Lucy the Elephant- Margate, NJ

    How many New Jersey beach towns have a giant elephant sitting on the beach?

    Well if you guessed one then you would be correct.
    Margate, NJ, home to Lucy the Elephant, is the only beach town in NJ to have a six-story, elephant-shaped building sitting on valuable beach front property.

    Recently I was in Margate and I decided to visit Lucy. One of the reasons I wanted see her was because I heard she used to be a hotel, a rumor which I discovered to be untrue, though she has housed a restaurant, business office, and tavern over the years.

    Nestled among the elaborate vacations homes, many with fish filled fountains gracing their perfectly clipped, bright green lawns, Lucy looks tiny, standing 65 feet high, 60 feet long and 18 feet high, in comparison to the deluxe condos and three story mansions that surround her.

     I didn’t know what to expect when I embarked on my visit, but I didn’t expect an elephant themed gift shop, though I guess I should’ve since every tourist attraction I have ever been to has a gift shop. The gift shop employees impressed me more than Lucy did. The employees are very knowledgeable about Lucy and her history and, since I’m a history buff, I loved hearing them talk about her history.

    I guess I could have taken the $7 tour, which is offered every half hour, and ventured inside Lucy, but I figured that would be a waste of money, especially since the gift shop employees were willing to part with Lucy’s history for free.

    Lucy, “born” in 1882 to proud father James V. Lafferty, inventor of animal shaped buildings, was built in an effort to sell real estate and attract tourism. Lafferty created several elephant-shaped buildings, including one in Cape May, NJ, which was later torn down, but only Lucy survives. However, over the years, Lucy’s life has been threatened several times, including in 2006 when she was struck by lightening.

    In addition to being Margate’s claim to fame, Lucy, is famous in her own right. In 2009 she was featured in an episode of the show Life After People, which showed how the environment would take over the Lucy without people to maintain her.

    Though Lucy herself failed to impress me, her history fascinated me and I enjoyed taking pictures of an animal shaped building, the first I have ever seen.

   

Links:

Lucy, The Elephant Hotel

Lucy’s Beach Grille
Lucy on Facebook

The Jersey Shore

    It's that time a year again, the time when barbeques are fired up, fireworks are shot off, and classic summertime anthems such as ‘Wildwood Days,” “Under the Boardwalk,” and “On the Way to Cape May,” blast from radios as people make the annual Memorial Day trek to their summer homes.

    This weekend is the unofficial start of summer and that means it’s time to head down the shore. However, there are so many different shore towns along the Jersey coast, each special and unique, and at times it can be hard to choose which one to go to. My favorite beach in NJ is Cape May.
       I fell in love with Cape May when I was a little girl with an over active imagination and discovered that the Columbia House, the bed and breakfast where  family and I always stayed, was haunted. I further fell in love when I witnessed a bride in a white, fluffy dress and her tuxedo clad groom on the beach taking their wedding photos and decided that one day I would be the bride on the beach at sunset taking wedding photos with my groom. To this day I still love going down there and immersing myself in the history of one of the nation’s oldest resort towns and hearing about the various ghosts that roam around the drafty old houses and cobble stoned streets. 
     The ghost stories are only one reason I love Cape May. I love smelling the salty air as I walk through the Washington Street Mall. I love strolling down the uneven, grey slate sidewalks and seeing the ornate Victorian homes with their wrap around porches and wooden rocking chairs. I even love Maurice "Buddy" Nugen’s “On the Way to Cape May,” which is a classic song that tells of a love story that begins in Ocean City and continues through the various shore towns with the ultimate destination being Cape May.

     However, Cape May is one of many shore towns that line the Jersey coast. There are many unique towns, each with their own distinct atmosphere, on the way to Cape May. I am going to visit various beaches in Atlantic and Cape May counties and explore the seaside towns to see for myself what each one has to offer. A lot can happen on the way to Cape May…..