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# Did You Know? Lucy the Elephant Has Stood Six Stories Tall in Margate Since 1881
- URL: https://www.stateoflaughs.com/did-you-know-lucy-the-elephant/
- Published: 2026-10-19T21:30:08.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T01:55:06.000Z
- Description: Margate's Lucy the Elephant was built in 1881 as a giant real estate ad. Her two big relatives are gone, her neighbors saved her, and now she's a National Historic Landmark. Nobody warned me.
- Author: Mike McGinn
- Tags: Only in Jersey, #new-jersey, Did You Know

*Did You Know?*

Lucy the Elephant has stood in Margate since 1881\. She's six stories tall, she weighs roughly 90 tons, according to the New Jersey Historic Trust, and she's a National Historic Landmark.

Wait. A six-story elephant? At the Shore? On purpose? What is happening? And the more I read, the stranger it got, because her size turns out to be the most normal thing on her résumé.

Here's the rule I keep learning. Jersey will not let go of its weird stuff. It'll complain about it, it'll squint at it, and then the second somebody threatens to take it away, the whole town grabs a shovel.

So the way I see it, Lucy is the hardest-working employee in Jersey history, and her résumé is wild.

Start with her first job: sales. Real estate promoter James V. Lafferty built her when Margate was still called South Atlantic City. The plan was to put up something so big and so strange that people would come just to stare at it, and then sell them a beach lot while their jaws were still open. I want the minutes from that meeting. Somebody said "elephant," and nobody said, "What about a sign?" Then somebody said "bigger." Then somebody said "what if people can go inside," and instead of ending the meeting, they ordered lunch.

Then the physical requirements. Roughly 90 tons is a full parking lot of SUVs stacked into one shape and told to hold still. She's held the same pose since 1881, longer than anyone's grandparents have been alive. That's the longest yoga class in history. The instructor went home generations ago, and she's still up there waiting for someone to say "and relax."

Then the family section, which surprised me. Lucy wasn't an only child. Lafferty also built a 122-foot elephant on Coney Island, and Cape May had its own, the Light of Asia, built under his patent. According to Lucy's official history, the Coney Island elephant was lost to a fire in 1896, and Cape May's came down in 1900\. That leaves Lucy as the last one, still by the beach, still gray, still clocking in.

Then the career changes, and there are a lot of them. Per her own history, 1902 is when she became a tavern, and also when she got the name Lucy. The next summer, 1903, a British doctor moved his family into her for the season. Imagine someone asking where you stayed at the Shore and you just say, "The elephant." No follow-up. They need a minute. And picture the online review: "Great ocean views from the eyes. Stairs in the leg are a workout. Five stars, would sleep inside an animal again."

And finally, the comeback. By the 1960s she was in rough shape and slated for demolition, until local residents stepped in. In 1970, per the state, she was moved to a city-owned lot and restored. A whole community looked at a falling-apart 90-ton elephant and said, annoyed but firm, "No. She's ours. Somebody get a dolly." There had to be one guy walking backward in front of her, waving both arms, yelling "you've got room, you've got room" at something the size of an apartment building. Then in 1976, the National Park Service made it official and named her a National Historic Landmark.

So here's the résumé, top to bottom. Sales, 1881\. Six stories and 90 tons of holding still. Last of three elephants. Tavern, 1902\. Summer rental, 1903\. Rescued by her neighbors, moved and restored in 1970\. National Historic Landmark, 1976.

And now I grade every building I pass on whether it could've been an animal. The bank should've been a giraffe. The laundromat is obviously a hippo. The deli with the Saturday line is a tortoise, and at least it'd be honest. Every town in New Jersey should come with one giant animal, standard, like a zip code. One lucky town in the Pine Barrens gets a squirrel the size of a water tower and never shuts up about it. Meanwhile, my résumé is one page, has zero tons on it, and nobody has ever moved me anywhere with a dolly. I'm thinking of driving to Margate to ask Lucy if she takes interns.

**Sources**

- [New Jersey Historic Trust (NJ Department of Community Affairs), "Lucy the Elephant"](https://www.nj.gov/dca/njht/funded/sitedetails/ct%5Flucy%5Fthe%5Felephant.shtml?ref=stateoflaughs.com)
- [Lucy the Elephant (Save Lucy Committee), "About Lucy"](https://lucytheelephant.org/about-us/?ref=stateoflaughs.com)
- [Lucy the Elephant (Save Lucy Committee), "Chapter 3 – One of Three"](https://lucytheelephant.org/history/chapter-3-one-of-three/?ref=stateoflaughs.com)
- [National Park Service, National Register record for "Lucy, the Margate Elephant" (NRIS 71000493)](https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/71000493?ref=stateoflaughs.com)
- [Wikipedia, "Lucy the Elephant" (cross-check only)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy%5Fthe%5FElephant?ref=stateoflaughs.com)