The famous circus, created by five brothers in 1884, will close permanently in May.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which announced it will end its run this spring after 146 years, has deep ties in New Jersey.
It was in New Jersey that Alfred T. Ringling, one of the founders and former owners of the circus, designed and built a campus in the early 20th century for the show's performers and its animals.
It was also here that members of the Ringling family built an estate and made Bergen County their home for some time.
Here are some connections between the Ringling family and the Garden State:
-- Ringling Manor: Alfred T. Ringling, who created the Ringling Bros. Circus with four of his brothers, drew by hand the blueprint for the Ringling Manor campus, a 1,000-acre estate in Jefferson Township, Morris County, that served as the Ringling Bros. circus's first footprint in New Jersey.
Ringling purchased the land in 1913 and finished the manor in 1919, according to the National Park Service. The 26-room Ringling Manor hosted standout performers like opera singer Geraldine Ferrar and actor Douglas Fairbanks. Other buildings on the campus included a carriage house, a theater, houses for the elephants and big cats, and a water tower with a portion to house monkeys.
-- R.T. Richards Circus: Alfred T. Ringling's son, Richard T. Ringling, around the same time started his own circus at Ringling Manor. The R.T. Richards Circus, as he called it, survived only two years. Soon after the elder Ringling died in 1919, his wife sold the property, and the massive parcel became a lot for small summer homes.
-- A Jersey wedding: In 1905, John Ringling, one of the founders of the circus, married Mable Burton in Hoboken. He and his brothers in 1919 bought the Barnum & Bailey show for $410,000, and the circus became known as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
-- An Alpine manor: John Ringling in the 1920s built Gray Crag, a 20-room manor at his summer estate overlooking the Hudson River in Alpine, Bergen County. John Ringling at that point was the last surviving Ringling brother and the president of the company.
-- The party spot: The Ringling Bros. circus troupe often traveled to Gray Crag from Yonkers, N.Y., to entertain guests at John Ringling's parties. John Ringling lost control of the manor in the midst of personal and financial difficulties during the Great Depression.
-- What's left: The manor in Alpine was demolished in 1935, and the rest of the buildings on the property came down in the 1950s, according to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.
The estate in Jefferson was owned and being used as a monastery by the Capuchin Fathers, an order of Catholic friars. Only one friar was living there, as of June. The carriage house remains next to Berkshire Valley Road, and the remains of the elephant house can be found on the 12th tee of the Berkshire Valley Golf Course.
Boxer Max Schmeling used the mansion briefly in 1933 as a training camp for the Baer-Schmeling heavyweight championship fight, according to the nomination form for the Register of Historic Places.
The federal government in 1976 added Ringling Manor to the National Register of Historic Places Inventory.
Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook.