TILLIE SAVED FROM THE WRECKING BALL

Image courtesy Save Tillie

If you grew up anywhere near Asbury Park, New Jersey, you know this face. You've seen it a million times at the very end of Cookman Avenue, just where it meets Kingsley. The lime-green facade of Palace Amusements was an Asbury Park landmark for years. But the building lay in decay for years, much like the city around it. It had been fifteen years since the place had any life in it. Now, the wrecking ball has lay claim to the 1888-vintage carousel house, the oldest part of the Palace Amusements complex.

But in a meticulous rescue operation, a member of the Save Tillie coalition arranged at his own expense to cut through the concrete around one of the 14'x16' Tillie heads, install 1/4" thick girders around the structure, and has lifted it out of the building facade.

Tillie has been saved and will be restored as a part of new construction on the site. There is also talk of saving some of the other decorative wallwork, perhaps part of the Skooter Ride graphic on the Lake Avenue side of the building, or perhaps the roller coaster cars that are on the Kingsley Avenue side.

Palace Amusements was a frequent recreation destination as a child. I ate my very first slice of real pizza on the site as a wee child. I played the pinball machines for hours, back when arcades had many to choose from. We watched movies, either at the Lyric Theatre right next door, or across the lake in Ocean Grove (Dad got free passes for posting an ad placard in his gas station window). There were other great arcades in the city - Lee's, in the forecourt of Convention Hall, and the Casino Arcade right across the street from the Palace Amusements, but the symbolism of those Tillie heads and those great graphics we'd always pass by in our family sedan will always stay in my memory, long after the building has been demolished.