Lucy the Elephant

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This article is about Lucy, a six-story architectural creation. For Lucy, the Asian elephant, see Lucy (elephant).
Lucy, the Margate Elephant
Lucy2011.JPG
Lucy the Elephant, National Historic Landmark, November 20, 2011
Lucy the Elephant is located in Atlantic County, New Jersey
Lucy the Elephant
Location within Atlantic County. Inset: Location of Atlantic County within New Jersey.
Lucy the Elephant is located in New Jersey
Lucy the Elephant
Lucy the Elephant (New Jersey)
Lucy the Elephant is located in the US
Lucy the Elephant
Lucy the Elephant (the US)
Location Margate City, New Jersey
Coordinates 39°19′14.33″N 74°30′42.85″W / 39.3206472°N 74.5119028°W / 39.3206472; -74.5119028Coordinates: 39°19′14.33″N 74°30′42.85″W / 39.3206472°N 74.5119028°W / 39.3206472; -74.5119028
Built 1881
Architect James V. Lafferty
NRHP reference # 71000493
NJRHP # 383[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP August 12, 1971[2]
Designated NHL May 11, 1976[3]
Designated NJRHP April 7, 1971

Elephant hotel redirects here. For the National Historic Landmark located in Somers, New York, see Elephant Hotel.

Lucy the Elephant is a six-story elephant-shaped example of novelty architecture, constructed of wood and tin sheeting in 1881 by James V. Lafferty in Margate City, New Jersey, two miles (3.2 km) south of Atlantic City. Originally named Elephant Bazaar, Lucy was built to promote real estate sales and attract tourists. Today, Lucy is the oldest surviving roadside tourist attraction in America,[4] and is listed on the National Park Registry of Historical Landmarks.[5]

History: 1881–1899[edit]

U.S. Patent 268,503

Patenting and construction[edit]

In 1881, the U.S. Patent Office granted James V. Lafferty a patent giving him the exclusive right to make, use or sell animal-shaped buildings for a duration of seventeen years. Lafferty funded the design and construction of his first elephant-shaped building at South Atlantic City, now called Margate. He employed Philadelphia architects William Free and J. Mason Kirby for the design.[6] Lucy was modeled after "Jumbo the Elephant", the famous elephant with Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, and constructed at a cost of $25,000 - $38,000.[7][8][9]

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 listed as the 11th 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.[7]

Early use and sale[edit]

Originally, Lafferty brought potential real estate customers to view parcels of land from Lucy's howdah (carriage).[10] 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.[7] The shape of Lucy's head is characteristic of an Asian Elephant, and male elephants have tusks. Initially, the elephant was referred to as a male, but eventually became commonly known as a female.[citation needed]\

History: 1900–1999[edit]

Photo of Lucy in disrepair c1930s

Through the first half of the 20th century, Lucy served as a restaurant, business office, cottage (1902 for a British doctor and his family), and tavern in 1903-04 (the latter ended after an spilled lantern nearly burned the structure down). 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.)

  • Save Lucy Committee - By the 1960s, Lucy had fallen into disrepair and was scheduled for demolition. In 1969, Edwin T. Carpenter and a group of Margate citizens 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. Various fund-raising events, the most successful a door-to-door canvass by volunteers, raised money.
  • On July 20, 1970 Lucy was moved about 100 yards to the west-southwest to a city owned lot and completely refurbished. The move took about seven hours. The building's original wooden frame was buttressed new steel, and the deteriorated howdah was replaced with a replica. A plug of green glass set into the howdah platform refracts light into Lucy's interior.[11][8]
  • In 1972, Lucy appeared in the movie The King of Marvin Gardens, starring Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern.
  • In 1976, Lucy was designated a National Historic Landmark, during the United States Bicentennial celebration.[8]
  • In 1980, Lucy can be briefly seen in the opening of the five time Oscar nominated film, Atlantic City, starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon.
  • In 1983, Lucy is shown on a postcard with a picture in the opening credits of the film, National Lampoon's Vacation.[12]
  • In 1986, Lucy appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Mr. (Fred) Rogers was shown taking a short tour of Lucy.[13]

History: 2000–present[edit]

HABS image
  • Every July 20, the building's birthday is celebrated with children's games and much fanfare.
  • The Jardin the Paris Elephant, a real-life large elephant structure inspired by "Elephantine Colossus", (a larger version of Lucy, built by Lafferty in 1885 on Coney Island), is featured as the location of the boudoir of Nicole Kidman's character in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge'[14]
  • In 2006, The television series, Weird U.S., shown on The History Channel featured Lucy in an episode.[15]
  • In 2006, Lucy was struck by lightning, blackening the tips of the tusks.
  • In November, 2006, the building was prominently featured in an advertisement for Proformance Insurance.
  • Lucy was featured in an episode of the 2009 television show Life After People, which illustrated how the environment would take over the structure without people to maintain Lucy.
  • In a 2011 episode of Boardwalk Empire, which takes place mostly in Atlantic City, Agent Van Alden mentions "a hotel shaped like an elephant" among the local attractions.
  • 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.[11]
  • Lucy was featured in the 2012 book, Stay Close by Harlan Coben (ISBN 1101561173).
  • On June 14, 2014, The Travel Channel's Monumental Mysteries featured Lucy the Elephant in an episode.[16]
  • April 18, 2015: Lucy was featured in the Bill Griffith daily comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead".
  • In 2015, Lucy was featured in the opening credits of the film Vacation, similar to the original 1983 film, National Lampoon's Vacation.[12]
  • On July 23, 2016, Lucy announced her candidacy for President of the United States at a celebration for her 135th birthday.[17]
  • In 2016, Lucy had 135,000 visitors at the site, 35,000 of whom took the guided tour.[8]

Other structures by Lafferty[edit]

Elephantine Colossus (1885–1896)[edit]

Main article: Elephantine Colossus

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.[18]

Light of Asia (1884–1900)[edit]

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[19] 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.[20] 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.[21]

Prospectus for 1893 World's Columbian Exposition[edit]

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.[22][9] No actual construction was ever attempted.

External links[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Atlantic County" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. June 2, 2011. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 17, 2006. Retrieved July 12, 2011. 
  2. ^ National Park Service (2006-03-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 
  3. ^ "Lucy, The Margate Elephant". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2008-06-23. 
  4. ^ Jacobs, Emma (July 11, 2015). "Elephants Never Forget — And At 6 Stories Tall, This One's Unforgettable". www.wnyc.org. NPR. Retrieved October 8, 2016. 
  5. ^ "The World's Greatest Elephant". lucytheelephant.org. Lucy The Elephant. Retrieved 14 July 2018. 
  6. ^ Morris), Suzanne Spellen (aka Montrose) (2013-08-13). "Walkabout: J. Mason Kirby – Brooklyn's Elephant Architect | Brownstoner". Brownstoner. Retrieved 2018-05-29. 
  7. ^ a b c McMahon, William (1988). The Story of Lucy the Elephant. Margate, N.J.: Save Lucy Committee, Inc. p. 40. 
  8. ^ a b c d "Jersey Icons: Lucy the Elephant". North Jersey. Retrieved 2018-02-01. 
  9. ^ a b Walkabout: J. Mason Kirby – Brooklyn’s Elephant Architect
  10. ^ http://www.njsouth.com/index-lucy.htm
  11. ^ a b Fears, Danika. "Historic landmark 'Lucy the Elephant' survived Sandy". The Today Show. NBC News. Retrieved 6 November 2012. 
  12. ^ a b "Lucy the Elephant". CityAtlantic.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26. 
  13. ^ "TheKidsMagic - Mr. Rogers Episode #1570". www.thekidsmagic.com. 1986. Retrieved October 7, 2016. 
  14. ^ MessyNessy (September 18, 2015). "The Forgotten Elephant of the Moulin Rouge Garden Party". www.messynessychic.com. Retrieved February 17, 2017. 
  15. ^ "Lucy The Elephant, Margate". www.weirdnj.com. Weird NJ. 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2016. 
  16. ^ "Lucy the Elephant". Monumental Mysteries. The Travel Channel, LLC. Retrieved 15 December 2014. 
  17. ^ "LUCY'S 135th BIRTHDAY PARTY". 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2017. 
  18. ^ Sideshow World: Elephantine Colossus
  19. ^ Tischler, Susan (2016). "What Happened to South Cape May?". www.capemay.com. Retrieved September 28, 2016. 
  20. ^ Press of Atlantic City: Forgotten History
  21. ^ Lucy the Elephant - Margate NJ on Vimeo
  22. ^ Sideshow World: Chicago prospectus
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