Miss Fancy returns: How this resident rescued a piece of Avondale history

If you’ve spent time in Avondale Park lately, you may have noticed a bronze elephant tucked into a cozy alcove near the library. While she’s been back in the park for a few years, she’s just received a major “glow-up” thanks to one local resident with a serious “bee in her bonnet” for Birmingham history.

We sat down with Leslie Smukler, who is behind the restoration of the Miss Fancy statue, to talk about car crashes, hidden warehouses and a very special lighting ceremony coming up this April.

The mystery of the missing elephant

About 12 years ago, the original Miss Fancy statue installed in 2012 was struck by a vehicle and knocked into the park’s lake. After the accident, the statue seemingly vanished. For eight years, the neighborhood wondered where Miss Fancy disappeared to.

As it turns out, she wasn’t gone; she was just forgotten.

“I never could figure out where that statue went…Eight years later, I actually found it. It was sitting in a warehouse under Legion Field.

Leslie Smukler

After getting permission from the city parks and rec department, Smukler brought the bronze statue home.

The ‘Queen of Avondale‘

For those new to the Magic City, Avondale Park wasn’t always just a place for baseball and picnics. From 1913 to 1934, it was the site of the original Birmingham Zoo. Its star attraction was an 8,000-pound Indian elephant named Miss Fancy.

Miss Fancy was more than just a zoo animal. According to records from Bhamwiki and the Birmingham Public Library, she was a local celebrity who:

• Drank for her “health” — To treat her arthritis, her handler, John Todd, would famously feed her “medicinal” whiskey (and later, moonshine confiscated by the city during Prohibition)
• Was an escape artist — She reportedly escaped her enclosure more than a dozen times, once wandering as far as Red Mountain
• Peered into windows — Smukler noted that Todd would parade her around at night, and she’d occasionally startle residents by looking into their second-story windows

Today, she maintains her larger-than-life legacy among locals, and her story can be found in several places throughout Birmingham and beyond:

• The logo of the Avondale Brewing Company, the brewery’s decor + in the names of products such as “Miss Fancy’s Tripel” and “Vanillaphant Porter”
• In Fannie Flagg’s novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café”
• Fancy’s on 5th, a former oyster bar which was located across from the park from 2016 to 2020. 
• Irene Latham’s children’s book “Meet Miss Fancy,” which was published in 2019
• A play based on Miss Fancy’s story, “Miss Fancy: Elephant Queen of the Zoo,” that premiered at Birmingham Children’s Theatre in 2023

A solar-powered makeover

Smukler has spent the last several months and about $10,000 ($7,000 raised from the community and $3,000 of her own money) making the statue a self-sufficient masterpiece.

The upgrades include:

• Two brand-new solar panels to power the site without needing city grid access
• High-tech lighting so the statue shines after dark
• A replumbed fountain with a self-sufficient water tank

“The lights and the pump have never been on at the same time…It’s going to be so pretty at night.”

Leslie Smukler

A tale of two elephants

You might notice another, much larger elephant statue at the park’s main entrance on 41st Street. That 13-foot bronze was a separate, decade-long project by the Council family and artist Nelson Grice unveiled in late 2022.

While that statue serves as a monumental tribute at the front gates, Leslie’s “original” Miss Fancy sits in a quiet alcove near the library — a spot Smukler discovered was the original entrance for the elephants during the zoo era.

Mark your calendars: The big reveal

To celebrate the completion of the project, Smukler is hosting a community ceremony. There will be custom T-shirts, hoodies and the official first “light up” of the fountain.

• When: Saturday, April 11
• Time: 7PM
• Where: Miss Fancy Statue (the alcove by the library), Avondale Park

For Smukler, this is just the beginning of her mission to “shine up” the city. Her next stop? Refurbishing the Alabama Walk of Stars.

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