Festival of Lights 2011-Elephant Reserve

This is the ceiling of the 105 year-old, 70 ft. tall Elephant House. This is the gap between Jati and Sabu\'s exhibit and My-Thai\'s and Schottzie\'s exhibit. It used to be the gap between the giraffe and okapi exhibits and the elephants.

Has this building exhibited elephants for all of its 105 year history?

PAT said:

Has this building exhibited elephants for all of its 105 year history?

Click to expand...

Yes it has, it opened as the Herbivora Building with hippos, giraffes, bison, rhinos, of course elephants, and even kangaroos.

That's an impressive claim to be able to make then. I do love a good helping of zoo history to start my day.

OK, here's more:
The architects had built America's first re-inforced concrete skyscraper in Cincinnati three years earlier. That experience enabled them to design this concrete building which opened in 1906. The Herbivora was situated on the zoo's highest point so it could be seen from a great distance as an attraction to visitors. It originally cost USD50,000

(taken from Dave Ehrlinger's terrific book The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, From Past to Present 1993)