History
The Elephant Hotel was established by Hachaliah Bailey after he bought an African Elephant, which he named "Old Bet". Bailey intended to use the elephant for farm work but the number of people it attracted caused Bailey to take her throughout the northeast. Bailey's success caused numerous others to tour with exotic animals, and during the 1830s the old style circus and Bailey's attractions merged to form the modern circus. Due to this, Somers is known as the "Cradle of the American Circus."
Old Bet died on tour in 1827. It is also said that Old Bet was buried in front of this building. Bailey later erected the Elephant Hotel in Somers in honor of Old Bet, and it was purchased by the town in 1927. It is a town landmark and was dedicated a National Historic Landmark in 2005.
The Elephant Hotel is currently the Somers Town Hall. It is located at 335 US 202, across from the northern end of NY 100.
The NRHP listing is described in its NRHP nomination document.
Read more about this topic: Elephant Hotel
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)