ABSTRACT
Philadelphia's Zoological Society was then incorporated for the purpose of acquiring and maintaining a collection of animals 'for the instruction and recreation of the people'. The city of Philadelphia made its first annual maintenance grant to the Zoo in 1891, and since then has also provided capital grants. These have been the mainstay of the Zoo's more recent major improvements, but operating funds have never been plentiful. The solidly constructed early buildings at Philadelphia copied the heavily ornate style of their European contemporaries. After the start of the Depression in 1929, when income and visitors were at rock bottom, buildings, paddocks and services were all virtually derelict. In 1973 habitat conception of exhibition was extended out-of-doors to a new 'wolf wood' and an African Plains exhibition which was laid out by Philadelphia architects on an area previously occupied by the hoofed animals that had always been a feature of the Philadelphia Zoo.
