Philadelphia Zoo

Philadelphia Zoo — America’s first chartered zoo, laid out inside Fairmount Park by the man who then built the Centennial

A word of warning about the label: this is not a public park you can wander into. The Philadelphia Zoo is a ticketed attraction run by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, a private nonprofit, on 42 acres of Fairmount Park land on the west bank of the Schuylkill River. It carries a distinction no other American institution can claim — the Society received its charter on March 21, 1859, which makes this the country’s first chartered zoological garden, though the Civil War pushed the opening back fifteen years to July 1, 1874, when more than 3,000 people came through the gates on the first day. The grounds were laid out by Hermann J. Schwarzmann, chief engineer of the Fairmount Park Commission, who two years later was appointed architect-in-chief of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition and drew the plan for the 250-acre fairground just up the hill. Today the collection holds roughly 1,700 animals of more than 340 species, and about 1.2 million people visit each year.

Highlights

• Zoo360 — a system of see-through mesh trails that lets animals travel above visitors’ heads and across paths, the first of its kind anywhere; it began with the Treetop Trail in 2011 and grew to include the Great Ape Trail, Gorilla Treeway, Meerkat Maze and Big Cat Crossing.
• The Solitude — John Penn, grandson of William Penn, built this neoclassical villa in 1785; it is considered the best-preserved example of its style in Philadelphia, it hosted George Washington, and on opening day in 1874 it held the zoo’s reptiles and small mammals.
• The Furness gatehouses — Frank Furness and George Hewitt designed the Victorian entrance gates and lodges, finished in time for the 1876 Centennial crowds; after The Solitude they are the oldest structures on the grounds and still frame the main entrance.
• Big Cat Falls — the 2006 big-cat complex, home to Amur tigers, snow leopards, pumas and lions, with the Big Cat Crossing overhead trail added in 2014 so the cats cross above the walkway.
• PECO Primate Reserve — opened on July 1, 1999, the anniversary of the zoo’s founding, and built after the catastrophic primate-house fire of Christmas Eve 1995; it houses gorillas, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs.
• The Galápagos tortoises — Mommy arrived in Philadelphia in 1932 and, at an estimated hundred years of age, became a first-time mother in 2025 with Abrazzo; sixteen hatchlings emerged across that year, the first of the species ever bred here in more than 150 years.

What’s inside

The grounds are compact and walkable — a loop of Victorian landscaping and mature specimen trees with modern habitats slotted into it, so the whole circuit can be done on foot without transport.

• McNeil Avian Center, opened on May 30, 2009, a walk-through bird house that includes critically endangered species from Guam.
• KidZooU, opened April 13, 2013, a children’s zoo and education building with domestic and rare breeds designed for close contact.
• Penguin Point, opened in June 2018, with an underwater viewing window on the humboldt penguin colony.
• The Rare Animal Conservation Center, a small, dense house of species most zoos do not keep, from tree kangaroos to naked mole rats.
• Historic rustic architecture and pathways surviving from Schwarzmann’s original nineteenth-century scheme, including the ornamental planting that makes the zoo an accredited arboretum in its own right.
• Carousel, train ride, playgrounds, picnic lawns and seasonal food kiosks, all inside the perimeter wall.

What to do and who it’s for

• Families with small children — KidZooU, the carousel and the short walking distances make this one of the few full-day attractions in the city that a four-year-old can actually complete.
• Photographers — Zoo360’s mesh trails put animals directly overhead against sky, which is a shot you cannot get through glass anywhere else.
• Architecture and history enthusiasts — the Furness gatehouses and The Solitude are worth the visit on their own, and they sit within a landscape by the Centennial Exhibition’s chief architect.
• Conservation-minded visitors — the tortoise breeding program, the Guam bird species and the zoo’s record of American firsts, from the first orangutan and chimpanzee births in the country in 1928 to the first giant river otter birth in 2004, give the place real scientific weight.
• School and camp groups — the education buildings and daily keeper talks are structured around curriculum-age children.
• Winter visitors — LumiNature, the after-dark illuminated walk through the grounds, runs from late November into the first days of January and turns the same paths into something entirely different.

Getting there and practicalities

The zoo sits in the Centennial District of West Philadelphia, on Fairmount Park land immediately west of the Schuylkill. SEPTA’s Route 15 stops at the main gate, which is the simplest surface approach; the Market–Frankford Line, signed as the L since the 2024 SEPTA Metro rebrand, reaches 34th Street Station with a short bus connection onward, and Regional Rail and Amtrak both serve 30th Street Station a little to the southeast. There is a dedicated parking lot on site. Admission is ticketed, and buying online in advance is strongly advised in spring and summer, when timed entry can sell out. The zoo opens daily at 9:30 am and closes at 5:00 pm, year-round, with the last admission well before closing. Allow three to four hours for a full circuit at an unhurried pace, longer with young children or if you stop for keeper talks. Strollers and wagons are available on site, and the loop is fully paved and step-free.

When to visit

Spring is the zoo’s best hour: temperatures suit the animals, the specimen trees flower, and newborns from the winter breeding season come out on view. Summer is the busiest and the hottest — big cats and primates retreat to shade by midday, so a 9:30 arrival buys the most activity, and afternoons are better spent in the air-conditioned bird and reptile houses. Fall thins the crowds dramatically once schools return, and the mature canopy over the Victorian pathways turns the loop into a genuinely handsome walk. Winter is the underrated season: the snow leopards and Amur tigers are visibly happier in cold weather than in July, the paths are nearly empty on weekdays, and from late November the LumiNature light trail reopens the grounds after dark.

Worth knowing

The zoo’s whole existence depends on the park around it. Philadelphia bought the Lemon Hill estate in 1844 and dedicated it as Fairmount Park in 1855; the Pennsylvania legislature created the Fairmount Park Commission by act of March 26, 1867, and the East and West sections together grew to 2,052 acres, the nucleus of a system that eventually reached about ten thousand. The Zoological Society was granted 33 acres of that land, formerly John Penn’s estate, and Schwarzmann laid out the gardens and then hired the city’s leading architects to design individual buildings. He went straight from this commission to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, whose Memorial Hall still stands nearby in West Fairmount Park and now houses the Please Touch Museum — the most substantial surviving structure of the fair anywhere. The zoo opened with roughly a thousand animals, including some 200 mammals, 67 species of birds and 15 reptiles. Its darkest day came on December 24, 1995, when fire in the primate building killed twenty-three animals — effectively the entire primate collection — and the loss reshaped the institution’s approach to habitat design, producing the PECO Primate Reserve four years later and, eventually, the Zoo360 trail concept.

Visitor tips

• Book timed entry online before you set out on any weekend between April and August; the on-site queue at the Furness gates moves slowly once the lot fills.
• Walk the loop counterclockwise from the gate and take Zoo360 trails first — the animals use the overhead mesh most actively in the first two hours after opening.
• Bring a refillable bottle and a hat: much of the central circuit is open lawn and pavement with little shade in high summer.

Questions and answers

Is this a park or a paid attraction? A paid attraction. The land belongs to the Fairmount Park system, but the zoo is enclosed, gated and operated by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, a private nonprofit. You cannot walk through it as a shortcut, and it keeps its own hours independent of city parks.

Is it really the first zoo in America? It is the first chartered one. The Society’s charter dates to March 21, 1859, which predates every other American zoological garden; the Civil War delayed construction, so the gates did not open until July 1, 1874. Some menageries operated earlier, but none was chartered as a scientific zoological garden.

How long does a visit take? Three to four hours covers the full loop comfortably. Families with children under six often spend a whole day, because KidZooU, the carousel and the playgrounds absorb time that adults would spend walking.

What is Zoo360? A network of transparent mesh tunnels and elevated trails, the first system of its kind in the world, that allows animals to leave their enclosures and travel across the zoo above and around visitors. Tigers, gorillas, monkeys and meerkats each have their own routes.

Can I go inside The Solitude? Only on special occasions. John Penn’s 1785 villa is preserved rather than programmed, and the interior opens for occasional tours and events; the exterior is visible from the path year-round.

Is the zoo open in winter? Yes, daily and year-round from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. Cold-climate species are at their most active then, some tropical animals move indoors, and from late November to early January the grounds also open in the evening for the LumiNature illuminated walk.

Is it accessible? Yes. The circuit is paved, largely level and step-free, wheelchairs and strollers can be rented on site, and the exhibit buildings are all step-free at their entrances.

What happened with the Galápagos tortoises? In 2025 the zoo achieved the first successful Galápagos tortoise hatching in its history. The mother, known as Mommy, arrived at the zoo in 1932 and is estimated to be about a hundred years old, making her the oldest recorded first-time mother of her species; sixteen hatchlings emerged across several clutches that year.