Evening Star Newspaper, September 29, 1929, Page 116

2 until now the reptiles in Uncle Sam's own Zoo in Washington, one of the rarest and most valuable collections in captivity, have bzen without a home of their own. Virtually hidden eway in bare and inadequate cages and cases, those that have been placed in public view have fiad te share subordinate living quarters in an animal house, while many other fine specimens have been held in the obscurity of a sterage soom. Lack of accommodations has made it dmpossible to exhibit this most interesting Branch of the Zoo's family to proper advantage. All this is soon to be changed. The mighty serpents and venomous snakes, poisonous lizards and salamande:s, giant sea turtles and many other strange and beautifully marked creatures of the reptile group are going to spend the rest of their captive days in a palace. In a spacious n:w building, where the newest latest methods of temperature control, tilation and scientific lighting will be em- ployed to reproduce as nea:ly as possible the normal living conditions of each specimen, they will be shown exactly as they live in their natural state. Striking in its architectural splendor, a moat- surrounded palace of Italian mosaic with inte- rvior walls of marble, terrazzo floors and care- fully executed exhibition dens and spaces, sug- igesting tropical descrts, jungle swamplands, undersea vistas and typical scenes from the wilds of many countries, the new reptile house of the National Zoological Park will outrival eny building of its kind in the world. Final plans for this amazing new building, to ‘cost over $200,000, have just been completed by A. L. Harris, District architect, after many months of painstaking study in America and abroad, and have bcem approved by the Fine Arts Commission. It is to be built in the heart of the Zoo, on the site~cf the old bird house, which is soon t> be razed, and is expected to be ready for the public next year. WHEN the project of constructing a new reptile house was first taken into consid- eration officials of the Smithsonian Institution, under whose jurisdiction the National Zoologi- cal Park is maintained, decided that an ex- tensive study be made of the reptile houses in the principal zoolcgical gardens of the United- States and Europe. Thus in April Dr. William M. Mann, famous animal hunter and director of the Zoo, accom- panied by Mr. Harris, who had been chosen to make the plans, sailed for Europe on an inspection tour of foreign zoos. Their itinerary included the great London - 200, the Paris zoo, the Berlin zoo and the zoos in Hanover, Hamburg, Stellegen, Copenhagen, Munich, Leipzig, Vienna, Dresden, Nuremberg, " Prankfort, Cologne, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Elberfeldt and other cities, where they collected . valuable data, made copious notes and took hundreds of photographs. ... Particular importance is attached to the de- . sign.of the new reptile house here, as it is to ‘e an architectural model for the group of new . buildings in the program for the proposed de- welopment and extension of the National Zoo. - Consequently, Dr. Mann and Mr. Harris not only devoted their attention to the reptile col- dections and - the - facilities for housing them, * “but they studied minutely all the features and advantages of each zoological garden in general. =+ ‘They noted striking landscape effects and the arrangement of animals in groups on hillsides, :dm wvalleys and in pits. ' They saw uncaged monkey colonies and islands and animals sep- " swated from the public ohly by water-motes. They saw extensive lakes and ponds for water- fowls and aquatic animals, and they noted “elaborately decorated entrances and houses; , 200 bandstands where daily concerts are held, llg m.clous restaurants and outdoor refresh- o &Q ~gardens, where Zoo visitors stopped for Rhancheon. ;_!ntheneflinmotheymestruckbyt.h- bright color of the houses and the frescoes of .painted animals which gave more the effect ef a circus than a z00. In Copenhagen they THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, Sl-:l"rl«‘.Mmi‘.R 29, 1929. Dirrector of Animal Park and City Architect Get Ideas Abroad in Preparation for Development and Extension—Building to Cost $220,000 Will Bring All Snakes Out Into Public View. Lions exhibited in an opeit o e pit in the zoo at Leip. s, Germany. A deep moat separates the animals from the public. The plan is recommended for the building and development of the National Zoological Parl:. saw the finest ape house in Europe filled with a great collection of monkeys ‘of every species. In the Nuremberg 300 they saw a seal lake covering seven acres, and in Hanover an aili- gator pond filed with a thousand saurians, They visited many reptile houses of every kingd, sizanddemipfim,lndliflcdnflotthelr worth-while leltufes WHEN Dr Mann md Mr. Harris retumcd to Washingten they brought back with them ideas neot only for the finest reptile hous> ever built but for the future development of the Zrn ln ganemal, “There is no z00 that we have seen, either in this country or abroad, that offers as fine a natural setting as the Zoo in Washington,"” said Dr. Mann shortly after his return. “In the point of area it is the largest moo in the world. With these and other advantages there is no reason why, as the National Zoo of the United States, it cannot be made the finest and the most beautiful zoo in any country. “In many of the foreign zoos ‘much money had to be spent in providing a setting, which we have here naturally. With a little careful landscaping, the plotting of a central point, the erxction of fount~irz ~n? tha ~on~‘tuction of First raprq(llu'lion of ‘the proposed new reptile house for National Zoological Park. It is designed by A. L. Harris, District architect. ol - — —— Reptiles’ Palace to Initiate Zoo Building Program attractive entrances or gateways, much can be done to add to the general attractiveness of the2 Zoo here. But before these things are done a number of our old and unsuitable build- ings, which have been the source of unfavorable comment on the part of visitors, must be torn down and replaced; others which have grown toe small must be extended, and needed new structures must be built. “It is desirable, in the rebuilding of oM houses and in the planning of new ones, that & uniform architectural motif be followed and carried throughout, and it is with this in mind that the new reptile house is to be constructed as & model and a prototype for all the other buildings that are to follow.” ’l‘HUS. when the visitor approaches this new 200-foot-long palace of reptiles and pauses to note its architectural features, as he looks over the waters of the moat, taking in at a glance the landscaped gardens which surround it and gazing at the statuesque figure of the prehistoric monsters grazing before him, he will be able to formm a mental picture of how the entire Zoo will one day look. Crossing the moat by means of a small bridge and entering the building, the visitor will see directiy before him a Western desert, where behind plate glass several species of rattlers and other snakes and reptiles of the arid sands will dwell, In an artificial climate similar to that of their native land. He will note, as he walks through the long exhibit spaces, generously proportioned to ac- commodate large crowds, that the building has been designed primarily for his comfort and to give him the best possible view of the show at all times. Like the desert scene, each exhibit will be behind plate glass, and, while the temperature will vary in the cages to reproduce the native climes of the variods specimens, in the public promenade it will be uniform and even, prop- erly regulated in Summer and Winter. Through a forced draught system of ventilation, similar ' to that used in theaters, clean air, devoid of unpleasant odors, will circulate freely. The only light permitted to enter the building will be through plate glass skylights over the cages themselves, throwing each exhibit into brilliant relief. . AT the southern end of the building alligators and crocodiles will be exhibited in a tropi- cal swamp, traversed by a bayou and filled with cypress stumps and trees hung with mosses and lianas. In this exhibit, one of the largest in the building, measuring 35 feet high by 82 feet wide, behind a solid glass front, in addi- tion to the common alligators of the Southern United States and Central America, the “Gavial” crocodile, one of the rarest in cap= tivity, will be shown. At the northern end of the building there will be three large glassed-in compartments, forming nearly a s>mi-circle, for three varieties of land turtles, including the giant turtles from the Galapagos Islands, recently presented to the Zoo oy Gifford Pinchot and said to be the oldest living reptiles. Flanking either side of these compartments will be glass tank aquaria, where sea turties will be seen as they swim under water, In other compartments set in the side walls of : the building, between the northern .and southern ends and occupying. a wide central area, there will be spaces for the great snakes and other reptiles of the collection, Here the largest East Indian python in. cap- tivity, a monster of the snake kingdom en- dowed with herculean crushing power, will be exhibited in a pen reproducing conditions in the jungles of Indo-China. Also in adjoining cages will be shown the finest four specimens of rock pyvthons ever captured, the ball python and several varieties of the giant boa constric- tors. The anaconda. a snake which spends most of its time submerged, will be seen as it swims under water in an aquarium, as well as other smaller snakes and reptiles. OTHER exhibits in the reptile house wnll include the black spitting cobra of India, which aims its venom with deadly accuracy at the eyes of its victim; the copperhead, the fer de lance, krown for its irascible and fearless nature, and a wide variety of more common snakes from all parts of the world, besides several species of monitors, gila monsters, West Indian and other iguanas, the beaded lizard and two rare specimens of the giant Japanese salamander. There will also be exhibited, in small illumi- nated cases of a novel design, the frogs and toads of many climes and countries and rare jungle and tropical insects seldom found in zoological collections. On the second floor, in the central portion of the building, there will be a spacious labora- tory equipped with vita-glass, violet-ray and infra-red lamps, and every facility for the care and handling of reptiles. This laboratory will open onto a flat, tile roof, where outdoor cages will be installed for experimental purposes. The basement of the reptile house will be cccupied by workshops and food and storage rooms, MONG the recommeondations outlined in ‘the building program presented by Dr. Mann in the last annual report of the Smithsonian In- stitution are an antelope, buffalo and wi'd cattle house; the addition of a wing to the bird house and development of the surrounding area with open-air aviaries, pheasant and gamo-bird runs; the addition of a permanent wing to the carnivore house and the remodeling of the one present wing, which is of sufficient value to repair: the feneing in of the entire park with a high iron fence on a concrete base; the cane struction of open, barless quarters for .bears, lions and t'gers and a barless open village or pit for monkeys.