Where it all started

Atlanta’s oldest cultural institution turns 120

It’s been 120 years since the circus came to town and never left. Zoo Atlanta celebrates its 120th birthday on March 28, 2009, recalling the date when one visionary entrepreneur backed the beginnings of one of Georgia’s most beloved attractions.

	The patriarch-Willie B.

In March 1889, a traveling circus – Colonel G.W. Hall’s Railroad Show and Bingley’s Monster European Menagerie, by name – went bankrupt just south of Atlanta. Disgruntled circus employees deserted the show, leaving a ragtag collection of caged wildlife behind. The homeless motley crew, which included a jaguar, a hyena, a black bear, a raccoon and several lionesses, pumas, camels and snakes, had already drawn scores of curious Victorian gawkers by the time it was announced that the erstwhile circus stars would be placed at public auction.

On March 28, 1889, businessman George Valentine Gress purchased the entire collection, donating the wildlife to the city of Atlanta. One of only 13 zoos in the U.S. at the time, the Gress Zoological Gardens opened that April, with Grant Park streetcars straining to accommodate an opening weekend attendance of nearly 12,000.

The current panda cub star-Xi Lan

Now home to more than 1,300 mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians and the locus of numerous international conservation programs, Zoo Atlanta remains one of the top 10 oldest zoos in continuous operation in America. “Reaching this milestone is exciting especially as we embark on an amazing 20 year master plan that will transform and take Zoo Atlanta into the next 120 years,” said Zoo Atlanta President and CEO Dennis Kelly.

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