Bronx Zoo Elephant House

The Zoo Center, formerly known as the Elephant House, was just one of six heavily ornamented beaux-arts style structures conceived by William Hornaday and built by Heins & Lafarge for the opening of the Bronx Zoo in 1899.

The Elephant House, opened on November 20, 1908, was designed to resemble the royal menageries built by European aristocracy during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, modeled on the Palais des Hippopatamus in Antwerp, Belgium. Built for elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses, there were eight large cages on the inside and the elephants occupied the outside yard.

A 1907 design competition held for the right to ornament the Elephant House with sculpture ended in a tie between Alexander Phimister Proctor and Charles Robert Knight with Proctor doing the south side, and Knight doing the north side. In 1989, the building was renovated and reopened as the Keith W. Johnson Zoo Center with rotating educational exhibits. Although the elephants were moved to the Wild Asia exhibit, the friezes remain.

Bronx Zoo Elephants 1956. The wall appears to be safer then a moat but it offer's other issues if the public is allowed to feed the animals, a practice that has fortunately been stopped. There is a reason why elephants are nicknamed "rubber cow's."


Or as some would suggest the Asian is trying to get away from the African as they "speak" different languages, and may not understand each other. I am sure anybody can "listen" to their elephants, and they can tell you who is making what noise without looking. But I'll bet none of them can tell me in what "dialect"?


Don't doubt an Asians athletic ability.