Longfellow Zoological Gardens

Longfellow Zoological Gardens

Jones, center, performs with a seal and two pelicans in 1917 at the Longfellow Gardens
Date opened	1906 (1906)
Date closed	1934
Location	Minnehaha in Minnesota, United States

The Longfellow Zoological Gardens (sometimes simply called the Longfellow Gardens) were a zoo and garden in Minneapolis's Minnehaha neighborhood in Minnesota, United States.

A Minneapolis businessman and showman named Robert "Fish" Jones first bought a property near the edge of downtown Minneapolis in 1886. He converted the 3-acre (12,000 m²) property into a zoo for the animals which he had collected since his arrival in Minneapolis in 1876. These included lions, jaguars, leopards, bears, cattle and a camel. The number of animals he kept, however, soon grew and Jones was forced to move from the property on Hennepin Avenue to an area in south Minneapolis. Then, in 1906, he opened the zoo to the public. He also built a house styled after the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, where he lived for the rest of his life.

In 1908, in a ceremony presided over by Minneota Representative Frank Nye, Jones and a group of others were honored by a letter from Alice M. Longfellow, the daughter of the poet, noting her wish to some day come and visit the gardens. She never came, however.

The zoo was popular, and continued to grow as Jones eventually added zebras, monkeys, orangutans and a polar bear which was said to have come from Norway. He also had a wide array of birds from the grey crowned crane to the flamingo to the storks. The zoo was also known for its seals. A man-eating tiger, personally captured by animal collector Frank Buck in Johore, was part of the collection.