Lucy the Margate Elephant

Lucy the elephant has loomed over the beach at Margate New Jersey since 1881.

She has been an attraction intended to sell south Atlantic City real estate, a hotel and now a museum. James Lafferty patented Lucy's design in 1882.

Her window eyes peer over the berm of Margate beach.

Tourists enter Lucy through the right hind leg and emerge from the left hind leg. Here the gift shop is visible between Lucy's legs.

It's claimed that Lucy is 6 stories tall, but she seems to match the height of the third story of this neighboring building.

Lucy is so iconic of Margate NJ that the water tower carries her image. She is listed in the Register of Historic Places and is described in the Historic American Buildings Survey.

On a less down-to-earth note, The Weekly World News (Mar. 12, 2007, p 11) reports that Lucy was visited by a flying saucer in 1973. The photo WWN uses is a 1973 photo from HABS with a saucer added.

In 2009, Lucy's tail was injured by a party tent propelled by a wind storm.

So I spent $5 to "Save Lucy's Tail":

In 2020, you can spend the night inside Lucy for $138.