Completed on Christmas Day in 1932, the Palace of Depression (or The Strangest House in the World or The House of Junk) was a building made of junk as a testament of willpower against the effects of The Great Depression. Built by George Daynor, a former Alaska gold miner who lost his fortune in the Wall Street crash of 1929.
George came to NJ with only $7 to his name, after seeing an advertisement that land was $1 an acre. He bought 4 acres, sight unseen, a junkyard in the middle of a swamp. He ended up falling asleep in his truck and had a dream that angels came and said to use the materials here to build a fantastic castle.
No item he found was off limits, George used any trash or leftover building material he could scavenge to build the castle. After its opening, it became a local tourist attraction where he charged 25 cents a tour.
After a misguided promotional stunt went wrong, involving the claims of a kidnapping, George was put in jail but released shortly after due to health reasons. Unfortunately, while he was gone, the palace was vandalized and he went to a local nursing home, where he died in 1964.
The empty property was ransacked, pillaged and then completely destroyed in a fire. In 1968, the city of Vineland bulldozed the property. The only remnant of the original structure was the ticket booth.
In 1998, Kevin Kirchner started the restoration effort, but things took off in 2001 when a city restoration project started with locals volunteering. To continue on with the same spirit as George, all materials for the rebuild came from debris from house demos and part of the Levoy Theater that had collapsed.
Using old photographs, newsreel documentaries, aerial FBI photographs and personal memories, the restoration continued over the years to replicate as much of the Palace as possible.
Due to covid and deaths, the Palace has never been completed, but the work continues on till this day. For the safety of everyone and to keep the Palace safe, the area is marked NO TRESPASSING.
The Palace of Depression is currently not opened to the public unless you call and request a tour.
Logging requirment
In your log, post a photo of yourself, sign with geo-name or a personal object with the castle in the background.
Logs with out photos will be deleted.
Any logs showing or mentioning trespassing will be deleted.
Do not leave the street or enter the propery, unless the parking lot is open OR you request a tour.
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Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.