Also known as the Elephant Hotel, this unique structure stood twelve stories high and contained a total of thirty-one rooms, including a tobacco shop and a museum. At the time, it was such a site to behold that it was dubbed the eighth wonder of the world!

During its short life on Surf Avenue and West 12th Street, the Elephantine Colossus was used as a concert hall, amusement bazaar, and by 1890, when hard times befell its proprietors – a brothel. In 1896, the Elephant Hotel was destroyed in a spectacular fire supposedly visible from as far away as Sandy Hook on the coast of New Jersey. Regrettably, the Elephantine Colossus was no more.

The hotel was designed by James Vincent de Paul Lafferty, Jr., an Irish-American inventor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who apparently had a preoccupation with designing animal-shaped buildings, specifically of the elephant form.

Prior to the Elephantine Colossus, Lafferty, Jr. designed two similar structures: Lucy the Elephant, built in 1881 and located in Margate, New Jersey, and the Light of Asia in Cape May, New Jersey which stood from 1884 until 1900 when it was demolished. As of 2019, Lucy is still alive and well, holding the title of oldest roadside tourist attraction in the United States.