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Volume 3, Issue 4
Winter, 2000

The Womans Club Of Vineland

Making A Difference Past, Present, & Future!

Carol V. Paterson,
President of Womans
Club, 1997-1999, as
Mary J. Dunlap during
the Millennium Celebration
"Woman's Club Helped
City Prosper" read the
headline on the Opinion
Page of The Daily Journal, Saturday, January
30, l999. The article
continued: "We join the
community, and local,
state, and federal leaders
in praise of the Woman's Club of Vineland.
In it's 100-year history
the organization has
helped the community

grow from a hamlet to a

city. Indeed, much deserved praise and recognition was given the
club as it celebrated it's
Centennial in 1999, including letters and proclamations from local
dignitaries,
Governor
Whitman, and the president of the United
States. The club celebrated by having a formal ball, a Blossom Tea
with members dressed
in Victorian attire, a
fashion show featuring
vintage and present day
fashions, and a Victorian Christmas Celebration.
To understand
how this all came to
pass, let's take a look
into the past, back to the
era of gas lights and
horses and buggies. On
October 28, 1899, Mrs.
Eugenia Cooper Webster and twenty-four

other concerned women

with a vision for the future, established The
Woman's Club of Vineland.
A quote from
their adopted constitution reads: "Object: The
object and aim of the
club shall be mutual improvement intellectually
and organized influence
to promote the welfare
of the town." In November of the same year
the club joined the New
Jersey State Federation
of Women's Clubs. The
first president, 1899 1901, was Dr. Mary J.
Dunlap, the first female
superintendent of the
Vineland
Training
School, and the third
president, 1902 - 1904
was Matilda T. Landis,
sister of Charles K. Landis, the founder of Vineland.
Realizing the
need for a public library, the club collected

Dont miss the exciting story of George

Daynor and the Depression Palace, and
the equally exciting
plans of Kevin
Kirchner to rebuild
the structure (on
page 3)

The 2001 Calendar published by

the Friends of
Historic
Vineland
is
now
available.
This
issue highlights
the
Vineland
Public
Library.
Free copies can
be obtained at
the
Vineland
Public Library or
the office of Dr.
Frank De Maio

Womans Club (Continued)

and donated 1275 books to establish today's Vineland Public
Library. In 1905 they began the
first story hours at the library.
As the years passed and
membership increased, these
concerned women continued
their dedication to their town.
Outstanding
accomplishments
for which the club has been responsible include: establishing
the Physician's Hospital (one of
5 homes turned hospital, used
before the construction of Newcomb), the first visiting nurse
program, initiating an annual
Hospital Ball and the sale of
Christmas Seals, and furnishing
a room at the hospital. They
originated the Research Fund at
the Training School, established
The Pathway of Remembrance at
Siloam Cemetery, the first PTA,
originated and laid out a golf
course in the park, established
the first public restroom and
started Vineland's first Free Milk
Program. This impressive list
goes on and on through the years
to today and will continue into
the future.
The first Woman's Clubhouse was a unique gray shingled house located on the corner
of 7th and Wood Streets. In
1965, the City of Vineland decided it wanted the property to
build a municipal hall. The City
Council gave the 165 members

one year to move or rebuild. The

city purchased the property in
1968, making it necessary for the
members to place the contents of
the clubhouse in storage, buy
property at a new location, and
plan and build a new clubhouse.
Members united to complete this
enormous task and in 1972 the
present clubhouse located at
Main Road and Washington
Ave. became the official headquarters of The Woman's Club of
Vineland, General Federation of
Woman's Clubs.
As education continues to
be of great importance to The
Woman's Club of Vineland several scholarships are given annually to high school graduates entering college. When the Vineland Public Library established
its Library Foundation in 1997,
The Womans Club was proud to
be among the first of the
Honored 100 with a donation
of $1,000 as its Community Improvement Program, and continues to support the library through
donations and projects.
As promoting and maintaining the needs of the community have always been the primary concern of the club, donations
and hands-on help are contributed annually to worthy programs
such as The American Red
Cross, Tiny Tim, Habitat for Humanity, Child Reach, Wheaton
Museum of American Glass,
S.P.C.A., Adopt-A-Road, Wom-

ans Shelter, the Vineland Food

Bank, Adopt-a-Teacher, Hospice
Care, The Valerie Fund
(Children with Cancer), and
many more. Monies to fund
these service projects are raised
through card parties, antique &
craft shows, fund raising events,
scholarship drives, dues and donations from members.
The headline read:
Womans Club helped City
prosper. Now it is recognized
how the dedication shown
through the years by members
who truly wanted to make a difference successfully accomplished this worthy ambition,
and continue to do so today, always with an eye on the future
while upholding the traditions
generated over a century ago by
the concerned founders.
The Womans Club of
Vineland is open to women of all
ages and anyone wishing to join
should contact any member or
write to the club at P.O. Box 61,
Vineland, NJ 08362-0061. The
club works hand in hand with
The Junior Womans Club which
it started in 1934 for members
between the ages of 18 and 40.
The Juniorettes was organized by
the Junior Club in 1992 for 12 to
18 year old girls. Women of all
ages may write to the above address for further information.

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Page 2

Kevin Kirchner and the Palace of Depression

Mr. Kevin Kirchner as George

Daynor during Founders Day
2000
In 1898 George Daynor hit pay
dirt. This was during the Alaska
Klondike gold rush and it should
have made him a rich man. But,
little did he know that this was
only the beginning. Finding
gold, one would think, would be
the hardest part in ones life to
accomplish. But, even though
George Daynor had found gold,
he now had to stake and register
his claim. You might say that all
he has to do was take a sample
of gold to a claims office, register where he found it, go back,
dig it out and cash it in. Sounds
simple, right? Well, heres the
problem. The claims office is
some 100 miles away--its 1898
and this is about a five or six-day
trip; claim jumpers are waiting

all over the place to rob you of

your hard work. Sure enough,
George was jumped and
robbedhis first setback. But,
eventually things did work out
and he was able to get his claim,
retrieve his gold and move to
San Francisco.
George, who is financially
comfortable at this time, sets up
residence in San Francisco and
invests the rest of his money in
the stock market.
Adversity
number two strikes George Daynor. The San Francisco earthquake takes much of Georges
worldly possessions.
Despite
losing a lot in the earthquake,
its not the end of the world. He
still has his investments. Life
for George goes on and enables
adversity number three to hit
him square on the head.
We are talking about the
Stock Market crash and the great
Depression! This time everything goes and it prompts
George to set out across the U.S.
looking for a sign-- something to
answer his questions as to why
life has been so up and down for
this self-made man. While on
this quest and walking on the
side of the road in a newly
formed city in southern New Jersey, George is almost run down.
We might think that this is another stroke of bad luck for
George. Wrong! Its actually
the beginning of Depression
Palace. The man who almost ran
George down stopped and they
began talking. By the end of the
conversation, George had purchased eight acres of land for $4.
Despite the land being unseen,

A G had
E 3
George closed the deal. PHe
spent his last $4, all the money
he had, and he now went to see
his new investment. For any
other person the site would have
been the straw that broke the
camels back!
When George arrived at the
site he found an auto junkyard
located in a swamp. Adversity
number four you might say.
Wrong again! This is 1929.
George started digging trenches
to drain the swamp. While living in one of the junk cars, a vision came to George. He envisioned a palace fit for a king
made out of junk. Following
this vision, he began to build Depression Palace. Using whatever
he could find--old bottles, cans,
car parts, broken block and
stone, clay from the earthhe
went to work to construct his
castle.
The Fantastic Castle was
completed and opened its doors
to the public in 1932 on Christmas Day. The Palace was a
huge success and people from all
over the country visited the site
up until the late 1950s. A man
who had overcome so many adversities had succeeded again.
Unbeknown to George who
was actually a self-taught artist,
he was a pioneer in an art form
he did not even know he was
creating--Crockolage
or
Brickolage.
His Palace became so wellknown that Universal Studios
from California shot a ten minute short film that played all
across the country before main
attractions in 1944. In 1956, the

Page 3

Palace Depression (continued)

TV show You Asked For It

featured Depression Palace.
With all of the publicity, it was
no wonder that people from all
over flocked to Vineland to see
Georges home.
The Esso roadmap indicated
the City of Vineland on their
map by placing a picture of Depression Palace on the map
where Vineland is located.
As a result of poor health,
George Daynor, at the age of
102, was hospitalized. By this
time, the Palace had become
rundown and unattended. Vandalism and arson had made the
Palace an eyesore. The underground passageways were a
threat to children who would
play there.
In 1964 George died at age
104. Two years later, the City
of Vineland decided that the Palace posed such a threat that it
was knocked down and covered
over with sand. However, the
underground portion was not
destroyed and remained buried.
The only visual remains today is
a ticket booth that gives you the
only clear picture of Georges
work.
My name is Kevin J. KirchWhat do you mean
I m too young for an
archeological dig?
You said everybody
was welcome to come
and help!

ner. I am a licensed building

inspector in the State of New
Jersey. I have formed a nonprofit corporation strictly for the
purpose of reconstructing Depression Palace. I have a group
of about 400 people who plan to
rebuild the Palace as close to the
original as can be done. Working with us is an Archaeologist,
an Architect, and an Engineer
who will use existing pictures
and recovered artifacts to create
architectural plans to rebuild Depression Palace.
On the site, because of current building codes, we will also
build a 30 x 60 Cultural History
and Art Building. The building
will provide handicap access
bathrooms, a history room for
artifacts, and a video room
(Prime Time TV, Channel 6,
Philadelphia has already put a
segment on TV and plans to film
the rebuilding process from start
to finish.). The tapes from 1944
and 1956 will be shown to the
public. An art room will exhibit
some of Georges work as well
as the works of local artists.
I also have three nationally
known artists who will help with
the work: Jeff Terante (a curator
at Ellen Powell Museum in Phil-

adelphia), Isaiah Zagar of Philadelphia (known for painted

bridge and work displayed over
South St.), and Jackie Lagokos
(known for her bottled wall in
Lindenwold, NJ). Both artists
have agreed to work with art students from Rowan College,
Stockton College, and Cumberland College, as well as with
local high schools (Vineland,
Bridgeton and Millville). They
will do in Brickolage Art form a
tribute to George Daynors life
on the outer walls of the 30 x 60
building and front wall of the
site.
I welcome anyone to help us
in any way possible, and if interested, give us a call and we will
contact you when the need arises.
Mr. Kevin Kirchner, The
Palace of Depression Restoration Ass. Inc., 727 Landis Ave.,
Vineland, NJ 08360. Phone:
(609) 691 1600
Editors Note: Can you believe
all of the above?? What a story!!
If anyone can get the job done, it
will be Mr. Kirchner.

We wish to thank the many Friends that have made donations

to our group and to all of those that have purchased ads in the
calendar for year 2001. We hope to make good use of the
money. Due top lack of space in this edition, we could not
publish the names, but we will do so the
next edition.
We wish every body the best of seasons
greetings.

(Kevin Kirchner has his

first public relations problem)

From all of us at the Friends!!!

Page 4