The Houston Zoo is fortunate to have two surviving exhibits from the mid 1920s.
One is The Arena. Today, The Arena is better known as the home of our two cinereous vultures. But from the mid 1920s to the mid 1930s The Arena was one of the most popular destinations for Zoo guests. Most afternoons the Zoo’s first head zookeeper Hans Nagel could be found inside The Arena with a cougar, leopard, or lion presenting an awe inspiring training demonstration.
Zoo guests surround The Arena in the mid 1920s anxiously awaiting another training demonstration.
Before entering The Arena, Nagel would warn his audience, “Don’t make any noise, no matter what happens.” Equipped with a buggy whip and a long wooden pole, Nagel would train the big cats to play dead, jump hurdles, play leap frog at sit at a table. Yes, it was a different age and, no you wouldn’t see that kind of display today.
More than once, Nagel’s training demonstrations sent him or his assistant Tom Baylor to nearby Hermann Hospital. The exhibition was once captured by newsreel cameras.
Yes, that’s a one cent stamp on this post card featuring the Zoo’s aviary. The card was sent September 12, 1930
The second surviving Zoo exhibit from the mid 1920s is the Flamingo Pool. The exhibit features some of the first ‘rockwork” ever constructed – faux concrete trees and a waterfall created by renowned faux bois artisan Dionicio Rodriguez. Originally, the work, seen in the vintage postcard on this page was contained inside an aviary that housed not only birds but tortoises as well. The aviary was heavily damaged by Hurricane Carla in 1961, but a portion of the original hurricane fencing may still be seen on the east end of the Flamingo Pool. 
Recently, we identified a third relic from the Zoo’s earliest days thanks to David Baylor, grandson of former Zoo Manager Tom Baylor who shared vintage newspaper clippings from his grandfather’s scrapbook. Among the collection is this clipping showing Mr. Baylor with the Zoo’s first elephants, Hans and Nellie.
It’s a bit hard to see, but on the left side of the clipping you can see a portion of a plaque on a metal gate. The plaque commemorates the now defunct Houston Post-Dispatch for its efforts to raise the funds to bring the Hans to the Zoo. The brass plaque can been seen today at the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat near a fiberglass sculpture of an elephant – a story we’ll examine in future posts.
And we encourage you to become a part of the Zoo History blog. We invite you to e-mail media@houstonzoo.org and share your family photos and Zoo memories with us.
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