Not gonna lie, this was the main attraction and reason for my visit to the region. It was the one…read morething I wanted to see and made sure it was the last thing I saw on my way out of town. I have been obsessing over Lucy for a bit and needed to make a visit.
Guess we can go over the history a bit. Built in 1882, this stands as the oldest roadside attraction in the country. Novelty architecture was used to model this building after Jumbo, the famous elephant from Barnum and Bailey's. Also, to note, Lucy is a boy.
Lucy was first known as 'Elephant Bazaar' and used for real estate advertising. When Lucy changed hands around 1887, it went through changes of business type. 1902 brought the Lucy moniker.
Through the 20th century Lucy served as a restaurant, business office, and tavern on the business side of things. Supposedly during prohibition the 'eyes' of Lucy would let patrons know if they were open or being raided. It also served as a way to get items into the building without detection.
Lucy also served as a home for a time. You can see evidence of this when you visit. There are markings on the walls inside that would tell you they added a floor to add rooms. You can also look into an area that is one of the legs where they added a bathtub. Small, but pretty cool.
In the 1960s Lucy started to fall into disrepair. Because of this Lucy was slated for demolition, but in 1970 they fought and saved the building. In fact, Lucy had to be moved from its original spot to its current spot. Then fundraising started to restore the building.
Speed up to today. I stopped by on my way out of the area for my visit. I got here early and was worried that I might be ticketed or towed if I had stayed parked in the spots immediately in front of Lucy. I decided to park on the street, plenty of parking there without the threat of towing. Currently you have to visit a building across the street to purchase a ticket for admission and this is where the gift shop is.
Tours of the inside happen roughly every 45 minutes starting at opening. You go up as a group and get a guided tour. Take it from me, a tour from a local is better than one you might get from part time employee that is a teenager. Our tour guide was amazing and gave us so much interesting information. They give you the details about the time it was a residence and the prohibition thing.
Once you see the inside and get all the lowdown on it, you get to venture up to the howdah. This is the carriage portion of Lucy. From here you get some great views of the area. You see the beach and ocean, water tower with Lucy on it, and the condo building that necessitated the move of Lucy. You are basically walking on glass up here too. Although you cannot see through the glass.
There is so much care in this building. They recently finished recladding the exterior of the building and plan to do more here in the coming months and years. Give Lucy a visit if you are in the area and explore and very unique building.
With that, review 4,100!
