The History of Lucy the Elephant

If I told you that former president Woodrow Wilson and Inventor Henry Ford once explored the inside of a colossal elephant you would probably think that I was crazy, but it is true. Both of these men are listed on the visitors register of Lucy the Elephant, a historic and unusual landmark near Atlantic City New Jersey. Of course Lucy is not a real elephant, but the history and story of Lucy is really interesting!

Lucy was the brain child of James Lafferty a philadelphia engineer and inventor. Lafferty owned inherited land on the isolated out skirts of what was then known as Southern Atlantic City. Lafferty came up with the elephant idea in an attempt to draw visitors to his property. Lucy was completed in 1881 and drew much speculation from weary sailors at sea who thought their eyes were deceiving them. Lucy is 65 feet high, she has rooms in her body and stairwells in her legs, so you can only imagine just how enormous she looks!

In 1887 financial difficulties forced James Lafferty to sell Lucy and his surrounding land holdings to Anton Gertzen. Gertzen, who called himself Anthony was a German immigrant living in Philadelphia who fell in love with the shore. He quickly purchased Lucy and other shore properties and relocated his wife and seven children there. After his death in 1902 his properties were divided between his children. His son John and John's wife Sophia eventually purchased Lucy from his mother, Anthony's wife Caroline.

John and Sophia opened Lucy for tours charging ten cents per visitor. During Lucy's original tour days, she attracted many distinguished visitors including of course Woodrow Wilson and Henry Ford. The Turkish Pavilion, which was relocated from Philadelphia to be set up with Lucy was operated by John and Sophia as a popular night club. Eventually the couple bought a hotel across the street from Lucy that they operated as a gambling establishment and rooming house. At one point Lucy was also leased out to visitors as a summer home by the entrepreneur Gertzen family.

Eventually, Sophia was left widowed with to young children and used Lucy as source of steady income. Sophia initially started a tent city next to Lucy, which was later shut down by city officials. Then she operated Lucy as bar, which eventually was shut down by prohibition. Desperate and in need of income to support her family, Sophia converted the pavilion into a rooming house and charge a ten cent admission to tour Lucy. When prohibition was lifted, Sophia reopened the Turkish Pavilion as a saloon and named it The Elephant Cafe. When she got older Sophia sold the pavilion, but kept Lucy as a summer home. Sophia left Lucy to her children who retained the property until 1970 when they donated Lucy to the city of Southern Atlantic City which had been renamed Margate years earlier.

Although Sophia's children donated Lucy to the city of Margate, they did sell the land that she was currently residing on to a developer. A committee was formed to raise money to help restore and move Lucy to a public piece of property located a few blocks away. After the money was raised and all the legal red tape was ironed out, Lucy was moved to her current location on July, 20th 1970. Lucy rolled right down the street to her new location with on lookers cheering like it was a parade.

Lucy now operates as a historical site and can be toured during the summer season. This giant sea front creature has survived massive hurricanes, fire and upheaval to stand today as majestically as she did at her opening.