The Elephant Hotel, Painting as it was in 1839 and Photograph ca. 1885
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Hachaliah Bailey, who founded the original traveling menagerie in 1807, built a stagecoach inn at the intersection of the Croton and Peekskill turnpikes. Completed in 1825, Bailey named it the Elephant Hotel in honor of the source of his wealth and success. In 1827 he added a statue in front of the hotel to memorialize his first elephant, known as Old Bet. The acrylic painting was done by Somers artist O. J. Denney in 1975, depicting the hotel as it would have looked in 1839. The sepia photograph shows the hotel as it was in 1885. The Elephant Hotel is a National Landmark, in addition to being listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places.