Baby, we were born to rot.
An iconic “Tillie” face and other remnants of a shuttered Jersey Shore amusement park made famous by Bruce Springsteen are rotting away in an empty lot — a claim the city denied Tuesday.
The 33 pieces — which include the painting of the round, grinning “Tillie” that still adorns hats, t-shirts and bumper stickers — are all that’s left of the legendary Palace Amusements, a massive indoor recreation spot in Asbury Park that Springsteen name-checked in his 1975 hit, “Born to Run.”
But just as the hemi-powered drones eventually vanished from the Shore town’s streets, so too did the sea foam-colored Palace Amusements, which closed in 1988 and was demolished in 2004 to make way for a billion-dollar redevelopment project.
The developer — Asbury Partners LLC — was supposed to preserve Tillie and his gargantuan grin, as well as other items from the 116-year-old building’s storied past, according to the New York Times.
Unfortunately, that never happened.
Instead, the pieces now sit behind fences near the dumpsters outside the city Convention Hall, about five blocks north of their once-jovial home, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Last week, they landed on Preservation New Jersey’s annual list of the “10 Most Endangered Places” in the Garden State, which tries to highlight “irreplaceable historic, architectural, cultural, and archeological resources in New Jersey that are in imminent danger of being lost,” according to a statement from the state-supported group.
A long-running, local grassroots campaign called “Save Tillie” issued a scathing statement to the Press that said the developers didn’t hold up their end of the deal.
“Twenty years ago, 33 irreplaceable artifacts were saved when developers demolished Palace Amusements, a century-old arcade listed on the National Register of Historic Places,” Save Tillie said in the Saturday statement.
“The plan for their future was imperfect. But the promise was explicit. In exchange for lucrative waterfront rights granted by the State of New Jersey, developers promised preservation and reuse. Twenty years on, the artifacts have never been brought back.
“The developers have never announced a preservation and reuse plan. Three times, the artifacts have been inspected by a prominent conservationist, who most recently found evidence of serious deterioration.”
But Asbury Park Mayor John Moor disputed this in a Tuesday email to The Post, saying the account was “totally wrong.”
“The concrete slab of Tillie cut out of the building has been preserved, and I believe repainted by a family member of the original painter,” Moor said.
“I believe it was supposed to go into a hotel project by the carousel building which has not been done,” he continued. “To the best of my knowledge, [boardwalk retail developer] Madison Marquette is living up to the agreement.”
The Post reached out to Save Tillie and Madison Marquette, who owns the items, but didn’t immediately receive a response.
Tillie is likely the most famous relic of the ocean-side amusement park, which also featured carousels, fun houses and other rides.
Painted on the Palace in the 1950s, Tillie became an instantly-recognizable symbol of Absury Park, which suffered from a long spell of urban decay before its sudden resurgence during the last two decades.
Springsteen fans also likely remember the face as the backdrop of a 1973 promotional shot that featured the Boss – alongside the E Street Band – posing before the iconic sign in a moody black-and-white image.
Workers removed Tillie before bulldozing the palace 20 years ago, the Press said. The grinning head was supposed to be sent to a hotel near the Asbury Park Casino and Carousel House.
But those plans were scrapped, the outlet said. And now the future is unclear.
“Where it’s going to go now, nobody knows,” Mayor John Moor said in 2021, according to the Press.
The Save Tillie campaign demanded action in its May 4 statement.
“It is imperative now that state officials undertake a long, hard, unbiased review of the deal, made in 2004, that has allowed the artifacts to be pushed to the brink of irretrievability.”
