Lucy the Elephant is a six-story elephant-shaped wood frame and tin clad building, constructed in 1882 by James V. Lafferty in Margate City, New Jersey. Lucy was built with the purpose of promoting real estate sales and attracting tourists to the area. Today, Lucy remains the oldest surviving roadside tourist attraction in America.
History.
1882–1899.
Patenting and construction.
On December 5, 1882, the U.S. Patent Office granted James V. Lafferty Patent #268503, giving him the exclusive right to make, use or sell an "animal-shaped building" for a duration of seventeen years. Lafferty funded the design and construction of Lucy at South Atlantic City, now called Margate. He employed Philadelphia architects William Free and J. Mason Kirby for the design of this example of novelty architecture . Lucy was modeled after Jumbo, the famous elephant with "Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth," and constructed at a cost of $25,000 - $38,000.
Initially named "Elephant Bazaar", the structure stands at 65 feet (19.7 m) in height, 60 feet (18.3 m) in length, and 18 feet (5.5 m) in width and weighs about 90 tons. It is currently listed as the 12th tallest statue in the United States. Lucy was constructed with nearly one million pieces of wood, and required 200 kegs of nails, 4 tons of bolts and iron bars; 12,000 square feet of tin covers the exterior. There are 22 windows placed throughout the structure.
Early use and sale.
Originally, Lafferty brought potential real estate customers to view parcels of land from Lucy's howdah (carriage). The howdah offers unique views of Margate, Atlantic City's skyline, the beach, and the Atlantic Ocean and it serves as an observation deck for modern day visitors during tours.
The structure was sold to Anton Gertzen of Philadelphia in 1887 and remained in his family until 1970. Anton's daughter-in-law, Sophia Gertzen, reportedly dubbed the structure "Lucy the Elephant" in 1902. The shape of Lucy's head is characteristic of an Asian elephant, but only males have tusks. Initially, the elephant was referred to as a male, but eventually became commonly known as a female.
1900–1999.
Through the first half of the 20th century, Lucy served as a restaurant, business office, cottage, and tavern (the last closed by Prohibition). The building was depicted on many souvenir postcards, often referred to as ""The Elephant Hotel of Atlantic City"." (The actual hotel was in a nearby building, not inside the elephant.)
By the 1960s, Lucy had fallen into disrepair and was scheduled for demolition. In 1969, Edwin T. Carpenter and others formed the Margate Civic Association, which later became the "Save Lucy Committee" under Josephine Harron and Sylvia Carpenter. They were given a 30-day deadline to move the edifice or pay for its demolition. Lucy was spared through various fund-raising events, most notably a door-to-door canvassing campaign by volunteers.
On July 20, 1970, Lucy was moved to a city-owned lot, located about 100 yards away. The move took about seven hours and Lucy remained closed to the public for repairs until 1974. The restoration entailed supporting Lucy's original wooden frame with new steel and replacing the howdah. A plug of green glass was set into the howdah platform to refract light into Lucy's interior.
In 1971, Lucy was added to both the NJRHP (New Jersey Register of Historic Places} and the NRHP (National Register of Historic Places).
In 1976, Lucy was designated a National Historic Landmark during the United States Bicentennial celebration.
2000–present.
Lucy's birthday is commemorated each year on July 20, which includes a fundraising event and celebration of children's games and much fanfare.
In 2006, Lucy was struck by lightning, blackening the tips of the tusks. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall near Margate. Lucy remained unscathed, although the surge reached the building's toes and a small booth in the parking lot was blown over.
On July 23, 2016, Lucy's staff announced the building's fake candidacy for President of the United States at a celebration for her 135th birthday. In 2016, Lucy had 135,000 visitors at the site, 35,000 of whom took the guided tour.
On February 27, 2020, Lucy began allowing overnight stays. Lucy was listed on Airbnb for $138 per night on March 17, 18 and 19, 2020. It marked the first time Lucy had been inhabited by humans since it was rented as a home in the early 1900s.
In August 2021, the Save Lucy Committee announced a plan to repair and replace the metal exterior skin after receiving a $500,000 grant from the National Park Service. The grant was based on results of a 2021 inspection that revealed that more than half of Lucy's metal skin had degraded beyond repair. The project was partially funded by a grant from the Preserve New Jersey Preservation Fund administered by the New Jersey Historic Trust. Lucy temporarily closed on September 20, 2021, with a reopening date set for Memorial Day 2022. After delays, Lucy reopened on December 28, 2022. The overall cost of the restoration was $2.4 million, a substantial increase from initial projections.
On January 5, 2023, the City of Margate approved a plan to create a visitor's center on Lucy's existing site. The proposed 2-story building is designed to include a retail area, information and displays, meeting spaces, and restrooms. The new structure will be located on the site of the existing gift shop and would be elevated to meet current flood codes.
In 2023, Lucy booked a new record high of 42,267 tours, surpassing the previous record set in 2018. 
On August 12, 2024, a $500,000 federal grant to fund the restoration of Lucy's interior spaces was announced.
Other structures by Lafferty.
Elephantine Colossus (1885–1896).
The "Elephantine Colossus" or "Elephant Hotel", at Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn, New York, stood 122 feet (37.2 m) tall, approximately twice the size of Lucy, with seven floors of rooms, and legs 60 feet in circumference. With the exception of the number and relative size of the windows, and the design of the howdah, its exterior was a nearly exact scaled-up replication of Lucy. It held a cigar store in one leg and a diorama in another, hotel rooms within the elephant proper, and an observation area at the top with panoramic sea views. It burned down in 1896.
Light of Asia (1884–1900).
"Light of Asia" (dubbed "Old Jumbo" by locals) opened in Cape May in 1884, and was a slightly smaller version of Lucy. It was not successful and was torn down within 16 years. Lafferty was not directly involved with the construction but granted patent rights to Theodore M. Rieger, a real estate developer like himself, who sought to do for Cape May what Lafferty did with Lucy for Atlantic City It is unclear whether the Light of Asia matched the quality of the other buildings; the only known surviving photo of "Light of Asia" appears to have been taken while still under construction with no metal skin and an incomplete head, and with yet another different howdah design. A video presented to visitors inside Lucy in 2009 includes that same photo with the narration describing it as Cape May's "inferior rendition" of Lucy.
Prospectus for 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
A prospectus was published in 1892 by Kirby (while Lafferty still owned the patent) for a fourth building, even larger than Elephantine Colossus and with a moving trunk, eyeballs, ears and tail as well as a Calliope in the throat, to be built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. No actual construction was ever attempted.
References.
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