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The major entrance to the
Wildlife Conservation Park, also known as the Central Park Zoo, is at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street behind the Georgian-style Arsenal building, and a smaller Children's Zoo just a few blocks north in the park. The gate, a brick arched walkway, is topped by the Delacorte clock (installed in 1965) and an animal sculpture
carousel. Six foot bronze sculptured animals dance around the clock playing drums and other musical instruments.
They are made by the Italian sculptor Andrea Spadini. Timepiece and sculptures
are restorated in 1995; the clock is now digitally programmed. Nursery rhymes are played
every half hour.
Central Park Menagerie 1864 - 1934
Robert Moses Zoo 1934 - 1983
Wildlife Conservation Park
1988
Central Park Menagerie 1864 - 1934
The Arsenal is built in the 1840s as a munitions depot. From 1859 a menagerie has been set up in and around the
Arsenal almost by accident when the park's workers receive exotic
pets and other animals from New Yorkers and circuses.
In 1862 a bear resides in the basement and other donated animals are showcased in outdoor cages, animals retired from the circus
amongst them. Dressed and trained animals are a common sight and part of the
entertainment. In 1864 the purportedly started menagerie is formally
established as the Central Park Menagerie which is allowed to construct
several animal enclosures. In 1871 the interior cages are removed because of danger and the stench. One polar bear and two
sea lions arrive in
1874 and to this day these species can be found in
Central
Park.
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Robert Moses Zoo 1934 - 1983
Animals of the menagerie are moved to other zoos, when Commissioner of Parks Robert Moses is
redesigning the menagerie into a state-of-the-art zoo which opens December 1934. In nine months nine buildings are built from red bricks with white
trim at a cost of $400.000. It is a Work Progress Administration Project. Aymar Embury II
designs the neo-Georgian brick and limestone zoo buildings in 1934. The sea
lion pool is designed by Charles Schmieder. The zoo is laid out in a
quadrangle around the sealion pool. The Robert Moses Zoo is still remembered for its wide variety of animals such as tigers, elephants, hippopotami, gorillas, and the like. It
has many animal statues and weathervanes atop cages and buildings. There are eight concrete eagles installed in 1937
coming from a bridge over Shore Road (Brooklyn) to make room for the Brooklyn - Queens Espressway. The weather vanes are made by Wilhelm Hunt Diedrich
and can still be seen in the zoo today. They
are shaped like the animal in or around the building.
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Wildlife Conservation Park
1988
By the 1960s, 1970s the Moses Zoo's facilities are considered inadequate and in 1980 the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) agrees with the City of New York to redesign and to manage the zoo. All but two buildings are demolished in 1983, 1984, with construction of natural open spaced habitats
to make the animals more comfortable completed in 1988. The buildings are
kept low. WCS experts and architects Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates lead
the makeover with a safari concept in mind. The
sea lion pool is still the anchor of the zoo. It has been enlarged to twice the size of the original
of the 1930's, but the feel is the same as the original. It is flanked by a glass-roofed
colonnade. Nowadays visitors can see the animals under water, too, thanks to
a plexiglass wall. The
concrete eagles are reinstalled in the same locations: in four pairs surrounding the sea lion pool. The
colonnade surrounding the central garden links
the tropic, the (ant)arctic and the temperate area of the zoo. Penguins live in the Antarctic while polar bears only live in the Arctic; some zoos
tend to offer a antarctic/arctic combination. The
low-relief limestone panels of animals by Frederick George Richard Roth are
preserved and reused in the new zoo. The former birdhouse is serving as the gift shop
today; the chimney and the limestone frieze are vestiges of the old zoo. The
current zoo opens on August 8, 1988 and encompasses 5 plus acres. Doable in
one or two hours. More
English
information
website zoo
Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates:
pictures zoo
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