Wooden elephant turns to soul legends for help

MARGATE, N.J. -- How do you make a six-story wooden elephant easier for the handicapped to enjoy?

Bring in soul legends James Brown and Patti LaBelle, of course.

The operators of Lucy the Elephant are trying to raise more than $375,000 to bring the historic landmark into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

On Saturday, the Godfather of Soul and the R&B diva will headline a benefit concert for Lucy the Elephant.

The elephant, which overlooks the beach in this tony residential community, was built in 1881 by land speculator James V. Lafferty, who hoped it would help lure real estate buyers to what was then South Atlantic City.

In the early 1900s, the 90-ton structure operated as a home and later a rooming house before being converted into a tourist attraction. Kept afloat through the years by admission fees, the occasional generous donation (last year, a Cornwall, Pa., woman left $139,103 in her will for Lucy) and government grants, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"The only elephant in the world you can walk through and come out alive!" Lucy's Web site boasts.

About 25,000 people a year take the half-hour tour, which begins in a winding staircase in Lucy's left hind leg and meanders up into the belly of the beast. The adventurous must climb an even tighter stairway to the howdah, a canopied "riding" seat on top.

Close quarters

The close quarters make it impossible for wheelchair access, though. Under pressure to accommodate the disabled, Lucy the Elephant's operators developed plans for a $500,000 renovation.

The work would build a new interpretive center alongside the attraction's tiny gift shop and renovate a former Camden-Atlantic Railroad depot building on the grounds, but it wouldn't make the building any more physically accessible.

Instead of adding a ramp or elevator, Lucy's operators plan to present computer-aided virtual "tours" in the 50-seat interpretive center for those who can't negotiate the stairs.

"There's no physical way to improve access without destroying the character of who she is," said Michael Westfield, a restoration architect who has worked on Lucy. "Anything you add would detract from what Lucy is. And an elevator is ludicrous to even consider."

The federal government has agreed to provide a $125,000 grant that will help with the renovation. But that's peanuts compared with the total amount needed.

That's where Brown and Labelle come in.

"We need at least 3,700 people (to attend) to break even," said Richard Hellfant, executive director of Lucy the Elephant. But tickets for the show at the 10,000-seat Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City -- priced at $55 to $95 -- aren't selling as well as organizers had hoped.

Hellfant said there's a chance Lucy could lose money on the concert, although he's hoping a big walk-up crowd will turn out Saturday.

If the concert doesn't raise enough money, Hellfant said, he will try something else.

"Lucy has survived a lot worse than this," he said. "She's a tough old girl."

ON THE NET

www.lucytheelephant.org