Lucy the Margate Elephant

A Weird Historic Landmark in New Jersey, Lucy the Margate Elephant is an elephant-shaped building located on the beach at Margate. The elephantine structure stands 65-feet high and weighs 90 tons. Since its construction in 1881, Lucy the Elephant has enjoyed several different "careers." Originally intended to encourage real-estate investment on the Jersey Shore, Lucy the Elephant has been, at one time or another, a restaurant, a tavern, a house and a tourist attraction. In 1970, the famous landmark was moved to its present location, where it underwent extensive restorations of its exterior. Several years later, Lucy the Elephant reopened for public tours. Today, visitors are allowed to enter Lucy the Elephant via a spiral staircase in one of the hind legs and to climb up to the howdah (or seat on Lucy the Elephants back) for a refreshing view of the ocean.

Lucy The Elephant was completed in 1881 by a Philadelphia contractor at a reported cost of almost $38,000, a veritable fortune in those times. Soon after Lafferty applied for and received a U.S. Government patent to protect his idea from the would-be copy-cats of Lafferty’s eight world wonder. It wasn’t too many years later that Lafferty found he had over extended himself financially and was forced to offer Lucy The Elephant for sale to a Philadelphia man named Anton Gertzen who purchased her in 1887. It was John Gertzen, the son of Anton, who eventually made use of Lucy The Margate Elephant by charging visitors 10 cents a piece to tour her insides and take in the view from the observatory. In 1902 Lucy The Elephant was even rented out for use as a summer home by an English doctor and his family, and some years later was also utilized as a tavern! During this time Lucy The Margate Elephant endured many hardships, including a hurricane, and was also nearly burned down by a careless patron in her tavern days.

Watch the Lucy Elephant video below...