"Its past remembered, Bedminster Township's Elephant Hotel is looking forward to a bright new future. Back in 1848, a hostelry for travelers and their horses was built at what was then a major intersection on the main thoroughfare between Doylestown and Quakertown.
Christened the Elephant Hotel because it was in the tiny village of Elephant (named, perhaps, in acknowledgment of a traveling zoo or side show), it was situated on the eponymously named Elephant Road at Ridge Road.
The date of its opening is undisputed because the original sign is in the Mercer Museum in Doylestown."

http://www.buckscountyherald.com/~Bedminster%20works.pdf