advice of anyone who understood preservation. A true preservation shed facilitates the flow of air and humidity. The Partners' sheds — constructed of used, interior-grade plywood — work in reverse, limiting elements needed to stabilize the murals. One shed tilted against a wall in a windstorm; both sheds leak. When Asbury Partners "repaired" shoddy workmanship, many problems worsened. Faced with mounting criticism, including an investigative report by a nationally prominent conservator, Fishman met city officials on Sept. 26, 2005, and famously told his staff: "We've done it wrong twice, now let's do it right." What, exactly, does "let's do it right" mean? Today, two and a half years later, the murals sit in the same sheds, in the same deplorable condition. The developers' second tortured strategy involved moving the murals to a new location. Prodded by the city to move them from a secure area outside the sewer plant, the Partners agreed to an Aug. 1, 2006, deadline. At first, Asbury Partners offered to relocate the 52-year-old murals onto the beach, with new sheds. However, Fishman's preferred site turned out to be unacceptable to the state, located in a high-velocity wave zone that would endanger them during storms. Asbury Partners next focused on a city-owned lot west of the train station. The wisdom of this location was never explained. The developers own 57 acres of waterfront land. Ultimately, the murals must be reused in a new building at Kingsley Street and Cookman Avenue. So why move three large murals not once, but twice, all the way across town? Nonetheless, the developers sought bids for the move, but strangely forgot to disclose some basic details — for instance, that the murals' steel frames must be welded to a truck bed to keep them from falling over. In another strange oversight, the company that successfully removed the murals from the Palace four years ago wasn't given the opportunity to bid. Eventually, the winning bidder withdrew when he realized the job was a prescription for failure. Today, with Madison Marquette now responsible for preservation, the murals sit where they have since summer 2004, in leaky, poorly constructed sheds that serve virtually no preservation purpose. The city's deadline has come and gone, with no consequences. An assurance given to the state that the murals would be moved has been ignored, again without consequence. In fairness, Asbury Partners did prefabricate replacement sheds that are designed to be waterproof and to allow natural levels of heat and humidity to reach the murals. Unfortunately, these sheds have never been used and remain stacked inside the Sunset Avenue Pavilion, gathering dust. Based on everything done and left undone, the developers seem to believe they can avoid their preservation responsibility by allowing the murals to decline. That's nonsense. Any change in the condition of the murals since 2004 is their responsibility. Penalties could be costly and embarrassing, and could slow redevelopment. It's now time for the state or the courts — with the city's active encouragement — to enforce the state preservation requirement. 2007 ENDING ON A DARK NOTE In some regards, the stop-work order triggers flashbacks to the failed waterfront redevelopment project in the late 1980s. Asbury's redevelopment attempt back then was stopped dead in the tracks by a catastrophic downturn in the housing market, plunging the City into 15 years of economic depression. One of the lasting symbols of the earlier failure -- the unfinished skeleton of a waterfront high-rise -- stood until imploded in 2006 on exactly the same site as the now unfinished Esperanza. What this eventually may mean for those who care about the Stone Pony, Madame Marie's, and the wall murals removed from the Palace, is currently unclear. There are hints, however, of darker days to come. In 2004, the State of New Jersey gave developers a permit which allows for the rebuilding of the Asbury waterfront, and in exchange required developers to preserve, and eventually reuse, historic artifacts including the Tillie and Bumper Car wall murals from the Palace. Since then, the developers who make no secret of their disdain for the murals have consistently tried to outflank Tillie's supporters in the Save Tillie organization. When Save Tillie produced evidence that the storage sheds containing the murals would eventually lead to destruction of the murals, developers promised to move the murals to new sheds at a new location. That location turned out to be on the beach, where the murals would be destroyed by an ocean storm. The State stepped in, and blocked the move. Then, the developers offered to move the murals to a more secure location, and sought bids on the move. When Save Tillie reviewed the bid, it discovered that bidders had been misinformed on the height and weight of the murals, and had not been required by the developers to secure the murals to the moving truck. When the winning bidder learned these facts, he backed out and the move was cancelled. Had the move gone forward as planned by the developers, there was an excellent chance the murals would have toppled from the truck and been destroyed. The latest maneuver came a few weeks ago, when developers invited Save Tillie to meet and discuss cooperative measures regarding the murals. As it turned out, "cooperative" meant that the developers wanted Tillie supporters to agree to destorying the murals and to letting the developers create some sort of replacement in "the spirit" of the originals. That suggestion was flatly rejected by Save Tillie. At the same meeting, developers said they plan to eventually close the Stone Pony and recreate it elsewhere. So now, as 2007 ends with a dark shadow creeping over the entire waterfront project, the well-being of Palace artifacts and historic waterfront places is once more in question. There are very few artifacts of the Palace left, and none more prominent than the Tillie mural, under which Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band posed for one of the band's most famous early photographs. There is no place in Asbury Park more closely associated with Bruce than the Pony. If you want to make a safe prediction for 2008, bet on these issues heating up again soon. SAVE TILLIE RETURNS PALACE PHOTO BOOTH TO ASBURY For over three decades, the Palace's photo booth produced strips of four black and white wallet sized photos of visitors to the Shore side amusement park. Now refurbished by the Save Tillie preservation campaign, the booth is back in service on the lower level of The Shoppes At the Arcade, 685 Cookman Ave.
Save Tillie member Dan Toskaner refurbished the operating mechanisms of the booth over the winter and spring, giving it a new strobe light and making other mechanical improvements. In appearance, however, Toskaner said the booth will be completely familiar to those who used it at the Palace, down to a collage of very old photo strips including pictures of employes of the Palace and Sandy's Arcade. Come on by and give it a try! ANOTHER PALACE ARTIFACT ON THE LONG ROAD HOME
Considering the age and history of the booth, it's in remarkably good condition. Save Tillie members are installing a new strobe unit, thoroughly cleaning the booth and overhauling all of the internal mechanisms. When done, they expect the booth will be immediately recognized by all who enjoyed it at the Palace. On November 27, 1988, 100 years of Asbury Park amusements history came to an end when Sam and Henry Vaccaro, last of the owner/operators of the Palace, shut down the business following years of sagging revenues. Signs soon appeared on the Palace doors announcing the sale of amusements, many of which were snapped up by collectors and investors at bargain prices. The booth moved for a time to Sandy's Arcade and Amusements, a Boardwalk arcade, but was again put up for sale in the late 1980s. The sales notice caught the attention of Slim and Pamela Smith, Jersey Shore natives who had migrated to Vermont but were vacationing near Asbury Park. Racing over to the Boardwalk, they purchased the booth and moved it to Vermont. For a time it was in their Burlington store known as Folkheart, and then eventually was moved to a second Folkheart in Bristol. In December 2006, Pamela Smith offered to donate the booth to Save Tillie when Folkheart was closing its doors for the final time. Save Tillie members Dan Toskaner of Scarsdale, NY, and Frank Saragnese and Mary Lynn Purcell of Ocean Grove, NJ, drove to Bristol on December 27 to accept the donation. Toskaner, an authority on amusements and amusements history, is in charge of the refurbishing project. "The exterior oak and the white/gold speckled Formica is completely intact," Toskaner said. "The illuminated script 'Photographs' sign still sits on top. In recognition of its history, someone stamped a small Tillie face next to a handwritten $2.00 sign." Best of all, Toskaner discovered "a homemade collage of very old photo strips under a sheet of plexiglass on the side of the machine. Pamela Smith confirmed that these strips were already there when she bought the booth, which means that the photos were taken in Asbury Park." Over the last weeks, Save Tillie has begun identifying individuals in the photographs, and is appealing for help in identifying the rest. Those identified so far include Henry Vaccaro Jr., son of the Palace's last co-owner and now president of Vaccaro Guitar Co., in Asbury Park; the late Leroy "Shorty" MacDowell, a maintenance man at the Palace; John O'Heney, who for a time managed Sandy's Arcade and Amusements on the Boardwalk and now owns F Stop Photos in Belmar; and Dathan James, who also worked at Sandy's and is now a Target employee in Ocean Township. The rest of the individuals remain unidentified. Their photos are online at savetillie.com under the heading "Original Palace Photo Booth Donated to Save Tillie." Anyone who can help identify them is asked to contact Save Tillie at pbjcrane@erols.com. THE PALACE MUSEUM - ONLINE NOW! Until that day, the Palace was a landmark on the Jersey Shore, a place that excited 10 decades of visitors and inspired songwriters, photographers, and artists. The Palace carousel was one of the nation’s greatest, and the Ferris wheel carried passengers for more years than any other wheel in American history. The Palace Museum Online is the result of nine months of research by members of Save Tillie, the organization which rescued more than 125 artifacts from the Palace prior to demolition. Among the rescued artifacts was Tillie, the iconic wall mural that is now in storage for reuse on a new building slated for construction on the Palace lot at the intersection of Cookman Avenue and Kingsley Street. Through the years, Springsteen wrote Palace referrences into songs including "Born to Run" and "Tunnel of Love," used images of the Palace on tour tee-shirts, official calendars and in videos, and posed for a number of photographs inside the Palace and out. Footage of Springsteen riding the Palace carousel along with a tattooed man, midget, dancing bride and other distinctive characters was shot on Nov. 11, 1987 for inclusion in the "Tunnel of Love" video but was not used. Springsteen was among the featured artists in the Asbury Park Rock 'N' Roll Museum located in the Palace from 1986 until the Palace closed in late 1988. Demolition by Asbury Partners, the city’s waterfront development firm, was conducted under terms of a permit issued by the State of New Jersey stipulating that a number of Palace artifacts be removed and preserved for eventual reuse in the new building. A separate agreement, between the developers and the City’s Technical Review Committee, identified those artifacts as two wooden cutouts, 26 large metal channel letters, several signs, and three large murals - Tillie and two murals depicting riders on Palace bumper cars. Demolition was opposed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation New Jersey, the Asbury Park Historical Society, and Save Tillie. The website documents a number of little-known chapters in Palace history, including acute racial tensions in 1889 over the right to ride the Palace carousel, the relocation of a Palace band organ to a museum in Georgia, the near-death of a Palace mechanic while working on the carousel, and the development of the first Palace dark ride using electrified equipment that had previously operated in dark tunnels under the sidewalk at Ocean and 3rd Avenues. The site, at www.palaceamusements.com, also includes a guest book where Palace fans are invited to share personal memories of the historic arcade. Fifty-eight people donated photography, research, interviews and writing to the project. Seth Brahler, a Save Tillie member from Ithaca, New York designed the site. TILLIE FACTS
TILLIE IN THE MOVIES
TILLIE ON TV
TILLIE IN THE COMICS
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©1998-2008 The Backstreets Publishing Empire |
The Palace no longer stands at the Asbury Park intersection of Kingsley and Lake, but one of the most popular coin-operated attractions from the historic amusements arcade has returned to Asbury Park, 15 years after it was sold to shop keepers in Vermont, and is now a major attraction at a Cookman Avenue store.
The booth entered the Palace in the late 1950s and remained in operation there until the Palace closed in late 1988. For a time thereafter, it operated at Sandy's Arcade on the Boardwalk, and eventually was sold to Vermont shop keepers, who operated the booth in stores in Burlington and Bristol before donating it to Save Tillie last winter.
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