elephant hotel

Above, an 1885 diagram of Elephantine Colossus, more famously known as 'the Elephant Hotel', an actual guest house from the early days of Coney Island.

The hotel opened in 1885, a 12-storey pachyderm with 31 organ-themed guest rooms that faced the ocean and featured an observation deck and a cigar store in its leg. In the 1890s its oddly shaped rooms served as a brothel.