Lucy the Elephant, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA (1881)
Lucy the Elephant is the brainchild of engineer and inventor James V. Lafferty, Jr, hoping to attract visitors and property buyers to the south Atlantic City area. Lucy the Elephant was a curious attraction, standing 65 feet (19.7m) high and 60 feet (18.3m) long. Visitors could pay to climb the 130 stairs to the observatory on Lucy’s back. In 1902, tours ceased when a doctor from England leased Lucy as a summer home for his family. They subdivided Lucy’s interior into four bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a parlor, and converted a closet into a bathroom. Lucy has been used as a tourist attraction, rooming house, tavern, speakeasy, and apartments. Over time, Lucy has survived nearly burning, hurricane and storm damage, and threat of demolition in 1969. Lucy was donated to the City of Margate (formerly called South Atlantic City) and relocated to a site overlooking the beachfront.
