The latest additions to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's New York real estate empire have some curious details in their history. Bloomberg bought a new 33-acre estate in North Salem and a 35-acre estate in Southampton in 2011, tax records revealed. Locals expect Bloomberg to combine the North Salem property with his... other adjacent 20-acre property in North Salem so his daughter can ride horses. She's an accomplished equestrian, and the new property has a horse riding rink. But what's interesting about the new lot is buried in the New York Times write up. It used to be an elephant training ground for the circus:

The property was once an exercise ground for elephants, several of which were imported to the town for a circus in the mid-1800s, according to Cynthia Curtis, the president of the North Salem Historical Society.

Without any real explanation, we're big circus fans. Maybe it's because we liked reading Curious George Goes to the Circus when we were young, or the strange attachment we have with Chris O'Donnell's performance as the boy wonder, Dick Grayson, in Joel Schumacher's Batman movies. The circus never came to where we lived growing up, but we had Massachusetts area cable channels and were peppered with Barnum & Bailey's circus commercials. "Mayor Bloomberg Buys an Elephant Exercise Ground" sort of sounds like a children's book, doesn't it? 

Anyway, Bloomberg owns 11 homes worldwide, including six in the state of New York alone. There are the two in North Salem, the one in Hamptons, one in Armonk, plus three in the City. His other properties: Bermuda; London; Vail, Colorado; and Wellington, Florida. It must be nice to be able to vacation in Wellington whenever you want. 

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