Initially developed and made accessible by the Jackson Electric Railway, Livingston Park and the adjacent zoo became popularly known as “Jackson’s Coney Island” after the city acquired the property in 1916. Today, other than the large artificial swimming lake, the only architectural remnant of the park is the band-shell (1920, E. J. Hull), an Ionic pavilion at the W. Capitol Street entrance.
A major zoo expansion designed by Jackson’s director of public works, Josh Halbert, and undertaken between 1934 and 1941 by WPA workers, created a moat system designed to reduce fencing between animals and visitors. The expansion’s most celebrated structure was Monkey Island Castle, built of dark brown stone, with castellated towers and conical roofs; today it is an alligator habitat. Other structures include an octagonal former concession stand; the addition of stone veneer to the pyramidal Elephant House Café of 1925; night houses spread throughout the animals’ living spaces; and low stone walls for the dry moat enclosures. All exhibit a rustic Craftsman effect, with Catahoula sandstone veneer quarried near Raymond, battered piers, and barrel-tile roofs. Later concrete “caves” (1956, Mallett and Associates; Lee O. Bunner, artisan) hold giraffe, orangutan, and other large animal dens.