Lucy The Elephant - 1800s

1800s

In 1881, the U.S. Patent Office granted Lafferty a patent giving him the exclusive right to make, use or sell animal-shaped buildings for 17 years. Lafferty erected his first elephant-shaped building at South Atlantic City, now called Margate. Originally named "Elephant Bazaar", the building is 65 feet (19.7 m) high, 60 feet (18.3 m) long, and 18 feet (5.5 m) wide. It weighs about 90 tons, and is made of nearly one million pieces of wood. It is topped by a howdah carriage, also known as a hathi howdah. Lafferty brought real estate customers up a narrow spiral staircase from within the elephant's body to the howdah, where he could point out real estate parcels available for sale. Lucy's head shape identifies the building as an Asian Elephant, and its tusks as a male. In its first few years, the elephant was referred to as a male, but today it is now generally considered to be female.

The house was sold to new owners in 1887 and dubbed "Lucy the Elephant" in 1900.

Lafferty built at least two more elephant-shaped buildings, though neither survives. The Elephantine Colossus or Elephant Hotel, at Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn, New York, stood 12 stories (122 feet, 37.2 m) tall, with legs 60 feet in circumference. It held a cigar store in one leg and a dioramic display in another, hotel rooms within the elephant proper, and an observation area at the top with panoramic sea views. It burned down in 1896. Another, officially named the Light of Asia but dubbed Old Dumbo by locals, went up in Cape May in 1884 and was torn down within 15 years.