♪ (Announcer) Audubon Park Memories is made possible by the WYES Producers Circle, a group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of WYES's local productions.

And by Audubon Nature Institute is proud to support WYES and this broadcast of Audubon Park Memories.

Learn more at www.Auduboninstitute.org.

Chevron is committed to improving the quality of life in our communities.

Educating the public about important issues furthers that commitment.

That's why Chevron is proud to support this program on WYES.

And by Dreams.

Dreams keep us going.

Dreams keep us growing.

Dreams keep us thriving.

Hancock Whitney.

Your dream.

Our mission.

This program is funded in part by a grant from the Reily Foundation Fund, John and Madge Dicks Fund, in memory of John Fleming Dicks.

And by contributions to WYES from viewers like you.

♪ If you were a bird hovering above the park, would be most dramatic at dawn or dusk when you have this oblique back lighting coming from the rising or setting sun and the mist and this beautiful, intricate canopy this soft green canopy punctuated by this beautiful Uptown roofscape.

That would form a poignant and really striking urban oasis.

It was so strange because you could hear all the animals in the zoo in the middle of the night.

[howls] All these noises, and uh of course you could use your imagination, think what they were doing up that late at night.

The first time I was on any kind of train in my life was the trains at Audubon Zoo.

I took my two children there to enjoy the rides, and I got on the train with them because I never experienced a train ride as a child or as an adult.

So, I was like reliving my childhood fantasy riding the trains in Audubon Park and the Zoo.

Riding down Monkey Hill was like a brave thing to do on your bicycle.

I don't think I'd do that now though.

It hurts when you fall now; it didn't hurt when you fell then.

An urban eden, a zoo considered to be one of America's best; in earlier days a location for a world's fair.

I'm Peggy Scott Laborde; let's take a look at a green space full of memories, Audubon Park Memories.

♪ ♪ ♪ Having a chance to visit with wildlife up close, or engage in sports just a few of the activities possible in an area that comprises 350 acres of Uptown New Orleans.

There's a section of Audubon that has had a magnetic pull for almost a century - the zoo.

While there were a few animals on view at the 1884 World's Fair, it was actually in 1915, using insurance proceeds from a devastating hurricane, when the zoo got started.

The proceeds went to the construction of a flying bird cage.

Just a few years later Times-Picayune editor Daniel Moore offered $500, then considered a large sum, as seed money to start a zoo in earnest.

By the 1920s an elephant and a small aquarium, donated by businessman Sigmund Odenheimer, had become zoo highlights.

♪ Odenheimer also funded a classic attraction that is still a zoo favorite.

(female voice #1) It has a colonnade; it's a colonnade for the seals.

And you can stand on the fence; there's a fencing around the colonnade and you can watch the seals swim; there's like caverns under water.

So they go in and out of the caverns.

(male voice #1) It's a neoclassic design; its setting is spectacular.

And to this day, it's one of the image makers of the park and zoo.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Growth accelerated at the zoo during the 1930s, when Dixie Brewery owner Valentine Merz poured so much money into it, that for a while the zoo was named after him.

And thanks to the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, massive construction gets underway.

That meant new buildings and a real rarity in New Orleans - a hill.

And I had never seen a mountain at that point in my life so it was the highest thing I'd ever seen.

Monkey Hill was built during the WPA days.

WPA was very active in New Orleans during the Depression in order to give local children the experience of a hill.

We used to take our bikes up to the top of the hill and, uh, it was an incredible ride down.

You know it actually had a sort of little wooden restraint, sort of, not a seawall, but a restraining wall around the bottom.

So you could fly down that hill and actually get airborne before you hit the ground again.

Due to segregation laws, I was unable to go to the zoo and the park.

And consequently, I have no memories of Audubon Park and the zoo when I was a child.

As an adult I have lots of memories associated with the zoo and Audubon Park because a lot of that is associated with my children.

We used to picnic near Monkey Hill, and we'd get corrugated sheets of cardboard from empty boxes, and the big thrill was climbing up Monkey Hill.

And, uh, we used to slide down on the corrugated cardboard containers.

And my kids just would scream and they just thought that was like heaven on earth, [laughs] climbing up to heaven and sliding down Monkey Hill.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) While the hill held much fascination, it was the zoo itself that was the draw, even though in retrospect it was less than perfect.

(male voice #2) The old zoo by the standards that we know, it was not a very good zoo.

It was a lot of caged animals.

They had the area where they the uh some of the birds, and you could go and walk by and in it they had a roadrunner and it was impossible for anybody to walk by it without going "beep beep" (Peggy Scott Laborde) When it comes to a favorite animal at the old zoo, the answers are varied but monkey business rated high marks.

(male voice #3) They had an island that had this big giant, like it was a giant silo and they all hung out in there.

(female voice #2) There was a moat around it.

There was a giant moat around it and the only- and then they'd go crazy when the people would come in.

Because you had to buy peanuts.

And they would jump up and down and you'd throw them, make them leap and you wouldn't throw it right at them.

They'd jump in the water and they'd swim and everybody'd go crazy.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) And speaking of monkeys, one of the best zoo tales concerns a 1969 New Orleans mayoral candidate with a unique platform.

(male voice #4) Rodney Fertel saw himself as a visionary.

And as a visionary he decided one day to run for mayor.

And he ran for mayor, he ran on a campaign that, "what we're missing at the Audubon Zoo were gorillas."

And he wanted to bring gorillas to the zoo.

And he said, "If you let me be mayor, "I will bring young gorillas to the zoo."

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Author Randy Fertel even wrote a memoir about his mother and father's colorful lives.

(male voice #5) Having gotten 308 votes, he announced that he was going to go on a safari and find two gorillas, or find a gorilla.

Turned out he found two baby gorillas that were for sale in Singapore.

And they were owned by this ship captain.

He bought them and brought them back to the zoo.

And he was probably the only candidate in my 250 campaigns that I've done in this metropolitan area that actually ever delivered 100% on his campaign promise.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Fertel and family members continued to be involved with the Simians long after the election.

(Randy Fertel) And I got to play with these baby gorillas.

And I think I was kind of too hip to truly embrace this wonder before me.

But it was cool.

It did get through to me a bit.

But if I had any sense I would have been there every weekend, you know, to play with these baby gorillas.

He said they were getting bored one time, so he bought them a TV set.

And then the TV set, he said the show they liked most on TV was the, um, the Johnny Carson show.

And so Johnny Carson found out about our gorillas, and they filmed our gorillas watching the Tonight Show, and they became national celebrities.

♪ (Peggy Scott Laborde) Among the better known elephants that called Audubon home was Itema, named after the old Item afternoon daily newspaper.

(female voice #3) My favorite memory of going to the zoo was to see Itema the Elephant.

And she would stomp around, dig up the dirt, take a big sniff of dirt, and the [blows] blow it over her back.

And we always hoped that she would blow a little dirt on us.

That meant that we could scream and holler and run, "Oh, Itema's dirt.

Itema's dirt!"

We just-we were so excited, if we got hit by Itema's dirt.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) A pachyderm named Miss Sunbeam is also remembered.

(Ken Kolb) I used to work for Bauerlein Advertising Agency, which was a huge advertising agency in town and they were, had a client named Sunbeam Bread.

I had to go out to the airport to get the little baby elephant coming in from Ceylon, and I had the pleasure of riding with Little Miss Sunbeam in this car and if you ever want to know how you can tell an elephant's near you, you can smell the faint aroma of peanuts on its breath, you know.

When I was in first grade we had a class trip to Audubon Zoo.

Then all of a sudden, we see elephants.

So we're all standing there and there are two elephants.

At one point as we're standing there, one elephant kind of knocks the other elephant over, the elephant who knocked, the other elephant down suddenly begins to lean on this elephant.

And we're completely horrified And so we start screaming, and then the teachers and the, and the zoo guide say, "Come along children.

Come along [laughs] come along, come along."

(Peggy Scott Laborde) During the 1960s the zoo featured boxes placed near the cages that were activated with plastic elephant shaped keys.

One twist of the key enabled a recording of information about the animal.

[Recording from box] Children learn so much from the talking story books that when they visit the zoo again with there families they often surprise mom and dad with what they learned.

(Ace Torre) You got a key in the gift shop, you stuck it in a box, and it would tell you the story about the animal, where they're from and so forth.

So.

[cartoon] ♪All the animals in the zoo are jumping up and down for you♪ ♪asking you to be sure to plan to visit the zoo as soon as you can♪ ♪story books that really talk you turn on with a key♪ ♪tell fascinating things about the animals you see♪ ♪story books and zoo keys together guide you through♪ You know they went from having those and I guess everybody got tired of those, uh, to then having what looked like a parking meter.

And you could put a quarter in it and turn it and uh it, it would tell you something but it would also tell you we're going to contribute this to conservation efforts.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) But in addition to getting an education, most zoo visitors were also there for a good old time.

We were just playing around and we were doing the little catch phrase from "The Wizard of Oz."

We were saying, "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!"

And giggling and just having fun, probably having a picnic and going to the zoo.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) How old would you have been?

Twenty.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) During the 1950s, then park director George Douglas worked hard to preserve the almost extinct whooping crane.

(male voice #4) Mr. Douglas built a ramp, and he would spend the nights in the zoo watching the, um, pair of whooping cranes and the eggs to see what might happen.

And sure enough those whooping cranes, one of the eggs hatched, um, and gave birth.

And it was the first time that ever happened in captivity.

And made Life Magazine, Newsweek, you know, Time Magazine; it became a historical story.

And so it was the first of breeding Whooping Cranes in our country.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The zoo's train was even called The Whooping Crane Express.

[Train Horn] Choo Choo Choooo During a zoo visit, you could stop and have your photo taken!

Meyer Tischler was a fixture at the park from 1949 until the early 80s.

Originally from Austria, he took photos around the country at circuses and fairs until he settled in New Orleans.

By 1958 he was using a stuffed bear for his zoo portraits.

Everybody's parents took you out there and made you dress up in some kind of outfit.

I was in a little cowboy outfit; I was like, you know, three or four.

And the photographer would take your picture and charge you some money and you'd get your bear picture.

But that's, that's the bear and everybody got their picture taken on this seated bear, so it was a prop.

When I got there he was still there, and he had to be in his mid-80s taking pictures.

And even though it was antiquated the way he was doing it, there was no way we could ask him to leave because he was so much a part of the zoo.

And that became a symbol of the zoo.

♪ (Peggy Scott Laborde) Through the years a flurry, or shall we say furry of excitement has been created by the addition of animals to the zoo.

In 1983 Suri, a white Bengal tiger, became a zoo resident.

The first time we saw Suri I was young.

You know, when they had her at the zoo.

And I remember we were there, and I think we were like in awe, because it was the first time we had ever seen a real white tiger, like in person.

Being LSU fans, you can imagine that the tiger was a pretty big deal in my household, so.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) And another highlight was the debut in 1987, of white alligator hatchlings, discovered by a fisherman near Houma, Louisiana, brought in from Louisiana Swamps to the zoo's Swamp exhibit.

The reptiles made such an impact that the Krewe of Bacchus painted their Bacchu-gator float white for the occasion.

Love the white alligator.

You know what, that is actually, to this day, one of my favorite rooms to be in.

Because it's really cool.

And it's very serene.

Even to this day when I bring my daughter, I sit and just watch her interact with the alligator.

Usually she will go up close to the alligator and give it kisses.

And, of course, the alligator's looking at her, like she's bait.

The white alligators that the zoo had and worked with, are all named for New Orleans Archbishops, which has been a little known fact about them, but we have a good time when they go visiting at other zoos you know they're frequently perplexed why they have the names they do.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) In the 1980s the zoo offered camel rides.

(Jonee Daigle-Ferrand) I think the most fun part about us riding on the camel is the sitting up and down.

We would be sitting and we'd go up, down, up.

And we'd be bouncing up and down you know, when you are on it with your brothers and sisters.

I mean, all you could do is just laugh and giggle.

♪ (Peggy Scott Laborde) While it's certainly a rare occurrence, a few zoo residents have ended up outside the fence.

(Ken Kolb) And I was seven years old and in my back yard was an alligator.

What had really happened was that the Deke Fraternity House must have, all of them got hammered the night before and they went out to the zoo, the old zoo.

He was about six feet, how they got him out and brought him back and than got tired of playing with him and they threw him over my back fence ...So I ran into the house and I told my father, I said, "There's an alligator in the back yard!"

He runs out with a kitchen knife They managed to call Johnny Northcut, who worked at the zoo; he was the jack of all trades.

Anyway they got him going, and that was it.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) In the 1970s' there were some local civic activists along with then Mayor Moon Landrieu, who felt the zoo could be better.

The Bureau of Governmental research even undertook a study of the zoo.

My first job was working with the city of New Orleans, um, under Moon Landrieu.

That was 1972, and the first project I was given was, "what do we do with the zoo?

Do we close it down or fix it up?"

(Brooke Duncan) I don't think people realized how bad it was until just about the time Moon Landrieu was elected the mayor, some national organization came down and called it an animal ghetto, just it beat them up.

In the meantime, Moon had appointed people like my wife, Kitty, to the commission at Audubon.

And they saw Audubon being criticized by these national authorities on animals and they went to Moon and they said, "We need a bond issue to do something about the zoo."

And they said, "If you want a zoo, you got to have that bond issue."

He backed it; it passed (Ron Forman) Kitty Duncan was the chairman of our board and she worked day and night as our chairman to rebuild that zoo.

And it was Kitty and Betty Wisdom, and I could go through a long list of names that passionately helped rebuild our zoo.

Well now we have Kitty Duncan Sherrill who lives in New York campaigning and chairing the fundraiser for Audubon Park.

Kelly Duncan is the chairman of our Audubon Commission.

So the-the experiences that these families had as kids growing up in that park and that zoo gives us the leadership we have today, which is really making a difference.

You know, George Montgomery and Tom Keller and Betty Wisdom and Miriam Wadick.

And they fought really, really hard to do what they thought was the right thing was to create a beautiful zoo that would be fantastic for people of all ages and all walks of life, and then to utilize the front of the park more and make that a better place too.

The zoo design business has gotten very akin to the, uh, needs of, uh, the animals as well as just creation of natural settings too it, uh, it's what we call immersion design where we immerse the zoo guest into an experience.

So you're no longer walking down a path looking at critters you're, you're, you're in a journey, of, experience and learning.

And you should come away from the experience more.

♪ (Peggy Scott Laborde) Helping to make the new zoo possible was the creation of an annual fundraiser with Kitty Duncan at the helm - the Zoo-To-Do.

♪ During the event the zoo is dressed up for the evening in a whimsical fashion.

(male voice #6) Every year I get to decorate the middle of the pond.

And we do these wonderful center pieces around the pond, twenty of them.

And every year it's a different theme and this year it's our nature walk, we're trying to raise money for that.

We're at the Audubon Zoo enjoying ourselves with all the people that are here tonight to celebrate what we call a once a year annual fundraiser to help keep this place going.

Now you get to sample all of the restaurants that you didn't get the chance to go to this year and then put them on your little chart and say, "This is where I want to go before the year is out."

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Over 30 years later and the Zoo-To-Do has blossomed into a multimillion dollar fundraiser.

In 2013 civic activist Olivia Manning chaired the event.

Her sons, National Football League stars Eli and Peyton Manning attended, along with Cooper, a New Orleans based investment banker.

And her husband, former New Orleans Saint and now restaurateur, Archie Manning.

Well my mom is thrilled to be running this event and she's worked very hard so uh, all the boys came in town and we're all decked out and supporting her and really proud of her hard work.

So she's an inspiration to us all.

Many, many distinguished women in this community have chaired this event.

It's quite a compliment to be asked to do it.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) These days, while many male guests wear tuxedoes, white linen suits have also become a fashion option.

You know my dad for the first time in my life, he called and said, "I'm buying everybody a white linen suit.

"Come in town; you don't need anything.

I got you taken care of."

So uh, we're on scholarship tonight which is kind of fun and uh, everybody looks pretty good, (Peggy Scott Laborde) What is now Audubon Park began as two sugar plantations, owned by Pierre Foucher, and the first Mayor of New Orleans, Etienne de Bore'.

In 1795 De Bore achieved fame as the first planter in the Louisiana colony to granulate sugar, revolutionizing the industry.

An oak tree is named after him; the tree is also known today as the Tree of Life and is between 300 to 500 years old.

Another stately tree is known of as the Washington Oak, and is around 300 years old.

Remaining from plantation days is an alley of oaks.

The land languished for many years.

It was subsequently sold, and remained dormant until the Civil War, when it was used as a Confederate Army campground.

Union General Benjamin F. Butler headed the occupying forces, and set up a camp and a hospital on the land.

During Reconstruction, the Louisiana Legislature created the New Orleans Park Commission, which purchased the land from the then owners for a scandalous sum.

The City Council abolished the Commission and formed another: the Upper City Park Commission.

It wasn't until the 1880s that true park development began.

By the early 1880s, um the South, and particularly New Orleans commercial community, is trying to demonstrate to the world that it's open for business again, that the turmoil of the post-war years and Reconstruction were behind them and that we're open for business.

So how better to do that than to hold a World's Fair.

And so the cotton planters in association with the city and with help from Congress declare a world's industrial and cotton centennial.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) For the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, the land that would become Audubon Park seemed ideal.

The city did have access to it, and it was undeveloped ground; the perfect plot.

And street car companies wanted to develop new neighborhoods of course 400 acres of former plantation that had not done well.

They didn't have amass like in 1984 they didn't have to amass, pieces of property to have it, it was all there waiting for them (Peggy Scott Laborde) There were several structures on the fair site, including the main building, which was located on today's golf course.

(Miki Pfeffer) The main building was 33 acres: 25 miles of walkways, isles to walk to see exhibits, just astoundingly large building.

It was three times what the Superdome is.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) In addition to national companies and state exhibits, several countries had a presence at the fair.

(Miki Pfeffer) Mexico had the largest presence.

The band was ubiquitous.

It was everywhere.

It played concerts.

It marched on the grounds.

It played benefit concerts.

Some people think that jazz was enhanced by some of the brass instruments there, and the way they were played.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) One of the exhibits gave away free plants, which ultimately had a negative legacy.

One of the exhibits provided to their guests sort of a little parting gift of this attractive little plant from South America, this aquatic plant floating in water with a beautiful purple flower and these little lily pad sort of leaves.

By the 1890s, there were local news stories of Bayou St. John completely clogged with water hyacinth.

And to this day, both the state and the federal governments spend tens of millions of dollars trying to unclog Louisiana bayous in particular of this invasive species that was first introduced to the city and present day Audubon Park at the World's Fair.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Among the many attractions at the fair was the Liberty Bell, the first time it ever left Philadelphia.

(Miki Pfeffer) And it was a symbol of good will and reconciliation.

Carefully guarded through its winding way to the exhibit with stops along the way so people could enjoy it, and much fanfare when it arrived.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) A highlight of the fair was the women's department exhibit.

The fair organizers were looking for someone to curate the exhibt who had a high profile.

Their selection, Boston abolitionist and suffragette, Julia Ward Howe.

(Miki Pfeffer) She was the woman who wrote the Northern iconic anthem, Battle Hymn of the Republic, that put God on the side of the north.

And the women were not happy to be under northern authority again.

They wanted one of their own to be head of the department.

But, she was the chosen one, so in she came.

She was a reformer.

An activist.

A writer.

A well-known figure.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Fair goers got to see objects made by women from around the country.

(Miki Pfeffer) You would have seen inventions that women brought: a collapsible summer cottage, all kinds of household wares that women had invented.

You would have seen 1,400 books written by women.

The department showed what women were doing, what they were doing in their daily lives by showing the handy work.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Among the objects on display was a quilt depicting homegrown produce.

(Miki Pfeffer) It was made by one woman.

It took her six months to do it.

It was a crazy quilt, but it had all kinds of embroidery and appliques.

It had over 2,000 pieces, it showed all of the crops of Louisiana.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Today the quilt is in the collection of The Louisiana State Museum.

While local lore has dubbed this chunk of rock in the middle of the Audubon Park golf course a "meteorite," it's actually a holdover from the fair.

(Carolyn Kolb) It's a piece of iron ore from Birmingham, Alabama that was part of the Cotton Exposition.

But it's still there and everybody still thinks of it as the meteorite.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Inside the main building was a music hall, with 11,000 seats.

During the fair, which opened in December of 1884, Santa gave out presents to children in front of a 45 foot tall tree.

And, on the Monday before Mardi Gras, Rex, the King of Carnival, paid a visit.

The horticulture exhibit building was constructed to be permanent.

(Miki Pfeffer) It was a glass conservatory.

It had a fountain in the center.

And it was nestled in the beautiful oak trees that people admired.

Produce was shown a lot and tropical plants that people hadn't seen, cacti and it lasted until the 1915 hurricane when it was destroyed.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The fair lasted almost six months.

An attempt at another smaller exposition didn't last long.

Total attendance of both events was far less than expected.

Even though the fair wasn't a financial success there were some positive aspects.

But it's really during and after the World's Fair that you start to see the development of leisure travel infrastructure, the creation of honest-to-goodness hotels You also see the very beginnings of interpretations of New Orleans' past for tourist consumption the first tour guides, the first maps and guidebooks interpreting the city.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) There was also the beginning of a new neighborhood.

(Richard Campanella) But it's not until after the Fair that you see the full-scale, rather opulent residential development.

And what occasions this is not just the launching of what is now Audubon Park but the affiliated purchase of the other open parts of the Foucher track by the Jesuits and by the administrators of the newly renamed Tulane University, right around 1890/1891.

Loyola starting in 1910 come together and together with the Park which by the Olmsted firm is landscaped in the 19-teens and 1920s, you have three major, beautiful urban amenities: two university campuses and a park.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) By 1886 the New Orleans City Council establishes a new commission to operate the park and Upper City Park is renamed Audubon Park, after naturalist and painter John James Audubon who produced many of his famed "Birds of America" in Louisiana.

New Orleans District Attorney John Ward Gurley, Junior became the first president of the Audubon Park Commission.

He convinced his fellow commission members that they needed expert advice in the creation of a public park.

♪ Considered the father of American landscape design architecture, in 1893 Frederick Law Olmsted was asked by Audubon Park commissioners to create a master plan.

Up in age, he deferred to his son, John Charles, who ultimately had an over 25 year relationship with the park.

New York's Central Park and the United States Capitol grounds are just a few examples of the Massachusetts-based Olmsted Firm's accomplishments.

Walking through Audubon Park, John Charles Olmsted was encouraged by the already mature oak trees, a rare advantage over other American parks.

Part of his plan included a system of waterways, today's lagoons, a central meadow and a variety of new plantings.

So when he first came in 1898, he looks upon this vast, flat site, remember this is post, uh, Cotton Exhibition and the only remnant building I believe was the horticultural hall and some live oaks including this grand oak allay.

And he, he's sort of perplexed about the fact that it's flat, it's uninteresting.

Uh, he's concerned that they could really make it into something, and his immediate response is put a bunch of hills and weave lagoons through it.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The construction of lagoons initially met with public outcry, since some citizens thought they would encourage outbreaks of yellow fever.

The Audubon Park Commission had medical experts allay fears.

Due to financial limitations, Olmsted's vision for the waterways was confined to the area between St. Charles Avenue and Magazine Street.

Through the years Olmsted remained ready to assist when needed.

Among his more controversial recommendations but ultimately supported by the Audubon Park Commission was the denial of philanthropist, Isaac Delgado, a site for an art museum.

Olmsted felt that the structure would take up too much space.

Delgado found a home for his museum in a much larger City Park.

Olmsted worked with park leaders to create a green space reflecting his philosophy: (male voice #7) "The true purpose of a large, public park "is to provide city dwellers with a convenient opportunity "to enjoy beautiful natural scenery "and obtain occasional relief from the nervous strain "caused by the excessive artificiality of city life."

(Peggy Scott Laborde) In addition to financial hurdles, there was also a new philosophy in American park design that would affect Olmsted's master plan.

(Ace Torre) This constant battle of progressivism, you know active recreation, versus the Victorian sylvan setting, uh, pastoral imagery that the, uh, Olmsteds are fighting for.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) By 1912 the area between St. Charles Avenue and Magazine Street featured lagoons and gazebos on small hills.

A playground was constructed, along with a classic entrance that is considered a symbol of the park.

Mrs. Maurice Stern donated the funds for the entranceway in memory of her husband.

It was designed by architect and Audubon Commission member Moise Goldstein to complement Olmsted's vision.

(Ace Torre) And that is sort of a classic Olmsted entry image with the former balustrade and the four columns leading to the Gumbel Fountain and the whole very formal introduction to a pastoral setting.

when you look at it, it's got engaged columns, round columns, on either side of this square overall column.

With a regimented base, the balustrade can be anywhere from Victorian to Edwardian.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The Gumbel Fountain behind the entrance columns was donated by Mrs. Beaulah Joseph and Mrs. Cora Moses, as a memorial to their parents, Simon and Sophie Gumbel.

(Ace Torre) Well it's a neat little formal fountain and the sculpture in it as I recall was supposed to representing the transition between water and air.

She's actually supposed to be reaching up and making that connection.

So I guess if you sat around the fountain and you were getting the vapors, you walked away healthier than when you walked in.

(Kitty Duncan Sherrill) Being in an Olmsted park is like being in history at any time in history because the parks have a timeless feel because they're so much about natural form, so much about nature and beauty and integration of trees with under story.

The overall park is really a beautiful park, and I think it stands up, uh, of all the colorful history that created it, all the, uh, challenges that Olmsted faced and the Commission and proponents of progressivism versus Victorianism.

I think the-the solution is a contemporary solution that's a balance between the two and we had a chance to, uh, have the works of the hand of a really, uh, wonderful designer but that we can see its merit today and-and I think the park stands up against any other park in the -in the United States.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Even after John Charles Olmsted's death in 1920, the Olmsted firm continued working with the park until the 1940s.

Among the memorials in the park is a flag pole in tribute to soldiers from Louisiana who lost their lives during World War One.

The park's lagoons reflect the impact of Olmsted, and these bodies of water have stories to tell... (Brooke Duncan) You seemed to have a penchant for falling in.

I guess they were what, like six years old or something like that.

This was a Sunday afternoon, late, late and he went out of sight and I pulled him back out and he was mad as the devil.

Of course I'm an identical twin so you don't know whether it might have been my twin brother, Foster.

It might have been the other guy.

They never were quite sure who was who That's right.

(Ken Kolb) I fished a lot.

You can't do it really any more but I fished.

and you'd flip that hook out there with a cork and you'd sit out there with a bologna sandwich and a little butter on a piece of bread and you'd sit out there with your hat on, big floppy hat.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The swan boat began gliding on the Audubon Park lagoons in the 1920s and lasted until the 60s.

I actually got my first job, uh, at ten years old riding my bike, and we had the wonderful, old swan boat going up and down the lagoons, and, um, the man running it woud see me hanging around.

And one day he asked me would I like a job.

And I said, "I'd love it."

And the job was as he would pull up the boat and I would tie it up.

So, I would ride back and forth all day long on the swan boat, tying it up, and I felt good about myself.

And, um, hopefully the customers felt good about the job I was doing.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) To survive the long hot summer in New Orleans, in the early 1920s, a section of the newly dug lagoon was used as a swimming hole.

In 1921 identical fountains and children's wading pools in Audubon Park and City Park were constructed due to the generosity of Sara Lavinia Hyams.

In her will she stipulated that the proceeds from the sale of her jewelry collection be shared with the parks.

When you think back at the tiny amount of water that was in that and that we all spent hours in it, what were you doing there for those hours?

It's unknown but it was just a great thing.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) In 1928, a pool was dug in Audubon Park big enough to satisfy many Orleanians on those hot summer days.

It was 225 feet long, almost the size of a football field and had a capacity for up to 2000 swimmers.

(Ron Forman) Double pools.

There were low diving boards.

There was the high diving board.

You had to go through this elaborate shower room where they splashed you all over the place.

There was the dividing line down the middle and um, it went from three feet to ten feet, and of course as you get older and you learn better how to swim so, one of the big anxiety things is to be able to swim in ten feet, cause then you knew you were a swimmer.

(Errol Laborde) The swimming pool was open in 1928, and it had a long and happy time until the 1960s.

And the 1960s at the time of integration that the pools were closed, so they sat closed for a long time.

In 1970, Moon Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans, and he was elected with the mandate of really integrating the social services within the city.

And so the Landrieu administration was really out to open that pool, and they did.

Now I think they knew that the clientele would be mostly black but I think that was also the target audience.

In college, I worked for NORD, the New Orleans Recreation Department.

And I worked under a man named Morris Jeff.

Morris Jeff was a man who was essentially the program for blacks under NORD.

But some good things happened there.

One thing was that a lot of kids learned to swim.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Upkeep of the enormous pool proved too costly and a smaller one, named the Whitney M. Young Memorial Pool, was constructed in 1998.

Audubon Park had a series of miniature trains.

From the 1890s until the 1970s, going through a tunnel was a real thrill.

I hate to tell you how old I was when I finally figured out the reason the train always has a tunnel is that where it goes at night, you know, but I didn't know that.

I just thought they always had a tunnel for my train ride.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Another feature for rail buffs was a vintage Southern Pacific 745 steam locomotive.

It called Audubon park home from the mid-1950s until the 80s.

In its heyday I thought that was the greatest thing that you could go onto a locomotive and play with all the gizmos, and they had the big gauges and everything right there, you know like you were really running a real thing.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The Louisiana Steam Train Association completely restored the locomotive that has traveled around the state.

The 1890s saw the construction of a park carousel.

(Ron Forman) The old carousel was a hand carved, um, by a German firm, um, and brought in.

And wonderful piece of artwork, and it's a tragedy that we lost that a long time ago.

The rides were wonderful.

It was linked into a, kind of a carousel-type building with the antique ride the horses on-on the carousel.

And it wrapped around it was the, um, the amusement rides.

And that was a big deal for Audubon for a long period of time.

Well the flying horses as we called them was really a big favorite of mine.

And it seems to me there was a ring.

If you went by and if you could catch the ring, you'd get a free ride.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The Audubon Tea Room, a green wooden structure, served as a gathering place for special occasions.

(Deacon John) It wasn't as big as the AT is now, but, uh, it was a small venue, uh, especially designed for smaller events and functions like birthday parties, and fraternity parties, or wedding receptions.

You could walk out of Audubon Tea Room and there you were in the middle of Audubon Park with all those gorgeous oak trees and pavilions.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) The old Tearoom has been replaced by a larger structure that also opens out to the park.

The Newman Bandstand, designed by Emile Weil, was donated by a park commission chairman, Jacob Newman, in memory of his parents.

Today live music can be heard throughout the year at the newer Capital One Bandstand.

One New Orleans music legend holds the zoo's record for annual appearances!

It's Mother's Day, and for over 30 years Irma Thomas has been spending that special day under the oaks at Audubon performing for moms and their families.

When Ron came on as the director for the Zoo and I think anything connected to the Zoo, he was trying to figure out a way to get people back to the Zoo, of course and raise funds for the Zoo.

The first project I did with him was the Zoo-To-Do that we did on the back of a flatbed truck because there was no stage, and I thought that was hilarious.

But we had a good time that night.

Everybody turned out in their finery, and they had a very good turnout.

And then he decided he would try something else such as Mother's Day at the Zoo and let all of the moms come in free and that way the families could make it a family day.

And it turned out real well the first year so we tried it again.

[Irma Thomas singing] ♪You were here, you were here ♪you were here, you were here ♪you were here, you were here (Peggy Scott Laborde) Through the years Audubon Park has done its part as a setting for recreation.

An 18-hole golf course, surrounded by oaks and lagoons, dates back to the 1890s.

In addition to being an amenity, proceeds from the course became a way to cover early park expenses.

Today's clubhouse, a replica of an Acadian cottage, includes a café and pro shop.

Tennis has been another mainstay, with its current location in the rear of the park.

A horseback riding facility began in the 1920s with stables that had been part of a sugar experiment station.

The stables were later moved to its present location near Magazine Street.

So when I got to be old enough to ride a horse, my mother packed me up and took me up to Audubon stables.

And there was a little, tiny pony called Pee-Wee, little peppy pony.

And they put me on Pee-Wee one day.

Well, I wasn't used to this little, spirited horse.

And, um, I got about half way around the ring and Pee-Wee put her head down.

I thought she was throwing me off.

I jumped off the horse and ran off screaming and never went back to anymore lessons until I was 40 years old.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) She took lessons at the Audubon Stables, which included participating in an equestrian competition.

(Ann Bruce) And I went away with a blue ribbon and a little, tiny trophy.

And as my husband said when we got home, "Quit while you're ahead."

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Cascade Stables has been operating the park's equestrian program since the 1980s.

Cascade provides horses for many New Orleans Carnival parades.

(J. Kelly Duncan) A couple of weeks before Mardi Gras and all the different krewes have their riding lieutenants come out and practice riding around the park or in the ring and it's a lot of fun.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Near the stables is a recent addition to the park for those in a more contemplative mode.

(Carolyn Kolb) There's a labyrinth that is in the park between Magazine and Tchoupitoulas and just off of the Exposition Boulevard.

People might not know that but it's a nice little addition to an uptown park.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Constructed in 2006 by the Friends of the Labyrinth at Audubon Park, it's a replica of the labyrinth in France's Medieval Chartres Cathedral.

An expansion on the adjacent Mississippi River batture had been on Audubon Park's drawing board since the late 1800s, but it wasn't until almost a century later that the area was transformed into public space.

It became known of as "the fly."

(Ace Torre) The fly, uh, it's an interesting edifice, that's no longer with us.

It was a concrete deck with concrete pilings with a thin shell concrete, uh, concessions building that had a roof on it that looked like the wings of a butterfly.

So as it spread and rose, it was very, very iconic.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) This now popular section of the park almost didn't exist.

For over 30 years part of the land was used as a dump.

It is now playground space, and a prime spot for watching the river go by.

It also has a lesser known use.

(Gwendolyn Thompkins) I remember when I was in high school actually, when I was at Ursuline, and um, you know and uh the girls talked about going to the Fly, uh, it really wasn't about going to look at the river.

(Deacon John) That's where you took your girlfriend to make out, and I've had many a romantic liaisons on the batture of the river.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) These days much of The Fly is host to high energy endeavors.

♪ (Peggy Scott Laborde) Year round the zoo and park are busy places, with numerous events, including the Halloween themed Boo at the Zoo.

♪ The annual Swamp Fest celebrates a section of the park that pays homage to one of Louisiana's best known natural settings.

(Rick Atkinson) Part of the reason I moved here was because I really enjoyed the animals, the habitats, the wildlife that lives in Louisiana.

So I really enjoy the opportunity to kinda design and put together my idea of what might be a local animal and plant and cultural exhibit, that would feature and exemplify, you know, all of these things (Peggy Scott Laborde) Created in 1985, the Louisiana Swamp exhibit has garnered national awards.

(Ace Torre) We referred to it initially as "backyard ecology," but the thought that your own back yard is exotic and connected with the world as any other entity, to look at the Louisiana swamp.

So here in the city, where we put the Louisiana Swamp was actually a piney ridge.

There was one cypress tree.

It was just a big, beautiful, mature cypress tree, and we built the Cypress Knee Café around that one cypress.

(Gwen Thompkins) Our own home state, our own home areas became much more interesting to us because we realized that you -you know that exotic doesn't really mean something that is far away from you.

You know exotic can be right next door.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) And speaking of right next door, one of New Orleans' best loved Rhythm and Blues songs pays tribute to the zoo "They All Axed For You."

♪I went on down to the Audubon Zoo and they all axed for you♪ ♪they all axed for you ♪for who ♪well they eve inquired about you♪ And so I-I guess I see that song as um just a little reminder that um, you know what I mean, that the world awaits you at the zoo.

"They All Axed for You" a-x-e-d was not the original song about the Audubon Zoo.

The original song was done in 1923, and it was called "Down on the Farm."

And, uh, in parentheses it says, uh, "They All Ask for You."

A-S-k.

It was recorded by a group called the Manhattan Merrymakers, ♪Down on the farm they all ask for you♪ and this provided the impetus for, uh, Paul Gayten to come out with his version of "They All Ask for You."

And again, Paul Gayten associated his "They All Ask for You" with a mixture of farm animals and zoo animals, ♪Down by the zoo and they all ask for you♪ ♪Down by the zoo and they all ask for you♪ and it provided the inspiration for The Meters' version in 1970, ♪The ducks ask, the eagles ask and the buzzard asked me too♪ (Peggy Scott Laborde) While Audubon Park may have begun Uptown, its growth has gone beyond those original boundaries.

Within the umbrella of the Audubon Nature Institute is not only the zoological gardens and the park, but also the Aquarium of the Americas and IMAX Theatre, which opened in downtown New Orleans in 1990.

Alongside is Woldenberg Park, with its own view of the Mississippi.

Also in the 90s, the Audubon Species Survival Center opened on the West Bank in Algiers; today on that site the Audubon Zoo is working in partnership with the nationally acclaimed San Diego Zoo Global.

This joint venture is called the Alliance for Sustainable Wildlife.

In 2008 the Butterfly Garden and Insectarium opened within the historic United States Custom House on Canal Street.

♪ And back to the zoo, there will be a major expansion of Jaguar Jungle, a new home for the elephants will be three times larger than their original space.

Miriam Walmsley Cooper Plaza features a fountain with water spraying sculptures of elephants.

An then there is monkey hill.

It has been transformed from a very basic mound of earth into a learning experience.

And what we had done is you actually had to walk through in the African exhibit.

We can climb to the top of Monkey Hill, and you met with a -a family of bronze lions At the same time there's a waterfall that comes down the hill now.

And so the kids love it.

At summertime they take their shoes and socks off, climb in the waterfall, walk down the stream, and um, and-and we still compare it to Mount Kenya in Kenya in Africa and tell about what you can experience in Mount Kenya and what you can experience in New Orleans.

It's a great, wonderful experience.

And it has a long tradition.

I guess it's been there almost 100 years.

Hopefully, it'll be there another 100 years.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) While the flying horses were gone by the late 60s, almost 40 years later the Charlotte Gottesmann family endangered species carousel, made its debut.

The wading pool is no longer used as a place toe dipping but the cool zoo complex affords a way for children to cool off.

Never static, the Audubon Nature Institute continues to grow.

(Ron Forman) Because of the partnership with the private sector and the public sector working hand in hand, we're able to have world-class facilities that compete with the best in the country.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) But it all started with Audubon Park.

Landscape designer John Charles Olmsted, with his fondness for a more pastoral setting, would have been pleased in 1981 when the roadways near the St. Charles Avenue entrance were closed to vehicular traffic.

Future plans, in the tradition of Olmsted, are to increase plantings and renovate existing park structures and monuments.

Meanwhile the park continues to welcomes visitors, especially its neighbors.

(Gwen Thompkins) When I was in college I actually lived on Tulane's campus and, uh, so I spent a lot of time walking through the park during those years, and loving it.

No matter what your situation is, If you want to go fast, if you want to go slow, if you just want to think, if you want to rest, if you want to be um become uh inspired by nature.

It's all there.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) For over 30 years on Mardi Gras morning the Rex Organization has staged a royal run.

[group of people] Hail Rex - Hail Rex!

[cannon firing] Boom Taking part are Rex and his queen, and many of their loyal subjects.

Runners or walkers, year round the park welcomes both.

So you have people that you see that you see regularly and there are a lot of dog walkers and there are a lot of people pushing baby strollers.

And of course people on bikes, occasional skate boards, And then there are the running strollers with the waist-high things and those little kids that look like this going around the park.

But it's the regulars.

♪ (Peggy Scott Laborde) Everyone's daily routine was changed in a devastating way in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

(Ron Forman) The hurricane was coming, we were prepared.

We had our staff there.

Uh, but when the levee broke, uh, I had to staff and say, "Based on the information we're getting, the levee broke, the city is going to flood.

"Once it floods, you're not to get out of here.

"I know you're here to take care of the animals, "but you have your own families.

You have a choice.

"What do you want to do?

Now's the time to make that choice."

And every single person that was there said, "We've already taken care of family, our wives, our family, "our parents, or whoever, we're not leaving our animals."

And that passion they had for what they were doing speaks to the job they do each and every day.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) Fortunately the zoo weathered Hurricane Katrina fairly well but blown down trees needed to be cleared.

So after Katrina, you know, of course there were fallen trees everywhere, and they used the elephants to help move some of those big logs.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) A decision was made to open the zoo as quickly as possible after the storm.

We opened the door Thanksgiving, and that weekend 60,000 people came.

There was nobody in town.

60,000 people showed up.

And they were coming, and we learned not to see the animals, they were coming to see each other.

And that New Orleans and Audubon was a collection spot of families.

And the reason they came was a place, it was important for them to come to feel normal again.

(Peggy Scott Laborde) And Audubon, especially for locals, continues to feel like it has always been there.

We are just so fortunate, the people who live Uptown, to be near one of the best zoos in America and one of the best parks in America with a golf course and, uh, all of the attractions at the new zoo.

And then there's plenty areas to play.

It's just like nirvana to people who live Uptown.

The Uptown area where Audubon Park is located is really a fairly, highly congested area.

Audubon Park became more of like the backyard or perhaps the front yard for a lot of people just to help relieve that congestion.

I think it plays a very, very important role in the vitality of Uptown life and life Uptown would be a lot poorer without Audubon Park.

Poorer, yes.

And richer with the knowledge that, even if you can't hear the growl of animals at night, you know there's still a place in New Orleans where a menagerie awaits.

Jungle or swamp -and yes its true, they are all axing for you!

A few minutes in an animal enclosure looking at the public going by and you know why the animals are never bored.

Every day they get out there and they watch.

All my life the zoo, the park have really been a part of it since I was a little girl going there with my mother and my friends to see the animals and taking riding lessons and then as I got to be a teenager going to parties at the, uh, the tea, Audubon Tea Room.

Um, and then you know walking got older, we'd walk in groups around the park.

And, um, then not too terribly long ago I went to a wedding of a friend of mine's child in Audubon Park.

So, throughout my whole life the park has always played a role in it.

And on Monkey Hill, it was this big mound of earth, it was famous for kids.

We were like a barrel of monkeys; we would roll up and down it; we'd play games and everything.

And on Monkey Hill, I walked up there and I put my arm around this lady here, and I asked if she would fall in love with me for the rest of my life.

And so, I have hit what is called The Daily Double of Love.

♪ ♪ (Announcer) Audubon Park Memories is made possible by the WYES Producers Circle, a group of generous contributors dedicated to the support of WYES's local productions.

And by Audubon Nature Institute is proud to support WYES and this broadcast of Audubon Park Memories.

Learn more at www.Auduboninstitute.org.

Chevron is committed to improving the quality of life in our communities.

Educating the public about important issues furthers that commitment.

That's why Chevron is proud to support this program on WYES.

And by Dreams.

Dreams keep us going.

Dreams keep us growing.

Dreams keep us thriving.

Hancock Whitney.

Your dream.

Our mission.

This program is funded in part by a grant from the Reily Foundation Fund, John and Madge Dicks Fund, in memory of John Fleming Dicks.

And by contributions to WYES from viewers like you.