Today is the last day of our Weird Roadside Attractions: New York State Edition theme week! We’re finishing up with an iconic piece of roadside architecture on Long Island – the Big Duck!
The Big Duck can be found in Flanders on Long Island. It was built by a duck farmer named Martin Maurer in 1931. He was inspired after a trip to California, where he saw a coffee shop housed in a building shaped like a coffee pot. He had his duck built on the busy Main Street of Riverhead on Long Island. It was designed by 2 Broadway set designers, who used one of Maurer’s Pekin ducks as a model. The duck is 18 feet wide, 30 feet long, and 20 feet tall. The interior is 11 by 15 feet. He sold ducks and duck eggs there, until the building was moved to his new duck ranch in Flanders.
At the time, that area was the center of Long Island’s thriving duck-farming industry. There were around 90 duck farms in Suffolk County in 1939, and by 1969, 60% of America’s duck production came from Long Island.
The Big Duck closed for business in 1984, but was acquired by Suffolk County in 1988. It’s now a gift shop selling memorabilia and local Long Island products. Every year at Christmas, there’s an annual Lighting of the Duck ceremony, where a giant wreath around the Big Duck’s neck is lit up. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, and it gets around 10,000 visitors a year.
The Big Duck inspired an architectural term. In architecture, the term “duck” is used for any building shaped like the product it sells!
Learn more here.