Triumph: The Detroit Zoo
The Detroit Zoological Society, founded in 1911, struggled for years to locate a suitable site for the city's zoo. That all changed in 1916, when land developers purchased a 350-acre farm in Royal Oak Township. The seller, George Hendrie, stipulated that 100 acres be deeded to the Zoological Society. It took until 1922 for Detroit voters to approve a charter amendment that allowed the city to accept the land. A handful of councilmen from the west side did all they could to prevent the deal, favoring a zoo at the site of present-day Rouge Park instead. They forced the final decision of the zoo's location to be put to a vote of the people. On April 3, 1923, Detroiters overwhelmingly voted in support of the Royal Oak site. The city hired landscape architect Arthur Shurtleff, who laid out the park with cage-free habitats designed to resemble the animals' natural environment. The Detroit Zoo opened August 1, 1928.
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