This building opened in 1934, and I believe that it might be extinct as of 2009. Does anyone know if the zoo has demolished this ancient reptile house?
Not sure what status is currently, but looking at architecture they might be required to keep the building in tact. Think they did same thing with the mammal building that has wombat and rock hyrax in it.
This building opened in 1934, and I believe that it might be extinct as of 2009. Does anyone know if the zoo has demolished this ancient reptile house?
If the building has been in the zoo 75 years I think it deserves to be spared the bulldozer! If the zoo don't consider it suitable for housing animals, I am sure it could be put to educational use - I don't know what the building is like inside but even cleared out and used as exhibition space I'm sure it can be put to good use and a immensely historically significant zoo building will be preserved.
It's been noted elsewhere, but for anyone who may be browsing the gallery in the future and stumble upon this conversation -- while closed to the public, the building has long fallen out of use. A zoo worker told me some years ago that the exhibit was still housing a family of king cobras for a few years, which seems indirectly supported by this article announcing the 1927 building's renovation as a Conservation Leadership Center for education.
Lincoln Park and Chicago both have something of a strategy of transforming their most historic buildings for human purposes; iirc, Lincoln Park's old Small Mammal House (pre-1990's) is now a restaurant!
