Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A zoo in the park.
An introduction to Midtown Memphis and Overton Park, where the zoo has stood for more than a century.
On this page
Read the city from the park
The zoo is at 2000 Prentiss Place in Overton Park, in Midtown Memphis, with its main car park off Poplar Avenue.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how a public park has made room for a zoo for more than a hundred years, and how its entrance borrows from another place and time. Respect the people who live and work around it.
An Egyptian avenue
The Avenue of the Animals, the main entrance renovated in 1990, takes its design from the Avenue of Sphinxes in Egypt.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made, changed and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you who carved a figure or built a wall, or the conditions in which they worked.
A Memphis Zoo chapter
The Memphis Zoo shows a city that has kept a zoo in its park since 1906, adding new habitats decade by decade.
Look at the meeting of the two: a historic city park and the modern habitats built within it.
Make room for context
Pair this city reading with the zoo’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places, commissions their restoration or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
