It's the end of 1929. The world has just been hit by a stock market crash that will lead to the Great Depression. Folks don't know what they'll do or what their futures will look like. Around this same time, an eccentric man and his wife, George and Florence Daner, arrive in Vineland, New Jersey.

It's a small town about an hour west of Atlantic City.

For $4, George buys a plot of land that was basically a junkyard.

There's car parts, debris, and a bunch of other things that people had thrown out.

But as the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. So George takes all of that

junk and builds a palace, a place filled with mystery, treasures, and stories that would be embedded in the walls for a lifetime.

I'm Zoe Rose, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we will explore all of what this Palace of Depression had to offer,

and all of its secrets and untold mysteries.

It's a story that involves in a censure cussler,

some big-time promotional stunts,

and even the FBI.

All that and more after this.

Music All that and more after this. The Palace of Depression has been a tourist attraction for decades, but by the time Steve Medio got involved with it, it had lost some of its glory.

It was a hole in the ground with a whole bunch of sand around it and some foundations, more

like footings, but I will call it the foundation in the ground.

And that was my introduction to Palace of Depression around 2003 or four.

Stephen is from Vineland and would visit the junkyard-turned man-made palace in high school.

In fact, he would volunteer there.

Now...

I am currently the president of the Palace of Depression Restoration Association.

The Palace of Depression had been alleged long before Stephen came upon it.

...