Built in 1931 for duck farmer Martin Maurer, the Big Duck is a ferrocement roadside shop shaped like a duck that became one of America’s best-known examples of novelty architecture. Originally used to sell ducks and eggs, it reflected Long Island’s once-important duck-farming industry and the rise of automobile-based roadside commerce. After moving from Riverhead to Maurer’s Flanders ranch in 1937, it later served other public uses and in 2007 returned to its Flanders site. Its influence extended into architectural theory, where it helped define the idea of a building whose form symbolizes its purpose, and it is now recognized as a historic local landmark.