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labrujah"James Vincent de Paul Lafferty, Jr. (1856-98), engineer, inventor, and real estate speculator, owned a tract of beachfront on the southeast portion of Absecon Island south of Atlantic City, but he needed an attraction, something novel, to draw prospective buyers. He decided to erect a building in the shape of an elephant.
Designed by William Free, a Philadelphia architect, and built in 1881 at a cost of $38,000, Lucy, as the building was subsequently named, attracted visitors who came to marvel at her sheer scale.
Lafferty financed two other elephant structures. The Light of Asia, was constructed in South Cape May, New Jersey, in 1884 but was never maintained; it was torn down c. 1900. The 122-foot-tall Elephantine Colossus was built at Coney Island, New York, also in 1884; it had 31 rooms; it was destroyed by fire in 1896. Lucy is the only survivor."
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1882: The Elephant Hotel opens at Coney Island. It becomes associated with prostitution, which prompts the local expression, "seeing the elephant."
Designed by William Free, a Philadelphia architect, and built in 1881 at a cost of $38,000, Lucy, as the building was subsequently named, attracted visitors who came to marvel at her sheer scale.
Lafferty financed two other elephant structures. The Light of Asia, was constructed in South Cape May, New Jersey, in 1884 but was never maintained; it was torn down c. 1900. The 122-foot-tall Elephantine Colossus was built at Coney Island, New York, also in 1884; it had 31 rooms; it was destroyed by fire in 1896. Lucy is the only survivor."
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1882: The Elephant Hotel opens at Coney Island. It becomes associated with prostitution, which prompts the local expression, "seeing the elephant."
