Beardsley Park Zoo began as a menagerie with animals donated by the P.T. Barnum Circus and local residents, centered on the historic Greenhouse in a park that offered Bridgeport, Connecticut, visitors a place to encounter the wild and unexplored world. Between 1878 and 1881, James Walker Beardsley donated about 150 acres to Bridgeport to create Beardsley Park, and in 1884 the city hired renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design it. The zoo opened in 1922 with 18 birds and circus retirees, and its original buildings included the Greenhouse and Casino. Over the following decades, animal identification signs appeared in 1958; the Metropolitan Zoological Society of Bridgeport was established in 1962; in 1973 it became the Connecticut Zoological Society, the zoo was renamed Beardsley Zoological Gardens, and a Siberian tiger exhibit opened; in 1984 the Asian elephant exhibit closed and the zoo shifted its focus to representing the Americas; in 1987 it achieved AAZPA accreditation; in 1995 an interactive prairie dog exhibit, the Carousel Museum Building, a Research Station, and an Animal Care Clinic opened; and in 1997 the Connecticut Zoological Society purchased Beardsley Zoological Gardens from Bridgeport and became a non-profit organization.

Photo: Devry Becker Jones