Wheelbarrow

   

      What does one do in Atlantic City when the money is gone and there's time to waste? Go on a Monopoly Quest! I thought I'd find all the streets and take photos and note whether they are indeed worthy of their property values as in the game. Here is what I discovered:  Mediterranean Avenue and Baltic Avenue were not so nice neighborhoods, but I didn't note much of a difference in Connecticut Avenue , Vermont Avenue or Oriental Avenue .  Oriental only had a couple boarded up houses on it and hardly even a street. Both colors on the board and the corresponding streets seemed to have it right as far as value goes.  Virginia Avenue and States Avenue were slightly better I guess, but also run down a bit;  I could NOT find St. Charles Place!  We went to a gas station and got a city map from the attendant and it wasn't on the map.  A Google search today revealed that St. Charles may be in neighboring Oceanview.  If it runs into Atlantic City, I didn't find it. NEWS!  Thank  you to Ms. Rhodes, from the Tourism office who did some research for me....St. Charles Place was once located between New Jersey and Delaware Avenues.  This is now the site of the Showboat Casino.  A newspaper article sent to me by a visitor to the site explains that In its heyday, from the 1920s to the 1940s, St. Charles Place was an avenue of well-kept, exclusive homes.  It ran one block, from the boardwalk to Pacific Avenue between New Jersey and Delaware avenues.  Then St. Charles Place saw a decline in the mid- to late-1960s, along with the rest of the city. In 1968, the city's board of commissioners gave up its rights to the street as part of an urban renewal project. What used to be St. Charles Place is now a fenced-in, valet parking lot for Showboat casino. Moving on to New York Avenue,   was a larger more wider street with more businesses and some slightly better housing was mixed in. Tennessee Avenue  was much the same, and St. James Place (I thought I took pictures of these two, but I don't think they came out) was a shorter street, but had similar appearance.  Kentucky Avenue and Indiana Avenues were about the same too, though there were a few more grassy areas here and there.. I could not find Illinois Avenue again after I know we passed it. I couldn't snap a photo because we could not stop to do so.  Scott noted that sandwiched in between (parallel) Illinois Avenue and Kentucky was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Noting that the signs were blue and white as compared to green, Scott suggested that the name might have been changed even if temporarily.  I concurred, but was adamant I was correct in saying I SAW Illinois Avenue.  It turns out we were both correct.  My research suggests that most of the signs have changed and that a couple have not (maybe by accident); however try as we might, we could not relocate the the street to take a snapshot. NEWS! The travel and tourism office does indeed confirm that the street name has been changed.  I don't know though if this is only temporary or not.  Heading from the lower middle class areas to the upper middle class yellow areas, we did discover that yes, those are better located.  Atlantic Avenue and Ventnor Avenue are major thoroughfares and in the west end of the city, there are a couple blocks of nice homes, rather large homes with small lawns and they are kept proudly. Though the business areas didn't always look great, they were on major traffic areas and that would indeed bring the value up a bit.  Marvin Gardens did not exist...or so I thought.  It wasn't on my map and we didn't see it.  But a search on Google shows it's a smaller street located off of Atlantic Avenue and a couple blocks down from Delaware.  I found out that there was a prominent entertainer names Marvin Gardens. Marvin Gardens, was a witty singer/songwriter noted for his risqué lyrics and "life on the edge", who died of a massive coronary-infarction at age 42. He is best known for the song "Why Don't We Get Drunk," which was popularized by singer Jimmy Buffett in the '70s. A Gardens came from a prominent Atlantic City, N.J. family A person sent this via email: Marvin gardens was a pen name used by Jimmy Buffett; he would also use the name when checking into hotels. Marvin gardens was also listed in some of his albums as an musician or writer. However, I don't know how true that is, but it's something to look into. NEWS! Marvin Gardens is not in Atlantic City!  Marvin Gardens is located at the edge of Margate City just across Fredericksburg Avenue from Ventnor City, two suburbs of Atlantic City. There is a circle with four short drives at the corner of Ventnor and Fredericksburg.  There's a sign that says "welcome to" located on the circle (info submitted by 'another street finding enthusiast'). It's spelled incorrectly for the game too.  The name is meant to be the mergence of Marten and Ventnor: Marven not Marvin Gardens!  Why is it spelled Marvin then?  According to an online article, "Parker Brothers refused every overture from the commissioners of Margate City to alter it; the name of the famous movie that takes off on the Monopoly game is "The King of Marvin Gardens".  I did not see the west end of Pacific Avenue , Pennsylvania Avenue or the North end of North Carolina Avenues, which I suppose had nicer properties there too.  That seems to be where some are coagulated.  Yes, that's an "adult" peep show/bookstore shop sign in the photo.  There are a few places like this throughout the city.  As for Park Place it was difficult to find and is another street with a blue sign.  I am not sure why this is.  There's not much on Park Place. I noted another Park Place in Ocean View and maybe this is where the homes are.  The only thing noted on Park Place was Bally's hotel/casino. Bally's is on the Boardwalk as well, probably because it was the premiere hotel of it's time.  That is of course till Caesar's and Trump moved in. At the time, this would have made  that property THE most expensive in the city.  It's just a guess. Boardwalk is not a street really, but the actual Boardwalk which runs about 4.5 miles along the beach. Built with wooden planks by the railroads who were tired of sand getting in their railcars, hotels are strewn along the Boardwalk (much like the Las Vegas "strip"), as are many businesses and a shopping mall. Indeed, this is the epicenter of Atlantic City and hence is where you would build if you could as that's where all the people coagulate.

     Well, that's it for the streets!  But what about the rest of the Monopoly Board?  Well, there is the Jail and Just visiting (see Jail) squares.  Not wanting to be known as a harsh area for crime, the Jail is called the "Public Safety" building.  It's a newer looking building and is one of the nicest in the area.  Free Parking?  Well pretty much there is no free parking which makes you feel relief when you land on that square in the game... but I was able to find ONE sign that noted Free Parking for it's customers.  What could I put here for the Go square?  Well, along the major thoroughfares, in the daytime you will get a ton of green lights telling you to go (and you are lucky as we drove down about 50 lights it seemed without one red light!  At night you're not as lucky.  People coming and going make it much more difficult to go, making it very cool when you can hit more than two or three greens in a row.  So Go is important and you feel like you've won if you "go" through a lot of lights! The photo shows one red light which we calculated so I could take a photo.  Note all the other green lights in the background. Now there are the cards...Community Chest is the money making golden hotels.  Intermixed is the array of home styles, businesses from every culture and religions of all nations. Slummy areas with a nice little park mixed in; it's a community chest of money making hotels and glittering signs that look like jewels in the night sky.  Chance is easy! Every time you stick a coin or bill in a slot, you are taking a chance!

Luxury Tax and Income Tax ?  You'll pay big taxes if you win any large sums or money or one of the cars like the Ferrari we saw at one of the casinos (photo borrowed as Scott's photo didn't make it).  Big taxes on shows and hotels are around and parking and tolls are ways you are taxed!  Yep, you are taxed big and frequently.  You'll be paying the IRS if you happen to win big as well. Railroading in Atlantic City started in the mid-1850s with the Camden & Atlantic Railroads. That line became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad . Years later, the Philadelphia & Atlantic City Railroad were built. That became part of the Reading Railroad . The Pennsylvania and Reading tracks were side by side.  The Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad didn’t have direct access into Atlantic City but ran trains on the Reading's rails.  It basically ceased to exist in 1987 when it merged with  C&O and ended up called CSX. But there's a museum for it in Baltimore. The Pennsylvania and Reading lines in South Jersey merged in 1933, creating the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. Shore Fast Line (Shortline?) ran trolley service between Atlantic City, Ocean City and the mainland. That line went out of business in the late 1940s. In the early 1980s, all train service to Atlantic City and other shore points ended. Alas, there were no railroads that I saw, but the Shortline Railroad does or did exist and indeed did go through Atlantic City or is/was based there: http://www.njshortline.com/ (sorry, could not find a photo).  However, I am not sure if the there is a particular railroad with that name, or if Shortline refers to the New Jersey Railway's run or the Shore Fast Line. I learned that many railways have what they call short lines, which means it's not a coast to coast run. Lastly, the Electric company is booming I am sure as Atlantic City is built on the night life. Waterworks?  Well there's plenty of water in the ocean but the inhabitants need drinkable water and there's a lot of water needed. Additionally, a lot of people were making their own waterworks as they lost lots of cash at the casinos. Sorry, I didn't see the plants and don't have any photos.  If we go back, I'll search them out. Monopoly Tokens: Why the thimble? Wheelbarrow?  Dog?  Horse? Iron? Hat and Boat? The first game (produced in 1935) did not include tokens. Charles Darrow, recommended players use household items like buttons and pennies to move around the board. Parker Brothers decided to include tokens in the game, and in 1935-36 included four small wax wood pieces. In 1937, decided to produce die-cast metal tokens that were common objects found in households across America. This brought some of what you see today: the introduction of the flatiron, purse, lantern, car, thimble, shoe, top hat, and the rocking horse. The top hat was modeled after the chapeau of the game's Chairman of the Board, Mr. Monopoly, and the car; a1930s roadster. Two additional tokens, the battleship and the cannon, were also added in 1937. They were used at the time, in another Parker Brothers game called Conflict, which made it easy to add them. These 10 tokens--flatiron, purse, lantern, car, thimble, shoe, top hat, rocking horse, battleship and cannon--were used until 1942. World War II brought a metal shortage in the United States. As a result, during the years 1943-47, the games contained tokens made out of wood. Shortly after the end of World War II the metal tokens were brought back. The early 1950s brought the addition of three new tokens and the departure of three original tokens. The lantern, purse and rocking horse were replaced by the dog (Mr. Monopoly's dog, Scotty), the wheelbarrow and the horse and rider.

 

 

STORY: Atlantic City Blinked:

 

MONOPOLY® game properties were named for Atlantic City streets -- and not the other way around.  When the city tried changing some of the street names made famous by the game, people were upset.  In 1972, and Atlantic City launched a campaign to improve its image.  Part of the campaign was a proposal by the Commissioner of Public Works to change the names of Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues to Fairmont and Melrose.  News of the proposed change didn't sit well with the public. When the Commission met at a public hearing to vote on the issue, they were joined by hundreds of citizens who plead to save the street names.

 Perhaps the argument that moved the Commissioner most was came from a letter from then Parker Brothers president Edward P. Parker, who wrote, “Would you like to be the man to tell a MONOPOLY® fanatic from California that the streets he came to see no longer exist?  Would you be willing to take the responsibility for an invasion by hordes of protesting MONOPOLY® players, all demanding that you go directly to jail, without even the dignity of passing GO?”  The Commissioner had heard enough.  A vote was taken and the outcome was unanimous -- the names Baltic and Mediterranean would remain; a victory for the MONOPOLY® game lovers everywhere.

 

Wheelbarrow

Community Chest

Community Chest

Thimble

Thimble

Chance

 

Chance

Shoe

Shoe

Luxury Tax

Luxury Tax

 

Ship

Ship

Waterworks

Waterworks

Iron

Iron

Electric Company

Electric Company

Horse

Horse

Reading Railroad

Shortline Railroad

Hat

Hat

 

House

 

House

Dog

Dog

 

Hotel

Hotel

Car

Car

 

Pennsylvania

Railroad

B & O

Railroad

Cannon

Cannon

Chance Card

Chance

Card

Community

Chest Card

 

Community

Chest Card

 

                   

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