| The Jackson Zoo, established in 1919 and moved to Livingston Park in 1921, is significant for at least three reasons: First, the park in which it is located is locally significant to the City of Jackson as the city's most important recreational park, having begun as a streetcar park in 1901. It is one of the few surviving parks of this type in Mississippi. (Others include Highland Park in Meridian and Kemper Park in Hattiesburg.) It still retains many of the features of the park landscape of the 1920s and 1930s, including the lake, with its diving platform and fountain, pavilion (located outside of the property proposed for Mississippi Landmark designation). Second, it is significant at the statewide level because it contains the state's most important zoo, and virtually its only one. The zoo retains many of its features from the 1930s, including rustic-style building, stone walls, and the miniature castle on "Monkey Island." Third, it is architecturally notable for its collection of rustic-style buildings and landscape features, particularly those within the zoo itself, but also including the pavilion on the other side of the lake. Among the notable rustic-style building within the zoo are the Old Elephant House, the current feedhouse for the elephant yard, the Ramada, and the four "nighthouses" for hoofed animals. (taken from Mississippi Landmark significance report, July 29, 1993) The Jackson Zoo is included in "Jackson Landmarks" (1982) (p. 182, within the listing for Livingston Park) and "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (p.273, as a part of the listing for Livingston Park, JM-68). |