Lucy the Elephant is a six-story elephant-shaped example of novelty architecture, constructed of wood and clad in tin in 1882 by James V. Lafferty in Margate City, New Jersey, approximately five miles (8 km) south of Atlantic City. Originally named Elephant Bazaar, Lucy was built to promote real estate sales and attract tourists. Today, Lucy is the oldest surviving roadside tourist attraction in America.
A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than being a destination. They are frequently advertised with billboards. The modern tourist-oriented highway attraction originated as a U.S. and Canadian phenomenon in the 1940s to 1960s, and subsequently caught on in Australia.
Cabazon Dinosaurs, formerly Claude Bell's Dinosaurs, is a roadside attraction in Cabazon, California, featuring two enormous, steel-and-concrete dinosaurs named Dinny the Dinosaur and Mr. Rex. Located just west of Palm Springs, the 150-foot-long (46 m) Brontosaurus and the 65-foot-tall (20 m) Tyrannosaurus rex are visible from the freeway to travelers passing by on Southern California's Interstate 10. The roadside dinosaurs are best known for their appearance in the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985).
Trees of Mystery is a park and tourist attraction along U.S. Route 101 near the coastal town of Klamath, California. It features interpretive trails through Giant Redwoods and a number of unusual tree formations, many of which can be seen from its Trail of Mysterious Trees. Its Trail of Tall Tales displays some 50 chainsaw sculptures and carvings illustrating stories of legendary logger Paul Bunyan and his crew.
Hundreds of replicas of the Statue of Liberty have been created worldwide. The original Statue of Liberty, designed by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, is 151 feet tall and stands on a pedestal that is 154 feet tall, making the height of the entire sculpture 305 feet.
The Shell Service Station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a former filling station constructed in 1930 following a decision in the 1920s by the new local Shell distributor, Quality Oil Company, to bring brand awareness to the market in Winston-Salem. The building is an example of representational or novelty architecture and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1976. It is located in the Waughtown-Belview Historic District at the corner of Sprague and Peachtree Streets.
Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox are the names of a pair of large statues of the American folk hero Paul Bunyan and his ox, located in Bemidji, Minnesota. This roadside attraction has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988.
The Big Duck is a ferrocement building in the shape of a duck located in Flanders, New York, on Long Island. It was originally built in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer in nearby Riverhead, and used as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. It is a principal building on the Big Duck Ranch, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Muffler men are large moulded fiberglass sculptures that are placed as advertising icons, roadside attractions, or for decorative purposes, predominantly in the United States. Standing approximately 18–25 ft (5.5–7.6 m) tall, the first figure was a Paul Bunyan character designed to hold an axe. Derivatives of that figure were widely used to hold full-sized car mufflers, tires, or other items promoting various roadside businesses.
The Gibeau Orange Julep restaurant is a roadside attraction and fast food restaurant in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The building is in the shape of an orange, three stories high, with a diameter of 12.3 metres (40 ft).
The Elephantine Colossus was a tourist attraction located on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City. It was built in the shape of an elephant, an example of novelty architecture. The seven story structure designed by James V. Lafferty stood above Surf Avenue and West 12th Street from 1885 until 1896, when it burnt down in a fire. During its lifespan, the thirty-one room building acted as a concert hall and amusement bazaar. It was the second of three elephant buildings built by Lafferty, preceded by the extant Lucy the Elephant near Atlantic City and followed by The Light of Asia in Cape May.
Since the folkloric hero Paul Bunyan's first major appearance in print, the character has been utilized to promote a variety of products, locations, and services. The giant lumberjack's mass appeal has led him to become a recurring figure in entertainment and marketing, appearing in various incarnations throughout popular culture.
International Fiberglass was a fiberglass molding company founded in Venice, California in about 1963, best known for their large molded fiberglass roadside advertising sculptures commonly called "Muffler Men".
The big donuts of Southern California in the United States are frequently photographed examples of 20th-century vernacular roadside novelty architecture. They are landmark oversize donuts designed to attract the attention of potential customers on nearby roadways to associated shops. In their heyday, according to one critic, the giant donuts were "one of many signs in Los Angeles that bordered on pop art, celebrating the effusiveness of life in the years after World War II. To many Americans, Southern California acquired the image of an orange juice stand shaped like an orange, or a hot dog stand shaped like a hot dog."
