End Of An Era As Wall's Circus Drive-In Demolished: VIDEO

WALL, NJ — The iconic clown on Route 35 in Wall is smiling over an empty parking lot: the Circus Drive-In has been demolished.

The 1950s style drive-in restaurant that shut down for good in January 2017 after 62 years in business met its fate Wednesday as an excavator pulled down the building bit by bit.

Photos showed the clown sign still standing as of about noon on Wednesday as the rest of the building, which had been a landmark since Richard Friedel opened the business May 1, 1954, according to an Asbury Park Press newsclipping shared on the Facebook page Down The Shore.

"When we were younger we would stop on the way home from the shore," wrote Maureen Minnuci. "On my 55th birthday I told my husband that’s where I wanted to go. I have the crayons and I bought their shirt so I have something to remember. So so sad."

"Circus Drive-In was my introduction to Wall," Dave Fretz wrote on the Wall Township History and News Facebook page. "I would come to town specifically to eat at one of the few remnants of a bygone America. A crab sandwich with an orange whip was my go-to. To lose this icon in favor of more generic storefronts is heartbreaking." (RELATED: Wall's Circus Drive-In Up For Sale; See Videos, Old Photos)

The restaurant was sold in September, and Gerald Norkus of Wien Real Estate said at the time that it was not likely to resume operations as a restaurant.

The property was purchased by Circus Partners LLC for $1.75 million; a listing on the Loopnet real estate site says they are offering possibly two retail pad sites.

PETA officials announced they wanted to lease the restaurant to turn it into a vegan restaurant "and empathy museum focusing on animals who suffer when exploited for entertainment in circuses," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in February 2017, but that offer was rejected by the property's owners. (RELATED: PETA Wants To Turn Wall's Circus Drive-In Into Circus Animal Torture Museum)

Watch the News 12 New Jersey video of some of the demolition below:

Photos of the demolition on Route 35 in Wall by Kelly Weber (with sign) and Al Kaplan (without sign), published with permission