Next...Lucy the Elephant, the Big Duck, and the history connected to these and other icons of novelty architecture.

- This, believe it or not, is one of the most important examples of novelty architecture in the entire United States.

Discover the fascinating stories behind these whimsical creations and the rare insights they provide into the past.

Also, the picturesque history of covered bridges, and the mistake almost everyone makes about those still standing.

Drive By History starts now.

[Music] Made possible by: The New Jersey Historic Trust, advancing historic preservation in New Jersey for the benefit of future generations.

Also the New Jersey Historical Commission, enriching the lives of the public by preserving the historical record and advancing interest in and awareness of New Jersey's past.

Every day, thousands of motorists pass by countless history markers and say to themselves, One of these days Im gonna stop and read that.

One of these days Im gonna find out what happened and why it mattered.

Well, this is that day.

I'm headed to a history marker that's been on my radar for a while.

Although it doesn't say much, I have a feeling it speaks volumes.

I'm Ken Magos, and this is Drive By History.

Today's investigation takes me about 60 miles east of Philadelphia to New Gretna, New Jersey.

With a population of under 600, New Gretna is the kind of community where everyone knows one another and everyone has asked one another what they know about an unusual roadside structure just off Route 9, which is where I'm going now.

So here's the history marker.

Its not conventional by any means, but it still marks history.

Now I did a little research, and if there were a history marker here, it would say Giant Champagne Bottle.

Built between 1920 to 1930, this giant champagne bottle is thought to be one of 80 scattered across the country, erected to promote a New Jersey winery.

Only a few remain standing.

So it looks to be about 20 feet tall and made of concrete.

Now I have to believe there's some history hiding in here.

I'm off to find out more.

[Music] Why did somebody spend lots of time and money on a giant roadside champagne bottle?

To find out more, I'm off to the Guggenheim Library housed in this mansion, the former summer estate of Murry and Leonie Guggenheim located on the campus of Monmouth University, where Drive By History's Anthony Bernard has been hard at work, parsing the pieces with the history starting to take shape.

- Anthony I just came from a history marker... - well, at least I'm going to call it a history marker... - it's actually a giant concrete wine bottle on - the side of the road.

- Now I did some research about the bottle itself, - but I have to believe this is part of a larger history.

- Am I right?

- You certainly are.

- That bottle is an example - of 20th century roadside novelty architecture.

- Now it's an area of architecture - that can get a little bit confusing.

- So, for our purposes, I'm going to define novelty architecture as whimsical style, - something that's meant to - turn your head in a fun and offbeat way.

- The Brown Derby, that famous restaurant - in California, is a great example of novelty architecture, - a restaurant shaped like a hat.

- I know the brown derby.

- My parents took me there when I was a kid.

- Unfortunately, I believe it was torn down in 1980.

- A lot of roadside architecture has been lost.

- That's not uncommon at all.

- But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

- A few centuries ahead of myself.

- Novelty architecture can trace its roots - back to the Renaissance.

- The Renaissance...really?

- Astounding, right?

- Mm-Hmm.

- Take a look.

- We know an Italian prince - incorporated it into the Gardens of Bomarzo.

- Throughout the Gardens - there were all kinds of astonishing structures.

- This one here is called the Mouth of Orcus.

- At the time, it was used for al fresco dining.

[Laughter] - People eating and being eaten.

- That's a little twisted.

- A bit of subtext, right?

- Just a little.

- Now, as is so often the case, - aristocrats like to copy one another.

- And as a result, novelty architecture spreads slowly - throughout Europe, and as it spread, it evolved.

- And that takes us to 1761 and the Pineapple House in Scotland, - home to the Earl of Dunmore - the Earl of Dunmore, which you see here.

- OK. Pineapples were a rare thing at the time, - so this kind of architecture is now being used to - communicate wealth, right?

- And good taste.

- Ouch.

[Laughter] - Novelty architecture kept evolving like that slowly - until the 1800s when it took a leap - from being elite to being something more egalitarian, - something for the masses.

- In part, thats because you'd often see - novelty architecture at a world's fair - or one of the many other exhibitions that became popular - in Victorian times.

- Sure, there were lots of people at those exhibitions.

- And if you're trying to get their attention, - novelty architecture would be a good way to do it.

- Over the next 75 years, - novelty architecture exploded, - particularly roadside novelty architecture.

- Of course, it was built on roadside property, - and after World War 2, - as people left the cities for the suburbs, - the real estate became way more valuable - as a housing development or condos or a mall.

- And as a result, a lot of novelty architecture was razed, - including the original Brown Derby, - which really should have been landmarked.

- Well, that's depressing.

- History doesn't always have a happy ending, Ken.

- But, ours has a happy epilogue.

- There are a few important examples - of novelty architecture that do exist, - and that's where the next leg of this investigation begins.

[Music] To find out more, Anthony joins me, and together we head to Margate, New Jersey, located on Absecon Island immediately to the south of Atlantic City.

Were greeted by Margates unofficial ambassador, Lucy, the worlds largest elephant .

And we're also greeted by esteemed architectural historian Mark Alan Hewitt.

As we converse beneath the pachyderms enormous torso, Mark tells us that among architects, Lucy holds a special place in history.

- Well, it's the first example of mimetic architecture - used for commercial purposes.

[Circus Music] Standing over 6 stories and weighing over 90 tons, Lucy was and still is an achievement in design and construction.

In 1881, when she was built, she was accessible to anyone.

Well, anyone who could afford to buy nearby real estate, Although she became a popular destination all on her own, when Lucy was first built, she had a different purpose.

- This elephant was essentially a big billboard.

- It was meant to sell real estate.

Lucy was born from the imagination of an entrepreneur named James Lafferty, who owned real estate in this part of New Jersey.

Lafferty was looking to sell parcels as the area blossomed.

Lucy was built to pique the interest of the many people who had begun flooding nearby Atlantic City, a major vacation destination.

- Remember, Atlantic City was quite a ways down the island, - so a big elephant would get people down here - and then he could start selling real estate.

Although remarkable structures were nothing new in the Victorian era, the blueprint for for Lucy was so unique, Lafferty was granted a patent.

By some reports, construction involved hand shaping 1 million pieces of wood, then adding another 12,000 square feet of tin as an outer sheath.

- Tin was a very popular roofing material, and they said - OK, tin is going to weather relatively well.

- And it's moldable, too.

Lucy did what she was intended to do.

She drew crowds.

Who wouldn't want to see a building shaped like a gigantic animal?

But Lafferty was clever.

The shape he chose held a particular appeal.

- And the elephant was actually modeled after Jumbo, - one of the most popular attractions - at the PT Barnum Circus.

- Wow.

Although it was her outside that drew people here, once they were here, it wasn't the only part of Lucy that captivated visitors.

Lucy's inside proved equally dazzling, something visitors still experience firsthand today.

- It has an oh wow aspect when you get up to the top of - the stairs to see this huge room with this echo.

- It's just...you're thinking of, Well, I'm in the...

I'm in the belly of a whale.

Originally, this interior was laid out as a sales office and cafe for Lafferty's real estate clients.

Potential buyers were whisked to the top where they could survey the area from Lucy's howdah or canopy and contemplate which parcel they might want.

That was Lucy's intended function.

In 1887, however, Lafferty turned his attention to other business ventures, and he sold Lucy.

From that point, forward, Lucy evolved into the destination she is today, a standalone example of human ingenuity.

And along that journey, Lucy had many different incarnations.

She was part of a larger hotel, a private summer cottage, and for a time, a seashore tavern.

It wasn't always an easy ride, however.

In the 1960s, Lucy was showing her age.

She almost didn't make it.

- Because the problem was - that they didn't ventilate it very well.

- So what happened was - condensation happened inside the building... - the elephant.

- It started rotting the wood, then the nails started to rust.

By 1969, the decay seemed too great.

Lucy was scheduled for demolition.

However, as the wrecking ball neared, residents of Margate just couldn't bear the thought of losing Lucy.

At their own expense, they assumed ownership, moved Lucy to a different seaside location and over a period of many years, restored Lucy to her former grandeur.

As an architect, Mark tells me that might be the most remarkable aspect of all.

- Most architecture is ephemeral - but this is the kind of ephemeral architecture - that is rooted to this place, to this island.

- And to me, the fact that it becomes part of - the place is really impressive.

They say an elephant never forgets.

Thanks to neighbors in Margate, Lucy the Elephant will never be forgotten.

But Lucy isn't the only significant example of novelty architecture in the New York region.

Another icon still stands, this one about 80 miles east of New York City in Southampton, New York.

About a week later, Anthony and I, along with my dog Jojo, headed east, where we again met with Mark Allen Hewitt.

This time, we were greeted by a big duck... or rather, The Big Duck.

I know many of us enjoy our travels that much more when we can bring along our four-legged friends.

I'm happy to tell you The Big Duck and a well-behaved dog got along quite well.

- Why are we here?

- Well, this, believe it or not, is one of the most important examples of novelty architecture in the entire United States.

[Music] Finished in 1931, The Big Duck was built by Martin Mauer, a duck farmer looking to sell eggs and other produce.

And much like Lucy the Elephant, The Big Duck was intended to grab attention.

However, by the 1930s, life was moving at a faster pace.

- Well, by this time now more people could afford cars.

Cars such as the 1930 Ford Model A were capable of whizzing by at 65 miles per hour.

The Big Duck had its work cut out.

How did it get drivers to slow down and stop?

It played a bit of a guessing game as they approached.

- So from far away, you're going along - and here you see this white thing - and you get closer and closer and wow it's a duck.

The experience was fairly theatrical, something duck farmer Martin Mauer did not leave to chance.

- He hired 2 Broadway scene designers, the Collins Brothers - So is this a little piece of the Great White Way?

- It absolutely is.

Like many set pieces you might find on Broadway, The Big Ducks construction was simple and straightforward.

- They stuccoed it.

- They painted it white.

- They painted the bill yellow, and then they used 2 truck - tail lights for the eyes.

[Laughter] - And Presto, you had The Big Duck.

Today, The Big Duck is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is open year round as a museum.

But what about The Big Duck makes it so important that it was landmarked?

To answer that question, Mark says we need to fast forward the narrative to another time and place, a time when The Big Duck had been derided as pedestrian, and a place that had become the capital of kitsch, Las Vegas.

[Music] - Las Vegas?

- Yes - Were a long way from there.

- Yes.

In the late 1960s, Robert Venturi, who would later become an award- winning architect, sought to better understand the American built environment.

Along with a couple of colleagues, he chose the famed Las Vegas Strip as his subject of study.

- Las Vegas is the archetypal road culture city.

- No city like it.

- No city like it.

- The signs were the kinds of roadside novelties... - Stardust - Stardust, the neon signs, and they showed - how someone in a car would would have their attention - glued to some of these roadside icons.

The analysis, which was published in the book Learning from Las Vegas, approached commercial architecture with serious scholarship.

For our purposes, Mark focused on a specific critique which divided commercial structures into two categories: Decorated Sheds and Ducks.

- Decorated sheds -- theyre just boxes that have a sign - that says what they are.

- A Duck was a building that expressed its purpose - through its form.

It was Southampton's Big Duck that Robert Venturi cited when he put forth this concept.

As a structure, it was built to house a shop selling ducks and duck eggs.

The form of the building itself explicitly told passersby what they would find inside.

Today, Ohio's Big Basket Building, as well as California's Donut Hole Bakery and China's Tea Museum are all called Ducks.

- So this structure coined a phrase.

- It absolutely did.

- The term Duck was coined because in the 1960s - an architect felt that novelty architecture, - which had theretofore been derided, - is actually something worth celebrating.

I'd be remiss not to mention that Robert Venturi was a personal mentor to our good friend, Mark Hewitt.

As the day draws to a close, I find myself with a new appreciation of architecture as a tool for understanding history.

Both Lucy the Elephant and The Big Duck connect the present with the past in a very tangible way.

- I suppose if I were writing a book about it, I could... - I could put Lucy at the beginning.

- I could put this at the end, and we'd have a nice story arc.

- And our champagne bottle falls right in the middle.

- And our champagne bottle could fall in the middle.

- Let's publish.

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.

So said writer Pearl Buck.

My next investigation begins now in Rifton, New York, located 90 miles north of New York City in the Hudson Valley.

Today, Rifton is an oasis, an inviting hamlet where you can easily disconnect from the world at large.

In the 19th century, however, friends and neighbors who lived here must have felt a little differently.

As you're about to see from this history marker, they were eager to become better connected with anyone and everyone.

This is the history marker that I'm talking about.

It commemorates Perrines Bridge.

There's a lot of text here, but in a nutshell it talks about this bridge as the second oldest covered bridge in New York, that it was built around 1844, and as you would imagine, intended to make traversing the Wallkill River a whole lot easier.

There are history markers throughout the nation that are commemorating the few covered bridges that are still standing.

And it got me wondering, are these covered bridges actually a pathway to the past?

I'm off to find out more.

It seems to me that many of us have a strong affection for covered bridges, that they make a connection both literally and figuratively.

To find out more, I'm off to the Guggenheim Library housed in this mansion, the former summer estate of Murry and Leonie Guggenheim, located on the campus of Monmouth University, where Drive By History's Anthony Bernard has been hard at work, spanning the fascinating facts.

- OK, Anthony, I just came from a history marker that talks - about the Perrine Covered Bridge.

- Now I chose this particular marker - because I've seen signs like this all over - commemorating covered bridges.

- Now I'm always looking for local - histories that fit into a larger narrative.

- And I have to believe this one's - going to fit into a larger narrative as well.

- Covered bridges are a treasured - part of our nation's heritage.

- There's no doubt about that.

- It's an aspect of history almost everyone loves.

- Then there must be 1,000 histories attached - to these covered bridges... where do we start?

- Let's start with the question I think everybody has no matter - which bridge we're talking about.

- Why are they covered?

- Exactly.

- Now, my research has come up with all kinds of explanations: - to soothe horses who might be afraid of the nearby water - to provide travelers with shelter from a storm, - or this one, - to give young people a private place to snuggle - I'm pretty sure it's not the last one.

- It's not any of them.

- The reason why covered bridges are covered has to do with - what they're made out of.

- Now, a little quizlet.

- What are most covered bridges made out of?

- They're made out of wood.

- Exactly.

- Wood was plentiful in the 1800s, and since most - covered bridges span relatively short distances, - it was an inexpensive way to create a crossing.

- But that doesn't explain why they're covered.

- I'm getting there.

Now, what happens to wood when its - exposed to rain or sun or snow?

- That's question 2 of my quizlet.

- It rots.

- Exactly.

- Covering a bridge prolongs the life of the wood, from - about 20 years uncovered to about 100 years covered.

- That's a big difference.

- It is.

- OK, I have a quizlet question for you.

- Why are covered bridges almost always red?

- That's a really good question, and I do know the answer.

- It's not actually red paint.

- It's red-like paint.

- Early Americans were trying to make their bridges last longer.

- The wood that wasn't covered needed to be protected, too, - so they used a mixture of skim milk, lime and rust, - all of which were common on farms.

- So it didn't cost too much to make.

- The mixture created a red coating.

- And, full disclosure, that was then.

- Nowadays, they do use red paint.

- And these bridges are in pastoral places, - so it makes sense that you'd use - whatever you have around the farm.

- You're making a really good point.

- What people assume to be the history of covered bridges - and their actual history are miles apart, - and that's where the next leg of this investigation begins.

[Music] To find out more, Anthony sends me back to Perrines Bridge.

Accompanied by my dog Jojo, a road trip to covered bridge country is perfect for history lovers and dog lovers alike.

Im met by Ron Knapp.

He's an Emeritus Distinguished Professor at SUNY New Paltz, a proud member of the New York State Covered Bridge Society, and one of the authors of America's Covered Bridges, Practical Crossings, Nostalgic Icons.

Ron picks up the covered bridges conversation right where Anthony left off.

- I think for many Americans, they are nostalgic icons, - that they're a touchstone to the past.

- Unfortunately, the past that they recollect - for a lot of Americans is a sort of a bucolic past.

That recollection has everything to do with the bridges that remain standing today.

There are about 800 left, according to the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, and many are in rustic settings, However, at one time, there were more than 14,000 covered bridges.

- Most of the great covered bridges built in the - United States were built in industrial centers.

[Music] During the first industrial revolution, covered bridges peppered the landscape, especially in cities and surrounding areas.

They were built primarily to facilitate trade.

With so many waterways cutting across the land, merchants needed help getting goods to market.

Even a relatively small stream could become a big problem.

- Fording or ferries had limitations during the year.

- And so these bridges allowed for year-round transportation - across streams.

- Ah, OK.

In the years that followed, cities replaced their covered bridges made out of wood with other, more durable structures.

And they did it out of necessity to keep up as invention triggered an explosion in productivity.

In the country, however, in places that were removed and quiet, covered bridges continued to meet the areas transportation needs.

As a result, our modern idea of a covered bridge has become skewed.

We think of a covered bridge as merely a quaint vestige from days gone by.

In fact, it's much more than that.

- So are you saying that these bridges were responsible - for economic development in the 1800s?

- Absolutely they were responsible - for economic development.

- Wow, OK. Bridges today and the covered bridges of yesterday essentially share the same reason for being.

Of course, todays bridges are designed by highly trained structural engineers.

In early America, that was not often the case.

Many covered bridges were built by craftsmen, woodworkers really, who settled in the region, drawn to America by the promise of a better life.

- These were built by carpenters and these were individuals who - knew how to build roof trusses in homes, - in large barns, and the like.

Trusses are essentially a series of triangles that collectively can bear a lot of weight.

Different configurations or truss styles emerged in the 19th century.

Today, an educated eye seeks out those different styles, - So you see a lot of variations in trusses.

- But this is a very American idea then.

- It's a very American idea that came out of an - entrepreneurship, that came out of American - or Yankee Ingenuity.

- Out of necessity, too.

- Out of necessity, yeah.

I think for most of us, theres a romantic element to these covered bridges, but it was interesting to discover that there's also an industrial component to their legacy.

And as the day draws to a close, I'm reminded that Ron Knapp is all for appreciating the aesthetics of a covered bridge.

He's just hoping that the next time you see one, you take a moment to think about its industrial connection as well.

- Covered bridges are more than just simply a structure.

- Theyre a part of a much larger story of America.

- We have bridges to thank for the progress that we made - leading up to the industrial revolution and beyond.

- Absolutely.

See you next time.

Made possible by: the New Jersey Historic Trust, advancing historic preservation in New Jersey for the benefit of future generations.

Also, the New Jersey Historical Commission, enriching the lives of the public by preserving the historical record and advancing interest in and awareness of New Jersey's past.

I bet you drive by a history marker and say to yourself, I should tell Drive By History about that.

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