I visited Cincinnati many years ago and I remember seeing the Passenger Pigeon aviary. Do you know if this was the exact aviary that 'Martha' the last pigeon lived and died in?
Cincinnati's Elephant House is about 35 years younger than the other two. While the original Monkey House (built 1874) is the oldest surviving zoo building in the U.S. (I don't count "the Arsenal" building in New York's Central Park. While the Central Park Zoo has used it on and off since 1860, it was never intended as, nor has its primary use been, a zoo building.) Philadelphia Zoo's Ticket Building is a later structure. Cleveland Zoo's Wade Hall dates from the late 1880s if I remember correctly. The Bronx Zoo has a campus of 1890's-1910 Beaux Arts buildings. The Monkey House and Elephant House still have animals. The slightly newer (1901?) Lion House is about to reopen after being shuttered for decades as a new Madagascar exhibit. The remaining buildings are all offices.
I think it is unknown. In the zoo's own history The Cincinnati Zoo from Past to Present (1993) it is said that she died "in one of these buildings" In any event, it is not located exactly in the same spot as it was originally, although it wasn't moved far.
Thanks. Do you know if the 1940/50's 'Great Apes' building at Bronx Zoo still survives, or did it disappear when the new Congo RainForest appeared?
It is gone. The new Butterfly Zone exhibit is there. The former Director was not fond of historical relicts for their own sake. At one point while I was working there, the original steps from the Bronx Road entrance were demolished. They had just sat, blocked off, in the woods for years. I saved a couple of pieces of the stone steps because I couldn't bear to see it disappear. The original bear cages were demolished around 1993, although there had been some discussion about creating the planned picnic area to include the cages! Couldn't sell the idea internally. At least the old Pheasant Aviary remains and is in use.
Antwerp Zoo in Belgium (esthablished 1843) has some beautiful old buildings. In 1983 the entire park was classified as a monument. Bird building: Okapi building (1861): There also is the Egyptian temple (1856), entrance of the zoo (1843) and more.
Marc, Fantastic pictures! So beautiful! Goes against everything we zoo designers advocate and I love it!
Berlin zoo's giraffe house is also magnificent. It has large ceramic painting of Africans on horseback hunting addax and scimitar-horned oryx in the vast desert... Animal places are small, although improved. But architecturally great.
