The
Philadelphia Zoo, located in the
Centennial District of
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the
Schuylkill River, was the first
zoo in the
United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, its opening was delayed by the
American Civil War until July 1, 1874. It opened with 1,000 animals and an admission price of 25 cents. For a brief time, the zoo also housed animals brought over from safari on behalf of the
Smithsonian Institution, which had not yet built the
National Zoo in the 1850s.