ASBURY PARK, N.J.

Cool glass lighting in a shopping area. We walked part of Asbury Park but also drove over to the beach area and walked the boardwalk etc.

At Restaurant Porta...it means "doors" in Italian...get it? This building used to be a place called Student Prince and Bruce Springsteen met Clarence Clemons there. It's a block back from the ocean.

Porta is famous for it's Neopolitan pizza and here's their oven firewood all ready to go. We got pizza but also ate lots of other yummy stuff: pasta, meatballs, tuna tartar & crab balls.

Porta makes their mozzarella cheese in house daily.

Where the magic happens.

Yes, I ate some octopus...and yes, I liked it. Kay and Jamey are excellent, adventurous eating companions. This Del Rio girl doesn't know anything.

This is the outdoor stage for the Stone Pony...ya know...where Bruce used to play alot. The stage is only up and rockin' in the summer. There was a show going on when I took this picture.

I found this story fascinating...and sad. That building on the stone marker is the same one in my next few pictures.

This building is right on the beach. It's huge. It has stores and 2 show/music venues.

A ship on top.

The boardwalk goes right into it and out the other side.

Meet Tillie. This is a Tillie painting on the side of The Wonder Bar. I'm attaching Wikipedia info. Tillie is freaky. Tillie is on EVERYTHING: T-shirts, stickers, tote bags etc.etc.etc. You can look at other links on at the bottom if you are interested.

For other uses, see Tillie (disambiguation).

Tillie as painted on the Palace Amusements building

Tillie is the nickname of two murals of a grinning figure that were painted on the side of the Palace Amusements building in Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States. Tillie is an amusement park "fun face", painted over the winter of 1955-1956. The name Tillie is likely a nod to George C. Tilyou, the owner of Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, New York, which features similar grinning face signage.^{[citation needed]}

• 
  
• 
  

In popular culture

Tillie has inspired multiple merchandise based on it.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, the mural has been featured in movies, Weird NJ magazine,^[1] TV shows such as The Sopranos, and a famous photo of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band early in their career.^[2][3]

Tribute to Tillie on the Wonder Bar, Asbury Park, New Jersey

Demolition

Like many other boardwalk areas in the United States, such as Coney Island, New York, Asbury Park had fallen on hard times. Palace Amusements, built in 1888, closed in 1988, and the historic building fell into disrepair. When the Palace site was targeted for demolition and redevelopment, Asbury Park residents, Tillie fans, and Springsteen fans formed a grassroots effort to save Tillie, lobbying the state to block the demolition or at least remove the mural beforehand. The group was partially successful, as the left-side Tillie, as well as the "bumper girl" murals, were successfully removed. The right-side Tillie was demolished. From June 8 to June 11, 2004, Save Tillie volunteers removed the mural from the Palace building. The building was demolished in July 2004.^[4][5] Tillie and other murals from the Palace building were to be incorporated into a new building on the site. The two wall sections with the Tillie mural are presently stored in Asbury Park on city property.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Asbury Park, New Jersey
• Amusement park
• Bruce Springsteen

References

1. 
   

"index.weirdnj.com".

5. "Weird NJ remembers forgotten faces of Palace Amusements, Asbury Park". Asbury Park Press. 2014-03-09.

External links

• Palace Amusements and other Abandoned Asbury Park Landmarks as Featured in Weird NJ
• Photos of Tillie's home- Palace Amusements
• Backstreets.com: Save Tillie - on the Springsteen news site Backstreets

MaryAnn Spoto (2009-05-16). "Asbury Park grinning icon needs better storage place, preservationists say". NJ.com.

"Beyond the Palace". Save Tillie. Retrieved 2014-03-15.

Karen DeMasters (2004-04-02). "Asbury Park Building Will Vanish, but Its Grin Will Remain". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-03-15.

IT'S "YAPPY HOUR" AT THE WONDER BAR! This was "small dog day". Jamey takes Rusty James there on "big dog day". They have little swimming pools for the dogs to play in....

FUN!

Rusty James was tuckered out at the end of each day. He gets hot and tired easily. He LOVES the beach! Sometimes we left him in the cottage to nap. OCEAN GROVE/ASBURY PARK=DINE, SHOP, STAY, LOVE!!!!!