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Image / Selig Zoo aerial, view 1

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Title
Selig Zoo aerial, view 1
Alternative Title
Security Pacific National Bank Photo Collection
Date Created and/or Issued
1924
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Opened to the public on June 20, 1915, the Selig Zoo, located at 3800 N. Mission Road, also served as a film production studio for the Selig Polyscope Company, and briefly the Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation. Dramatic entrance gates featuring statues of elephants and lions were designed by Italian sculptor Carlo Romanelli, with interior structures by Arthur Burnett Benton. Selig Polyscope became insolvent in 1918, and over the years the zoo changed names and ownership. It was known as the Selig Zoo (1915-1925), Luna Park Zoo (1925-1931), L.A. Wild Animal Farms (1931-1932), the California Zoological Gardens (1932-1936), and Zoopark (1936-1940). The zoo officially closed in 1940 and many of the animals were relocated to the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park. The Mission Road grounds would subsequently serve as the Lincoln Speedway and the Lincoln Amusement Park, before being redeveloped in the 1950s. The entrance gates would remain standing into the 1960s, before being dismantled and moved to an Inland Empire junkyard. The statues were rediscovered in 2000 and donated to the Los Angeles Zoo, where some of them are now on display.
Aerial view of the Selig Zoo (center). N. Mission Road is the major street present on the left and railroad tracks are running diagonally from upper left to middle right. The zoo was initially opened in 1885 as a private business in downtown Los Angeles.
Type
Image
Format
1 photograph :b&w
Photographic prints
Identifier
00019664
Security Pacific National Bank Collection
L.A.-Zoos-Selig Zoo; G-002-264 4x5
CARL0000023484
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/89109
Subject
Selig Zoo (Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Zoos--California--Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles)
Lost architecture--California--Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles)
Railroad tracks--California--Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles)
Aerial photographs
Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Aerial views
Time Period
1921-1930

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