Lucy the Elephant is a six-story, elephant-shaped wooden building in Margate City, New Jersey, standing 65 feet tall and covered in sheet tin. Built in 1881 as a real estate promotion, she’s now a National Historic Landmark and the oldest surviving roadside attraction in America, and you can actually walk up a spiral staircase inside her legs and stand on an observation deck on her back.
You don’t stumble onto Lucy by accident, exactly, but you also can’t miss her. She’s parked a block off the beach in Margate, trunk lowered like she’s grazing, tusks out, tin-clad hide gleaming gray against the sky. The first time you see her from the street, your brain does a little double-take. That’s a building? People go inside that?
What Exactly Is Lucy the Elephant?
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. Depending on which source you check, you’ll see her construction dated to either 1881 or 1882 — most sites, including her own official page, mark 1881 as the year she was built, with the patent for the design following that December.
Standing six stories high and weighing ninety tons, Lucy the Margate Elephant is a rare example of a nineteenth century architectural “folly.” She’s built from close to a million individual pieces of wood, wrapped in sheet tin to withstand the salt air, which — if you know anything about the Jersey Shore — is no small feat of engineering for a structure well over a century old.
Why Would Anyone Build a Building Shaped Like an Elephant?
Lucy was built with the purpose of promoting real estate sales and attracting tourists to the area. Her creator, James V. Lafferty, an engineer, inventor and real estate speculator, funded her design and construction at South Atlantic City, now Margate, and hired Philadelphia architects William Free and J. Mason Kirby to design her. The idea was simple, if a little bonkers: nothing gets people talking — and buying beachfront lots — like a giant elephant you can walk into.
It worked well enough that Lafferty didn’t stop at one. He designed and built three elephants total in 1881, and Lucy is the only one that survives today. He was also protective of the idea — on December 5, 1882, the U.S. Patent Office granted Lafferty a patent on the “animal-shaped building,” giving him exclusive rights to make, use, or sell the concept for seventeen years. As far as we know, he’s the only person in American history to hold a patent on giant novelty animal architecture.
Visitors originally arrived by the newly constructed railroad, which stopped right beside Lucy — proof that even in the 1880s, a good gimmick could put a town on the map.
Lucy’s Many Lives: Bazaar, Tavern, Near-Demolition
Lucy hasn’t just stood still for 140-plus years looking picturesque. She was originally built as the Elephant Bazaar by James Lafferty, and it was Sophia Gertzen who later renamed her Lucy the Elephant and turned her into a tavern. Over the decades she’s also served as a hotel and a restaurant, and during Prohibition, when the bar was closed, bootleggers reportedly used her to signal boats smuggling alcohol ashore. If a building could have a colorful past, Lucy’s is practically neon.
That colorful past nearly ended in tragedy. Lucy continued as a spectacle and tourist attraction well into the twentieth century, but the harsh marine environment and deferred maintenance took a toll, and by 1969 the structure was nearly derelict, with the land beneath her sold to developers. The elephant was slated for demolition. As one local telling of the story puts it: “The beach and the ocean could stay – but the elephant had to go!”
That’s when ordinary residents stepped in. The Save Lucy Committee formed, and within weeks this small group of concerned citizens had raised enough money to move the entire decaying structure two blocks away to a new site owned by the city. Over the following thirty years, and with more than 1.5 million dollars raised, Lucy was fully restored to her original splendor, inside and out. In 1976, she was designated a National Historic Landmark as the oldest surviving example of zoomorphic architecture and the oldest roadside attraction in America.
She’s kept proving her toughness since. Built predominantly of steel today at her core, the structure has weathered many storms and famously survived Hurricane Sandy, which came ashore at this very spot in 2012. And her most recent facelift wrapped up not long ago — a total renovation of her exterior was completed in December 2022.
What’s It Like to Actually Go Inside?
Here’s the part that makes Lucy worth the detour: you don’t just look at her, you climb through her. Tours enter via a spiral staircase in one of her hind legs. The guided tour runs about 20 to 25 minutes, and visitors watch a short video about Lucy’s history, get to look out through her “eyes,” and climb the stairs to the howdah — the riding carriage on her back — for a 360-degree view of the area around Margate City.
Along the way, you’ll also see artifacts and pieces of the fabric used in Lucy’s original construction, plus Lucy-themed original artwork available for purchase from local artist Jon Baker. Once you’re up top, you get 360-degree views across Margate and the Jersey Shore, and on a clear day, you can even spot Atlantic City in the distance. The howdah isn’t some rickety afterthought either — it’s child-friendly, and the stairs can be climbed by people of varying heights and fitness levels.
One quirky detail worth watching for: guides mention that Lucy is generally believed to be male anatomically, since she resembles an Asian elephant, and only male Asian elephants grow tusks — but “Lucy” she remains, and nobody’s in a hurry to change that.
Visiting Lucy the Elephant: What You Need to Know
There’s no charge to visit the grounds or browse the gift shop, but visitors wishing to go inside the elephant must purchase tickets for the guided tour. The Save Lucy Committee doesn’t offer self-guided visits — anyone who wants to go inside needs a ticket for the guided tour, which runs every 45 minutes. Ticket prices have crept up a bit over recent years depending on when you check, so it’s worth confirming current rates on Lucy’s official site before you go, but expect somewhere in the range of a few dollars for kids and under ten dollars for adults.
Groups of up to 48 people can be accommodated per tour, and reservations typically aren’t needed unless you’re bringing a larger group. One practical note if you’re traveling with young kids: insurance rules require all children 12 and under to be accompanied by an adult on the tour.
Lucy stands in Josephine Harron Park, right along the beach in Margate, and the park is fenced and contained, with picnic tables on site if you want to make a whole afternoon of it. Parking near her is limited, so if you’re coming in summer, get there early or plan to walk a few blocks from a side street.
There’s also a small, sweet local tradition tied to her: Lucy gets a freshly painted “pedicure” on her toes once a year, on the Saturday closest to July 20, marking the anniversary of when she was moved from her original spot to her current one. If you happen to be in town for it, it’s a genuinely fun, small-town moment to catch.
Why Lucy Is Worth the Detour
Plenty of roadside oddities are fun for a photo and nothing else. Lucy’s different because there’s an actual story rattling around inside those tin walls — a real estate hustle, a tavern, a smuggling operation, a near-demolition, and a scrappy neighborhood rescue that turned a decaying novelty into a landmark protected by the federal government. You’re not just looking at a big weird elephant. You’re walking through more than a hundred years of Jersey Shore history, one spiral staircase step at a time.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
