Historic Preservation of Animal Exhibits

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gorillaguy

Member
Working on a thesis topic looking at the historic preservation issues surrounding historic outdoor animal exhibits. To my knowledge, there are only a handful of historic animal exhibits on the National Register (ex: the 1919 bear exhibits at the Denver Zoo). I am looking for other potential historic outdoor animal exhibits built before 1950. Any ideas?

thanks
 
There is the Reptile House at Cincinatti Zoo (1909?), Elephant House at National Zoo (1930's, being renovated) and so many countless bear grottoes, cat/bird/monkey/reptile house and many desolate cages around the world
 
The animal buildings are more prone to be preserved and re-purposed due to their architectural character and are thus not part of my research.

Most AZA member zoos have done a fairly extensive job of eliminating older outdoor exhibits from their grounds (woodland park zoo in Seattle has two pre-1960 exhibits left, both from the WPA period of design in the mid-1930's ... the goat rocks and beaver pond).

When I was at the National Zoo a month ago, I was hard pressed to find any pre-1960 animal exhibits. The new elephant exhibit was under construction and the panda/Asia trail looked fairly new.

The Oregon Zoo had a wild collection of 1950's modernist whimsical concrete exhibits that are mostly gone.
 
The old Baird Court buildings at the Bronx Zoo (Elephant House, Lion House, Hoofs and Horns, etc.) all date from around 1900, all are under preservation restrictions and all are currently being used for one thing or another. (The old Lion House went through a radical renovation including geothermal heating to become the new Madagascar! exhibit last year). But I don't think any outdoor cages survive as such.

The bear exhibits and African Veldt at Cincinnati are 1930s Hagenbeck designs.
As are the bear grottos at St. Louis.
All still being used.

I assume Detroit must have some as well and perhaps Brookfield.

You would do well to look to Europe and Australia (Taronga must have loads!)
 
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Thanks Rob. I'm pretty sure that there are no longer any older outdoor exhibits at the Bronx. Found a few WPA exhibits at the Philly Zoo (Hippo and elephant were from the late 1930's). The Brandywine Zoo, in Wilmington Delaware, advertises its Frederick Law Olmsted heritage, but mostly consisted of small cages.

The core of the old zoo in Baltimore has been closed to the public for a couple of years and contains a bevy of old but unused animal exhibits.
 
I believe that the Detroit Zoo's grottoes (lions, tigers, black bears, grizzlies, etc) are all from 1928, and they are unfortunately all still in use. The Toledo Zoo opened in 1900 and has a few WPA buildings from the 1930's (aviary was built in 1937 but renovated in 1999; aquarium, museum and reptile house) but I'm not sure if that is exactly what you are looking for.

Taronga Zoo has some historically protected exhibits (elephant temple, spider monkey enclosure, old sea lion pools) and Europe has literally hundreds of old animal enclosures still in use.
 
my thesis intends to examine the conflicts between historic preservation issues surrounding the preservation of outdoor zoo exhibits against the various agencies and guidelines that focus, rightly so, on animal care and safety standards. There are only two cultural landscape types in the United States that regularly bypass preservation: zoo exhibits and playgrounds, both for safety and liability issues. By examining the ways zoos work with older exhibits, I want to determine if there is a possibility of preservation through the development of interpretive displays that show the evolution of zoo design and how far zoos have come in terms of animal care.
 
gorillaguy said:
my thesis intends to examine the conflicts between historic preservation issues surrounding the preservation of outdoor zoo exhibits against the various agencies and guidelines that focus, rightly so, on animal care and safety standards. There are only two cultural landscape types in the United States that regularly bypass preservation: zoo exhibits and playgrounds, both for safety and liability issues. By examining the ways zoos work with older exhibits, I want to determine if there is a possibility of preservation through the development of interpretive displays that show the evolution of zoo design and how far zoos have come in terms of animal care.
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Perhaps you'd expand the thesis a bit to include a look at historic buildings. So much more of what you're describing has been done with these old buildings that they may point the way for the future for outdoor exhibits.
The Bronx Zoo's renovation of the Lion House wrestled with it all and their architect would probably give you a great deal of guidance.

Technically, I suppose that the northeast corner of the Bronx Zoo is much as it was 110 years ago. But a fenced pasture is a fenced pasture. The last old outdoor structures I can think of were the bear cages. Some of us fought to have them saved (and turned into a picnic area...caged visitors!) but we lost. The outdoor enclosures that were replaced by Congo Gorilla Forest were also original. Actually, the Pheasantry is rather old and not much altered.
 
You might look for International Zoo Yearbook 1990...Dave Ehrlinger did an article on Hagenbeck's Legacy and I think it will point you in the direction of extant examples.
 
I thought briefly about including buildings, but there are existing guidelines for preservation of historic architecture. This includes the category "adaptive re-use," which covers conversion of animal buildings into other uses, such as the former feline house at Lincoln Park Zoo which is now a food court. The reason most of these older buildings still exist is due to their architectural charm (terra cotta animals, nice brick detailing, etc.) the original entrance to the Philly Zoo is great, but it doesn't really address the evolution of animal exhibits.
 
There is the new book out on Hagenbeck by Eric Ames: "Carl Hagenbeck's Empire of Entertainments" which does a great job talking about moated exhibits.
 
gorillaguy said:
I thought briefly about including buildings, but there are existing guidelines for preservation of historic architecture. This includes the category "adaptive re-use," which covers conversion of animal buildings into other uses, such as the former feline house at Lincoln Park Zoo which is now a food court. The reason most of these older buildings still exist is due to their architectural charm (terra cotta animals, nice brick detailing, etc.) the original entrance to the Philly Zoo is great, but it doesn't really address the evolution of animal exhibits.
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I know I've seen old exhibits with interpretation and no animals...somewhere. And there are places like Denver that simply put smaller animals in old grottoes and interpret it. I suppose the problem is that there is no will to conserve these old enclosures. As you say, the buildings have their advocates. The old enclosures are considered shameful. And zoos are pressed for space.

OK, so we have things like the penguin exhibit in London that is a..what?...ice cream stand?

(And the Philly Entrance buildings are not original, of course.)
 
Almost the entire Toledo Zoo was built by FDR's WPA program, so they have a lot of old 1930s-era buildings.

Overseas, one of the most attractive old historic buildings is the big onion-dome Elephant House at the Budapest Zoo. Also quite interesting (and historic) in Europe are zoos that have a "palace" right on the grounds. The Berlin Tierpark has one, as does England's Marwell Zoo.
 
CZJimmy said:
It's now a simple fountain after an unsuccessful attempt to convert it into a porcupine enclosure a couple of years ago
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Thanks, @CZJimmy, I knew there had been a discussion on this Forum about it but could not remember the outcome.
 
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Hi Gorilla Guy, l hope you get around to showing us all your thesis on this topic. Personally l bellive if we dont keep some examples of what it was like. The average zoogoer will never recognise how far we have come!

It just seems that the preservation status is given to far to many buildings & exhibits restricting valuable space for development in a restricted zoo space.
 
Detroit had a huge empty outdoor yard that was once an African Veldt or savannah. They also had the Egyptian-themed giraffe yards.

I'm not sure how old the Kovler Lion House is at Lincoln Park, but there are outdoor yards for lions and tigers attached to it. It may help to research Linclon Park. I believe it's one of the older zoos in the nation and may have something for you.

Cincy has lots of historic buildings like the Reptile and Elephant Houses, but the elephant yards have been modernized. Perhaps the Monkey Island outside of the Reptile house could be an example. They also used to have horribly small outdoor primate cages near the doors of the atrocious old Ape House. They were just big metal cages situated in corners of the building's perimeter. Not sure if they are there anymore, but you can probably easily deduce where they were by looking for where the doors were/are.
 
Blackduiker

On my visit to the St. Louis Zoo in Oct. 08, I was quite impressed with the modern use of very old structures for their Reptiles, Birds, and Primates. All in buildings dated well before 1950.
 
I'm a Chicago native. I volunteer at the Lincoln Park Zoo. We're the oldest zoo in the U.S. (sorry Philadelphia!) 1868!

The Lion House was built in 1912 and is still in use. Originally, it had 13 cages with tile walls. It was patterned after the London Zoo Lion House.

The Reptile House was built in 1923 and the interior was converted to a food court.

At the 1976 Lester Fisher Great Ape house, there was an example of an old outdoor gorilla exhibit at the east end of the building. It was torn down in 2004 when the Regenstein Center for African Apes was constructed.

I was at the St. Louis Zoo on July 3 and 4. The bear grottoes, some of the hoofstock exhibits and the seal pool look original. There was signage explaining the use of red rock in the construction of the exhibits in the hoofstock area.

History :: Saint Louis Zoo

In addition to contacting zoos, you may also want to contact the local architecture foundation. The Chicago Architecture Foundation has docents who give guided architecture tours of the Lincoln Park Zoo.
 
Just remembered: I was at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo last weekend. Their monkey island was built in 1934 or 6 and is still being used. It's pretty ugly.
 
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