Lottie Triceratops Kentucky Science Center

Louisville, Kentucky, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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Lottie is a fiberglass triceratops made by sculptor Louis Paul Jonas for Sinclair Oil at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Since 2022, the Science Center says, she has stood above the parking-lot elevator at the Kentucky Science Center, Louisville, after years in storage.

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Lottie Triceratops Kentucky Science Center

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Site-level location · 38.2565° N, 85.7550° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Lottie the triceratops starred at a world's fair, survived a flood and spent years in storage, and, the Science Center says, now looks out from above a parking-lot elevator at the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville.

According to the Science Center, sculptor Louis Paul Jonas created her on behalf of Sinclair Oil for the 1964 New York World's Fair, as part of a set of nine fiberglass dinosaur figures; WAVE put the number at eight in 2022. After the fair the dinosaurs toured and were split between museums around the country. Lottie reached Louisville in 1968, appeared at several locations around town, and became a permanent part of the Science Center in 1979. Long-time Louisvillians, the Science Center says, remember her as a fixture of its parking lot through the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1994 flood, it says, staff cut a hole in her leg to stop her floating away.

The Science Center moved her to storage in late 2007 to protect her from construction for the Museum Plaza project (LPM gives 2008). When that project was scrapped, no money was available to repair her. In 2022 the funds arrived. WAVE reported in August 2022 that the 26-foot-long, 4,800-pound triceratops had returned after 14 years in storage, installed on top of the parking-lot elevator to protect her from flooding and vehicles. The Science Center places her near the West Washington Street pedway, visible to museum guests and to passing drivers on I-64.

LPM reported in 2023 that her name stands for “Louisville’s own triceratops”, and that the Science Center held a first-birthday Dino Day for her return. The Science Center's chief executive told WAVE in 2022: “This is history, this will be up there for a long time.”

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A fiberglass triceratops mounted above the Kentucky Science Center's parking-lot elevator. The Science Center says museum guests and passing I-64 drivers can see her; the museum itself is a separate ticketed visit.

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Above the parking-lot elevator at the Kentucky Science Center, 727 W Main Street, Louisville, near the West Washington Street pedway. She is visible from outside the museum and from I-64, according to the Science Center.

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The Barrel (4th and Main)

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0.4 km away

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