By ROBERT LINNEHAN
For years a green dinosaur has kept watch over Route 70, grinning its sly grin to travelers driving west down the busy roadway. The kitschy piece of roadside art had its last day as an attraction on the highway in late November as it was purchased by a man from Newark, Del., who finds interest in “strange and different” items.
The near 10-foot, four-ton green dinosaur was recently named “Danny” by 15 students at the Bancroft School in Haddonfield who created a Web site detailing pieces of roadside art in South Jersey at bancroftcyberfair.com/roadside.
The project was part of an international CyberFair competition run by GlobalSchoolNet and was awarded second place.
Eric Mayer paid $1,500 for the green dinosaur statue that once welcomed golfers to the Old-Pro miniature golf course at the site. After Old-Pro went out of business in the mid-90s the dinosaur was left behind and moved to its perch alongside Route 70 by Lee’s Stone Yard.
Comly Auctioneers, an auction house in Philadelphia, held the auction. The auction was part of a larger sale of an 11.5 acre piece of property that was formerly Lee’s Stone Yard. Mayer is an avid fan of auctions and was notified of the event by the auction house.
“If I could go to an auction every day of my life I would,” the self-described entrepreneur said. “I get flyers for auctions and have participated in auctions everywhere in America and all over the world.”
Mayer, who previously owned a steel company, said he didn’t know the dinosaur would be up for sale. He had come for a different item, but when he saw the piece he knew he had to buy it. He told his partner to bid on the statue, and he won the piece for $1,500, topping a $1,200 bid from another party.
The dinosaur sits in a storage shed in his Newark home after it was transported by flat bed truck from Cherry Hill. Most likely Mayer said he will build a special storage trailer for Danny which makes it seems like he’s in his natural environment. After it’s completed he said he’d like to drive it around to children’s hospitals in the area.
Mayer’s mother was an artist, he said, which instilled in him an appreciation for art. For a while he harbored an interest in architecture and worked as a draftsman for an architectural firm for several years.
Maybe it’s his love of architecture and all things odd that makes him purchase strange pieces of equipment and modify them on a whim.
Recently he said he purchased a marshland mower and a sea weed harvester for which he has no plans at the moment.
Mayer said he also recently lost out on a set of lawn furniture previously owned by Bernie Madoff that would have looked nice in his home on the Chesapeake.
But for now Danny will just have to wait. Mayer said the dinosaur suffered some tail damage during its trip down to Newark which will have to be repaired before he can live out the rest of his days entertaining children.
“My mother was a great artist, but I can’t paint or draw. I see art in other things, and I think this dinosaur is a great piece of art,” Mayer said.
Danny will certainly make a lot of children happy in the future, but for now his normal spot along Route 70 looks a little empty.
