In summer, Philadelphians head to the Jersey Shore. Forget California, Florida, Cape Cod, and the Outer Banks. There is no place finer than the southern Jersey beaches from Cape May on up to LBI. Once you get through the traffic jam and across the bridge or causeway, you're in heaven.

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Beautiful sand and frothy ocean waves, perfect for body surfing. Old biplanes pulling suntan lotion ad banners a few hundred feet above, just off the shoreline. Lighthouses. Boardwalks. Fine dining, shellfish shacks, junk food, ice cream, fudge, and chewy saltwater taffy. Stately Victorian houses, gaudy casinos, cheap motels, high-rise condominiums, tiny ranch houses, and multimillion-dollar beachfront sandcastles. Parties, night clubs, concerts, festivals, and parades. Fishing, sailing, amusement parks, Skee-Ball, and miniature golf.

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If you're in Atlantic City, there's an added bonus - White House cheesesteaks and subs.

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And then, just when you think you've seen it all... there's Lucy the Elephant.

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Located in Margate (just 5 miles south of White House), this colorful elephant-shaped beachfront structure stands 65 feet tall and weighs 90 tons. Built in 1882 and designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976, Lucy is America's oldest surviving (and its most popular) roadside attraction.

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It was built by a realtor for the purpose of attracting both tourists and potential customers who would enter a door in the elephant's leg, climb a winding staircase, and look down from the top at parcels of land for sale. It was sold to a Philadelphia family in 1887 and given the name "Lucy" (even though its tusks suggest it is a male elephant).

 

Through the years, Lucy served as an office, a summer cottage, a tavern, and a restaurant. Contrary to popular belief, it was never a hotel.

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By 1970, Lucy - still owned by the same family - had deteriorated into a hideous, dilapidated eyesore and was scheduled for demolition. Fortunately, a dedicated group of do-gooders calling themselves the Save Lucy Committee managed to raise enough funds to restore Lucy to her former glory. On July 20 of that year, Lucy was jacked up onto a rolling platform and, in a move that took over 7 hours, paraded gloriously down Atlantic Avenue to a civic lot 100 yards away.

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By 1974, Lucy was fully restored and ready to receive visitors. The structure costs a fortune to maintain but, luckily, enough government and private money flows in to keep it looking good, at least most of the time. Lucy is open for tours every day during warm weather months, and at least some days of the week the remaining months. Lucy sees 40,000 or more visitors in a typical year.

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Lucy has been featured in books, movies, songs, and comics. In 2020, Airbnb announced that Lucy would be made available, on a first-come, first-served basis, for overnight stays on March 17, 18, and 19 - but unfortunately those stays were cancelled due to the start of the COVID shutdown just days before.

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Most people do not know that Lucy once had two younger siblings. James Lafferty, who built Lucy, also built an elephant nearly twice the size on Coney Island in 1885. That structure actually did serve as a hotel, but it was destroyed by fire 11 years later. A third elephant, slightly smaller than Lucy, appeared briefly in Cape May, but was a financial flop and torn down after 16 years.

 

There was a proposal to build a fourth elephant for the great 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. That one would have been the largest of all - even taller than the 122-foot Coney Island behemoth - and would have had moving eyes, ears, trunk, and tail - and a merry-go-round calliope in its throat.

 

And you thought the T-Rex in Jurassic Park was scary.