Lucy the Elephant, Margate, NJ

Often considered the first roadside attraction in the United States, at sixty-five feet tall, Lucy the Elephant towers over the seaside terrain of Margate, New Jersey, as travelers make their way to the assortment of beaches and boardwalks the cozy coastal town offers.¹ Engineer James Lafferty Jr. constructed the $25,000 figure in 1881 as an advertising campaign to sell land along the Southern Atlantic City shoreline—hoping its unique and eye-catching stature would attract possible investors.² As decades passed, neglect, along with the sea-salted air, deteriorated the structure. When the landowners sold the property to developers in 1968, a group of community members established the Save Lucy Committee and raised funds to transport the figure to a nearby city-owned property. By 1974, a successful restoration project—funded with ticket sales and gift shop revenue—revived Lucy. In 1976, the federal government deemed the property a National Historic Landmark.³ Lucy teeters...