On This Day in History: April 28
Big Move at the Zoo
by Vernon Parker (history@brooklyneagle.net), published online 04-28-2009
On April 28, 1916, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle gave this report on a most unusual move: the Prospect Park Zoo was relocating into new digs.
“Brooklyn’s strangest moving takes place tonight when Mr. and Mrs. Monk, Mr. and Mrs. Macaw and Mr. and Mrs. Kangaroo move from their old apartment in Menagerieville, Prospect Park, to fine, new apartments with southern exposure, in the Hotel de Mammal, the two-story brick and granite building which is to be dedicated tomorrow. It will be inhabited principally by mammals. They will occupy cages on one side and the birds on the other.
“The new [two-] story and basement menagerie, built by volunteer subscription, is a beauty. The cages are well arranged and all nicely labelled. They have been so constructed as to permit the building of other cages on the outside of the structure for the use of the animals when the weather gets warmer. The big cats — tigers and such — will have cages on the first floor and later cages will be built against the wall on the outside, with a gallery for visitors.
“The new cages are as far superior to the old ones as a modern apartment is to a furnished room. The building is a distinct ornament to the park.
“Maybe you don’t know that the animals have a ‘chef.’ They have, and he has a kitchen in the basement of the building. Meat, which is fed raw to the tigers, has to be parboiled when fed to other animals, and the monks eat a full course dinner, beginning with cooked oats and finishing up with cooked rice, while the alligators eat hamburg steak — without the onions. “The moving is likely to be very interesting, particularly if the monks resist. The birds will be captured with nets and then placed in their new homes.
“A feature of the building is a hospital ward with space for cases containing sick animals...
“Director Hornaday and Mr. Ditmas of the Bronx Zoo kindly gave architect Arne Dehli the benefit of their great experience, and a new system of cage construction was adopted to meet the various objections to the kinds now generally in use.
“This problem of cage construction, indeed, proved to be a very knotty one: Every part of the cages [were] to be smooth and easily cleaned, proper arrangement for feeding, for moving animals, for removing partitions, for protecting the animals against each other, for preventing scratching and other injury to the animals, for avoiding cavities which would cause quick rusting, etc., and yet reducing weight of steel and create a minimum obstruction in viewing the animals; in short, cages which would make the spectators forget that the animals were behind bars.
The Prospect Park Zoo was closed a few years ago and a modern rebuilt facility opened under the name Prospect Park Wildlife Center. It is located at 450 Flatbush Avenue.