Elephants all over apartment buildings

Birds, horses, cows, goats—all kinds of animals decorate the facades of city residences. But elephant reliefs and statues? They’re not such a common site.

These two bronze elephants are tucked away at street level on a high-rise of Sheridan Square near Christopher Street:

The small apartment building at Nine East 10th Street, home to writer Dawn Powell in the 1930s and 1940s, features pachyderms on its beautifully carved nameplate:

On a different note, a couple of contemporary elephants guard a new house in Bushwick:

Here, the story of some real elephants that lived in New York City.