@JVM I visited the Saint Louis Zoo in the fall of 1999 and River's Edge was a flattened construction site. There was nothing there but construction equipment grading the area. That at least gives a datum point for when the elephant house and aquatic house had been knocked down. The elephants were not on exhibit, but I think that they were still on site somewhere behind the scenes. I assume that the hippos, rhinos, penguins, and whatever other species were in the aquatic house had been moved out to other facilities.
@DavidBrown Thank you. I actually had one of your posts in mind. I hadn't realized the aquatics and elephant house renovations were relatively recent until I'd seen the post and it's made me much more curious about the changeover.
