Webfoot Wednesday: Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

It's summer... the time of year when serious scholarship must occasionally make way for things like trips to the Oregon Zoo. Which is exactly where we were with good friend B on Monday, enjoying the birds of prey show, mongoose feeding time and the kiddo's first snow cone:



In celebration of summer, here are a few nice historical images of the Oregon Zoo -- known at various points as the Portland Zoological Gardens and the Washington Park Zoo, and originally the menagerie of a seafarer-turned-pharmacist by the name of Richard Knight, who evidently kept his creatures in the back of his drugstore at 3rd and Morrison. Go figure. (Thanks to B for the heads-up on the zoo's origins.)

Knight gave his collection to the city of Portland in 1887. One might suspect the animals were pleased to be released from the pharmacy and moved to the City Park, present site of the water reservoir at Washington Park... although they did have to put up with visits like this, made by Rose Festival Princesses to the bears in about 1920:


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In 1959, Oregon celebrated its statehood centennial. Washington Park celebrated by constructing the Washington Park Zoo Railway, a 30-inch gauge railroad that still runs throughout the zoo and surrounding park:


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In 1962, the zoo celebrated the arrival of Packy, the first elephant to be born in the western hemisphere in 44 years:


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Packy was quite a big deal:


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Packy's first birthday (he turned 49 this spring):


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As the zoo Web site puts it, "The late 60s was a time when naturalistic exhibits were not yet a concept. 'Modern' meant bold colors and asymmetric structures, and the zoo reflected this trend":


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Here's a great '60s era postcard view of the Penguin Pool:


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