Most people familiar with the famed Lucy the Elephant attraction in Margate, New Jersey, don’t know that when first created, it wasn’t in Margate, its name wasn’t Lucy, it wasn’t even a female, or that it was part of an “Orientalism” seashore entertainment complex inspired by the 1876 Philadelphia World’s Fair. The real estate speculator who built the elephant building went bankrupt within two years of its opening. Long on vision but short on cash, he left behind what became one of the most beloved landmarks of the northeast coastline, and an icon that unified the surrounding community in surprising ways over more than a hundred and thirty years. Construction of the elephant began in 1881. It was completed in 1882. The building in the rear was made by combining two exotic exhibition buildings from the 1876 World’s Fair. They were disassembled in Philadelphia after that international exposition ended and shipped to the shoreline elephant site south of Atlantic City.