my 1878 Cincinnati Zoo

[mrspiggy]

This is my 1878 Cincinnati Zoo project.

 

 

 

The Zoological Society of Cincinnati was founded in 1873 and officially opened its doors in September 1875, making it the second oldest Zoo in the United States. The Zoo's original animal collection was very small, consisting of just eight monkeys, two grizzly bears, three deer, six raccoons, two elk, a buffalo, a hyena, a tiger, an alligator, a circus elephant, and over four hundred birds, including a talking crow.

 

The Zoo was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1987 due to its significant architecture featured in the Elephant House, (built in 1902),the Reptile House ( originally the Monkey House), and the Passenger Pigeon Memorial. The Zoo's Reptile House is now the oldest existing Zoo building in the country.

 

 

I was fascinated by the architectural style of the bear pits, aviaries and the carnivore house and wanted to see if I could duplicate those buildings with the downloads that were available. Most of the early exhibits had concrete or gravel floors and hardly any landscaping to speak of, so keeping the animals happy with terrain that wasn't their favorite was a challenge. Luckily Zootan made an animal hack that was perfect for this project.

 

 

 

If you're interested in reading more about the early start of this zoo and looking at pictures, postcards, etc., I have supplied a couple of links. I especially like the three sites at the Ohio Digital Library. The old architectural drawings and the 1878 guide book were invaluable to me. Luckily I was able to find a couple of maps of the zoo, one was in 1875 and the one I used for the most part was published in 1878 and is located on the cincinnativies.net/zoo web site.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy your visit to my interpretation of the Cincinnati Zoological and Botanical Gardens.

 

 

Joy Krafts book "Images of America- The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden"

Located on arcadia publishing site. You can scroll through some of the pages.

 

http://www.arcadiapu...e=9780738577821

 

 

Cincinnati Zoo Architectural Drawings (item #6)

 

http://cdm267401.cdm...OPTR=3536&REC=6

 

Cincinnati Zoo Guide Book (item #2)

http://cdm267401.cdm...OPTR=3981&REC=2

 

 

German book describing animals at the zoo in 1876 (I had to use google translater)

 

http://www.ohiomemor...PTR=3869&REC=15

 

Great place to see old postcards, a map and a time line of the zoo.

 

http://www.cincinnat...et/zoo_main.htm

 

 

 

Brief history

 

http://www.city-data...Gardens-in.html

 

 

#1- Vine Street entrance, showing the cable car area and the horse and buggy barns.

#2- First exhibit on the right is the Prairie Dog.

 

Walking up to the left you will find:

 

#3- Small Fox & Wolf House- they had a Kit Fox, Artic Fox, Gray Wolf, and Racoon (I have the Kit Fox, Red Fox, Gray Wolf, Red Wolf)

 

This building is shown, I believe in Joy Krafts book. A lot of the exhibits had either Indian or Oriental design. I found the Bookstore download and liked the way it looked so I used it. There wasn't a restaurant or gift store in that area but you know how our guests gets..so I have taken liberties when necessary to keep the guests happy.

 

Since we don't have roofs for exhibits, and on some you need to look inside, they are open. I used the glass aviary roofs later in the zoo.

[mrspiggy]

As you walk past the Wolf house you come to the Squirrel Exhibit. I just couldn't find anything that looked like the picture in the book so did just one cage, it contains the Giant Black Squirrel. The original exhibit had the Cat, Fox, Ground and Black Squirrel.

 

Then you go down into a ravine and come to the Bird of Prey exhibit (architectural drawing)

 

It took me some time to figure out just how to do this building but in the end I think it turned out ok.

 

You then come up to the poultry area. Here it wasn't described that well so I used the animals that came closes to what was in the German Guide Book. Placement of the exhibit is not as located on the map but close enough.

 

Will post the next section of the zoo later.

[(Admin)Cricket]

Wow, this looks great, mrspiggy! Such a good idea recreating a zoo that goes back that far in origins. The Cincinnati Zoo is one of my favs. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Ashea]

Really like the way you did the aviary mspiggy. You were fortunate to find information that far back..

[Fern]

Interesting book. Some interesting buildings

Don't you wish it still only cost 25c to get in? But that might have been quite expensive back then.

[Kreek]

The zoo looks fantastic. Especially the aviary. I like how you've drawn inspiration from a zoo that old!

[mrspiggy]

Thanks everyone.

 

This project has been a long one but enjoyable. It's been over 10 months since I started. Of course there were several restarts, etc.

Trying to find any information about what animals they had in 1878 was very hard. Luckily the German book listed all the animals for 1874 and where they were located but I couldn't confirm that they still had all of the them in 1878.

[StickyFeet]

Oh wow, that is some very impressive designing!

[Firehawke]

I love how this zoo is looking so far. I've always wanted to try building a zoo based on a real zoo, but I had never thought about going back in a zoo's past! Keep up the great work! :glitter_happy:

[mrspiggy]

As you work your way up from the Eagle House you come to the Poultry Enclosure.

 

 

As you turn right, the lake is on your left. They had the mute swan, trumpeter swan, Chinese goose, common duck and the pelican. The zoo had the first birth of a trumpeter swan in 1880. I made the lake both fresh and salt water because I the love the animation of both the white goose and the barnacle goose.

 

 

 

 

At the top of the lake you have two goat enclosures.