National Zoological Park, Bird House, 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Significance: Although part of the National Zoological Park's early collection, birds lacked a permanent, and proper, habitat for many years. There was no one place for visitors to view the various species; exhibits were scattered throughout the Zoo with the eagle cage and a temporary bird house in amongst the other animal houses at the center of the grounds and the flight cages at the northwestern end of the Zoo?s land. Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Samuel P. Langley wanted the exhibits grouped together, dictating as much to Park Superintendent Frank Baker in 1902, but it was not until the late 1920s that his vision came to fruition. In this interval, the temporary bird house designed by the firm Hornblower and Marshall proved inadequate, failing structurally since it was not built to last and becoming overcrowded. Municipal Architect Albert Harris provided plans for a bird house and funding for the new structure was awarded in 1926. Construction began shortly thereafter. The Bird House was built near the 1901 flight cage, as Langley had wished, and the birds temporary quarters demolished to make way for a reptile house (1929-31).
With the completion of the Bird House in 1928 under the leadership of the then Zoo Director Dr. William M. Mann and Municipal Architect Albert Harris, the Zoo deliberately modernized how it displayed its collections and how it cared for them while simultaneously, and no less self consciously, remade its image through architectural expression. The Bird House is a departure from the picturesque vision of Secretary Langley who sought advice from Frederick Law Olmsted and W.R. Emerson as he charted the course the fledgling National Zoo would take. Mann abandoned the rustic in favor of vigorous architectural projects to demonstrate that the National Zoo was worthy of its name and was in sync with zoological parks on the international scene. Although Mann's ambitions for the Zoo were shared by his successors, their building programs differed. The Bird House and those structures erected during the 1930s represent a distinct era in the Zoo's history wherein grand scale was matched by a refinement of detail, and the robustness of the architectural presence of the animal houses symbolic of the very health of the Zoo itself.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1550
Survey number: HABS DC-777-D
Building/structure dates: 1928 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1935 Subsequent Work