WALL TWP. — A former township resident is urging people to express their love for the Circus Drive-In restaurant, which is in danger of closing for good, by “showering” it with paper hearts.
“Please spread the word!” Brittany Lavelle Tulla wrote on Facebook. “From now until this Valentine’s Day, get out there and shower the Circus with love! Force Wall to SEE how much the building means to us!”
Tulla is encouraging people, without “infringing on the property,” to cut out either massive or tiny paper hearts and post them on the restaurant’s signs, or nearby fences and trees. It’s called “heart bombing,” she says, and its intention is to demonstrate residents’ love for historic places.
Tulla, who now lives in Charleston, S.C., and runs the BVL Historic Preservation Research organization, said people around the country for Valentine’s Day are “heart bombing” historic places that are either in danger of closing, forgotten or abandoned.
The Circus, an iconic drive-in restaurant marked by its smiling-clown sign, opened in 1954. Richard Friedel owned it until seven years ago. The Circus is perhaps most well-known for its soft-shell crabs.
Wall Township residents were taken aback when a giant real estate sign popped up on the property late last year.
The real estate agent who listed the property, Gerald Norkus, said last month that a redevelopment deal is in progress for the 1.64-acre site.
An online petition urging the township to turn the property into a historic site has 2,346 signatures as of Sunday morning. Nominations for state or national historic status are made through the state Historical Preservation Office.
Out of the 612 people invited to the “Show the Love: Heart Bomb the Circus!” event on Facebook, only 23 have said they are “going.” Another 54 Facebook users say they are “interested” but haven’t committed.
NJ Advance Media reporter Peter Genovese contributed to this report.
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
