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…
Tag: roadside attractions
The Doo Wop Motel District: Wildwood’s Retro Time Capsule
The Doo Wop Motel District is a two-mile stretch of Wildwood, New Jersey, where dozens of space-age motels from the 1950s and ’60s still stand, plastic palm trees, neon signs, kidney-shaped pools and all. Officially known as the Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District, it’s the largest surviving collection of mid-century commercial resort architecture in the…
The Secret Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor: A Self-Guided Walking Tour of Michigan’s Tiniest Landmarks
The fairy doors of Ann Arbor are a series of tiny, six-inch wooden doors tucked into the walls, floors, and window ledges of downtown shops, cafes, and libraries around Ann Arbor, Michigan. They’re not city-sanctioned public art and there’s no official map with a red “X” on it — you just have to know where…
Looking for “Ronja Redviking” in Bristol, Vermont? Here’s the Real Story
If you searched for “Ronja Redviking,” the giant troll supposedly watching over a sculpture trail in Bristol, Vermont, here’s the direct answer: there’s no verifiable evidence she exists. No news coverage, no town records, and no listing on Thomas Dambo’s own official troll map show a sculpture by that name anywhere in Bristol. What does…