Benjamin
The Living Force
George Daynor:
Also known as 'The Strangest House in the World' and 'The Home of Junk', George Daynor gives a guided tour of the Palace of Depression in Universal Studio's The Fantastic Castle from 1944. (9:16)
The reported lifestory... has problems, but unfolds with a man born in c. 1860 named George Daynor who made a fortune in Alaska as a gold miner. He then made his home in San Francisco where an earthquake (1906?) destroyed all his belongings but still had his fortune, apparently, locked up in the stock market. At the age of 70, he was said to be working as a New York stock trader when he lost everything during the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Then, while working as a labourer in the Pacific Northwest, he was visited by an angel who guided him on a 10-day, 112 mile hike to New Jersey, where he purchased a plot of land for 'a buck an acre'. Spending 3-7 dollars, he bought 3-7 acres of overgrown swampland being used as a vehicle junkyard in Vineland, Cumberland County, New Jersey.
One night while sleeping in the cab of a rusted-out truck, the angel returned, provided the design and instructed him to create a marvellous castle to be built on the site, and from 1929 to 1932, Daynor did just that, living off the land eating frogs, rabbits, fish and squirrels. Built out of mud and the junk on his land, he made an 18 spire, pastel coloured 'castle' which housed a subterranean kitchen with a fireplace “large enough to barbecue an ox”; a large round door, on a central pivot, made out of turtle shells behind which was built the Jersey Devil’s Den (Daynor claimed that the Jersey Devil slept there at night. Footprints on the wall, he said, were made by the JD.); claimed (by others?) to have a private underground tunnel system; an extravagant outdoor fireplace; a wishing well with a 'real mermaid'; a ‘knockout room’, a room where, when sitting in a specific chair, Daynor would drop a rock on a string on one's head so they could forget their troubles suffered from the Depression; a ‘ticket booth’, which is the only original building left standing. He opened his creation to the public on Christmas Day of 1932, originally charging 10 cents (which later increased to 25 cents) for admission. In it's mid-to-late 1930's heyday, a reported 250,000-500,000 visitors passed through it's gates.
I have to wonder if the house itself existed beforehand. There is a 'circus' feel to this whole thing.
Claiming that he had created "the greatest piece of originality ever brought about in the history of Man," the Palace was built as a testament of willpower against the effects of The Great Depression. In his own words: "The only real depression is a depression of individual ingenuity.”
People either thought he was a genius (visitors) or a complete nutball (neighbours), but he was almost universally described as eccentric and had a certain stylish flare that was inappropriate for a man in those days. By 1940, he was wearing women’s blush and bobby pins. He can also be seen in the Fantastic Castle video wearing a large ring earring.
Daynor had an insatiable appetite for publicity and attention. For instance, he claimed to be the most photographed man in the world and, in 1938, offered his brain to the Smithsonian for examination while he was still alive. His offer was declined, but his desire for attention eventually got him in trouble.
In 1956, one-month old Peter Weinberger was kidnapped and held for ransom. In 1957, Daynor informed the FBI that the kidnappers came to the Palace with the child and hid out in the Den. After an investigation, the FBI found the claim to be false apparently being nothing more then a publicity stunt to re-energize public interest in the Palace. Daynor was arrested and thrown in jail for a year.
Conflicting stories claim that the local residents, having had enough of Daynor, destroyed the Palace while he was in jail. Another story says the Palace fell apart due to neglect. This site (with lots of photos) lays out another version:
However, a complete reconstruction started in 1998 is almost complete. It is possible to get a tour.
There is one other incident of a peripheral nature. Wikipedia mentions, from an archived news report, that in 1962, three-year old Willian Ebeneezer Jones Jr. (Billy Jones) of Vineland, NJ, disappeared without a trace. The search for the boy lead to the Palace grounds being dug up but nothing was found. No body has ever been found. (Missing 411?) This case is one of the oldest missing children under-five-years-old cases in New Jersey. Fox news ran a story of the cold case in 2012 in an attempt to generate new leads.
I decided to have a look on Ancestry to see if I could find anything.
This is Daynor's WWII draft registration card from 1942. You can clearly see that this is the guy. Born Feb. 28, 1880 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He died in Oct. 20, 1964, which makes him 84 years old at death, not 104 as reported all over the place. He also couldn't have been 70 if he was even working as a stock trader in New York.
I ran into a problem though with the 1950 census. It says he was born about 1885 in California which gets supported by a US Social Security Applications and Claims Index report:
The WWII card is from 1942 whereas the other two listings are from 1950 and at least 1952. There are a few mentions that he lived in California but it might be more likely that he was born in Indiana, but I couldn't say for sure.
The 1950 census also mentions that he never received any schooling (how could he be a stock trader then?), specifically mentions in a hand-written note that he built the "House of Depression" and that he was married for 27 years, which would make that date 1923.
He was married to Florence Daynor and, through some digging, I think might be Florence Street of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, born May 11, 1896 and died Aug. 1978.
In this letter (only the first page is shown) written by Daynor to President Roosevelt, he says he bought four acres of land for four dollars upon which he built his "fantastic shrine of beauty". I don't know where the claim for 7 acres is coming from. He also has really good handwriting for someone who has no schooling.
I can't find anything about gold mining in Alaska but my resourses are limited.
The new Jersey Devil's fireplace in the basement.
Just a note as I hit 'post'. I just had a very strong deja vu moment. I had a dream about this not that many years ago.
Also known as 'The Strangest House in the World' and 'The Home of Junk', George Daynor gives a guided tour of the Palace of Depression in Universal Studio's The Fantastic Castle from 1944. (9:16)
The reported lifestory... has problems, but unfolds with a man born in c. 1860 named George Daynor who made a fortune in Alaska as a gold miner. He then made his home in San Francisco where an earthquake (1906?) destroyed all his belongings but still had his fortune, apparently, locked up in the stock market. At the age of 70, he was said to be working as a New York stock trader when he lost everything during the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Then, while working as a labourer in the Pacific Northwest, he was visited by an angel who guided him on a 10-day, 112 mile hike to New Jersey, where he purchased a plot of land for 'a buck an acre'. Spending 3-7 dollars, he bought 3-7 acres of overgrown swampland being used as a vehicle junkyard in Vineland, Cumberland County, New Jersey.
One night while sleeping in the cab of a rusted-out truck, the angel returned, provided the design and instructed him to create a marvellous castle to be built on the site, and from 1929 to 1932, Daynor did just that, living off the land eating frogs, rabbits, fish and squirrels. Built out of mud and the junk on his land, he made an 18 spire, pastel coloured 'castle' which housed a subterranean kitchen with a fireplace “large enough to barbecue an ox”; a large round door, on a central pivot, made out of turtle shells behind which was built the Jersey Devil’s Den (Daynor claimed that the Jersey Devil slept there at night. Footprints on the wall, he said, were made by the JD.); claimed (by others?) to have a private underground tunnel system; an extravagant outdoor fireplace; a wishing well with a 'real mermaid'; a ‘knockout room’, a room where, when sitting in a specific chair, Daynor would drop a rock on a string on one's head so they could forget their troubles suffered from the Depression; a ‘ticket booth’, which is the only original building left standing. He opened his creation to the public on Christmas Day of 1932, originally charging 10 cents (which later increased to 25 cents) for admission. In it's mid-to-late 1930's heyday, a reported 250,000-500,000 visitors passed through it's gates.
I have to wonder if the house itself existed beforehand. There is a 'circus' feel to this whole thing.
Claiming that he had created "the greatest piece of originality ever brought about in the history of Man," the Palace was built as a testament of willpower against the effects of The Great Depression. In his own words: "The only real depression is a depression of individual ingenuity.”
People either thought he was a genius (visitors) or a complete nutball (neighbours), but he was almost universally described as eccentric and had a certain stylish flare that was inappropriate for a man in those days. By 1940, he was wearing women’s blush and bobby pins. He can also be seen in the Fantastic Castle video wearing a large ring earring.
Daynor had an insatiable appetite for publicity and attention. For instance, he claimed to be the most photographed man in the world and, in 1938, offered his brain to the Smithsonian for examination while he was still alive. His offer was declined, but his desire for attention eventually got him in trouble.
In 1956, one-month old Peter Weinberger was kidnapped and held for ransom. In 1957, Daynor informed the FBI that the kidnappers came to the Palace with the child and hid out in the Den. After an investigation, the FBI found the claim to be false apparently being nothing more then a publicity stunt to re-energize public interest in the Palace. Daynor was arrested and thrown in jail for a year.
Conflicting stories claim that the local residents, having had enough of Daynor, destroyed the Palace while he was in jail. Another story says the Palace fell apart due to neglect. This site (with lots of photos) lays out another version:
However, a complete reconstruction started in 1998 is almost complete. It is possible to get a tour.
There is one other incident of a peripheral nature. Wikipedia mentions, from an archived news report, that in 1962, three-year old Willian Ebeneezer Jones Jr. (Billy Jones) of Vineland, NJ, disappeared without a trace. The search for the boy lead to the Palace grounds being dug up but nothing was found. No body has ever been found. (Missing 411?) This case is one of the oldest missing children under-five-years-old cases in New Jersey. Fox news ran a story of the cold case in 2012 in an attempt to generate new leads.
I decided to have a look on Ancestry to see if I could find anything.
This is Daynor's WWII draft registration card from 1942. You can clearly see that this is the guy. Born Feb. 28, 1880 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He died in Oct. 20, 1964, which makes him 84 years old at death, not 104 as reported all over the place. He also couldn't have been 70 if he was even working as a stock trader in New York.
I ran into a problem though with the 1950 census. It says he was born about 1885 in California which gets supported by a US Social Security Applications and Claims Index report:
The WWII card is from 1942 whereas the other two listings are from 1950 and at least 1952. There are a few mentions that he lived in California but it might be more likely that he was born in Indiana, but I couldn't say for sure.
The 1950 census also mentions that he never received any schooling (how could he be a stock trader then?), specifically mentions in a hand-written note that he built the "House of Depression" and that he was married for 27 years, which would make that date 1923.
He was married to Florence Daynor and, through some digging, I think might be Florence Street of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, born May 11, 1896 and died Aug. 1978.
In this letter (only the first page is shown) written by Daynor to President Roosevelt, he says he bought four acres of land for four dollars upon which he built his "fantastic shrine of beauty". I don't know where the claim for 7 acres is coming from. He also has really good handwriting for someone who has no schooling.
I can't find anything about gold mining in Alaska but my resourses are limited.
The new Jersey Devil's fireplace in the basement.
Just a note as I hit 'post'. I just had a very strong deja vu moment. I had a dream about this not that many years ago.
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