Six stories high, with portholes for eyes and a spiral staircase in each hind leg, the elephant-shaped building known as Lucy has towered over Margate City, New Jersey, since 1881. A real estate developer built Lucy to lure customers by offering them pachyderm-top views of land for sale. Since then the structure, modeled after an Asian elephant, has served as a home, a tavern, and—as seen here in 1932—a privately owned tourist curiosity. Lucy was relocated to a nearby park in 1970.
From "Flashback," August 2004, National Geographic magazine
