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Como Park Zoo & Conservatory
Inside this spectacular and awesome attraction
in St. Paul, Minnesota, you will discover a zoo, the Marjorie
McNeely Conservatory and more; like the golf course, pool, amusement
park, carousel and Lake Como. Almost 2 million people come here each
year to enjoy the many beautiful wonders and exhibits that will
certainly have you spending more time than you planned for here. The
entire complex is free, although donations are encouraged; $2 for
adults and $1 for children, so it is really just a small donation
and it will help the magnificent area be maintained and kept up to
date. Way back in 1873, the city was fortunate enough to be the
recipient of 300 acres of land around Lake Como in hopes that it
would become a public park. Today, the 384 acres of park include;
athletic fields, the par 70, 18 hole championship course of Como,
2.3 miles of marvelous trails to hike, bike, walk, run or jog, a
1.67 mile trek around the Lake, which is a superb place to enjoy
many hours each day, paddleboat rentals, the Como Town amusement
park for children of all ages, the Putt'er There mini golf course,
Como Pool, picnic areas and shelters, a fishing pier, and a
fantastic waterside pavilion with the Black Bear Crossings
restaurant. An abandoned foot bridge that was built over street car
tracks in 1904 is still there, as is the bridge on Lexington Avenue
that was built in the same year and also engineered by William S.
Hewitt and added to the National Register of Historic Places in
1989. The Cafesjian's Carousel is a hand made wooden horsed carousel
that is absolutely terrific and loved by all who ride, hoping to
grab the brass ring. Plenty of restrooms are placed strategically
throughout the park and in 2006, a sculpture by Micheal Sinesio was
placed near the west entrance; it was part of the Minnesota Rocks
International Stone Carving Symposium. A wonderful frog pond was
finished in 1910 with a pergola that was built in 1929 and a granite
frog was placed at the pond in 1923, giving the pond its name. The
park's gates were constructed and placed in 1894, and restored in
2007. A superb Global Harmony Labyrinth was built in 2005,
celebrating the wonderful relationship the city has with its sister
city in Nagasaki, Japan. In the middle of the frog pond sits the
last component of the Japanese garden, the granite frog. Hamms
Memorial Waterfall is located here. A bust of Henrik Ibsen was
donated in 1907, but was stolen in 1982 and mysteriously replaced in
the 1990s. There are many more that would have to be seen to be
appreciated, so why not go and see all these exciting monuments and
statues. The zoo was started on Harriet's Island in 1897, when the
city was donated three deer and soon more followed so that a place
to house and take care of them was needed. That's when they were
brought to Como Park and have been growing ever since. The art deco
zoological building was designed in 1936, by Charles Bassford and
the WPA built it; as well as monkey island, which became seal
island, the bear grotto and barn. In the 1980s, many new displays
were added including the aquatic animal building, primate facility,
African hoofed stock facility, the large cat exhibit and the
conversion of the monkey island. The exquisite conservatory that
sits on a half acre was opened in 1915 and contains the bonzai
gallery, tropical encounters with plants and animals from the
tropics, enchanted garden is also a butterfly garden, fern room,
sunken garden with seasonal flower showings, the Japanese garden is
Sansui styled, with mountain and water landscaping, orchid house,
north garden with the useful plants like bamboo, aloe, mahogany,
bananas, coffee, figs, manila hemp, cacao, manioc, macadamia and
papaya, with the last being the palm dome where over 150 palm
varieties live as do bromeliads and orchids.
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James J. Hill Mansion
James J. Hill wanted his house
to exude success, but that was also considered his family's home. He
hired the firm of Peabody, Stearns and Furber to design a "simple,
forceful and direct house" in the Richardsonian Romanesque style
that was used by many of the nation's richest people and James
watched over the entire project like a mother hen over her new
chicks. He didn't want the stained glass windows that Tiffany and
Co. was trying to sell him and finally replaced the architects when
they wouldn't tell the stonecutters what he wanted changed. He hired
the firm of Irving and Casson from Boston to complete the inside and
it was all finished in 1891. It turned out to be the biggest and
most expensive house in the state. Sitting within 35,000 square feet
of exquisite woodworks, 22 fireplaces on 5 floors, 13 bathrooms, 16
crystal chandeliers, oak and mahogany carved wood that is more than
exquisite, it is unimaginable, a two story skylit art gallery, 100
foot reception hall, and so many modern technological features that
gave central heating, electric and gas lighting, modern plumbing,
ventilation, communication and security, it is truly an amazing
structure. With furnishings, landscaping for the three acre lot and
all construction costs, it was $931,275.01. It was the focal point
of their lives for the next thirty years, and Mary watched the
household staff, like James did the construction and completion of
the interior. She had maids, cooks, staff for all the rooms and
woodwork, she had a big staff. She was the hostess for many business
and social occasions held at the mansion and she wrote in her diary
that she wanted to know where everything was since she believed it
to be a necessary point. James died in 1916, and Mary died in 1921.
Family members bought the estate from the probate and gave it to the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul, with the church using it for
school, offices and residence hall for the church personal. The
Minnesota Historical Society acquired it in 1978, and was listed on
the National Historic Landmarks in 1961. James was once questioned
by a newspaper reporter about how he succeeded and his reply was
blunt and t o the point, "work, hard work, intelligent work, and
then more work." He was from Ontario and came here to work as a
clerk on the St. Paul levee in 1856, when he was 17. He went on to
work at various companies on the Mississippi and Red Rivers until
1878, when he and other investors bought the defunked St. Paul and
Pacific Railroad. For the next 2 decades, he and the others worked
to bring the line into Canada and then west across the Rockies into
the Pacific Ocean. They renamed it the Great Northern Railway in
1890, and it was Hill's greatest adventure. He was involved in other
ventures as well with banking and finance, coal and iron ore mining,
agriculture and milling as well as Great Lakes and Pacific Ocean
shipping. When James died in 1916, he was to believed to have been
worth $63 million and was one of the richest and most powerful
people of the Gilded Age in America.
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