Zoo celebrates opening of Henley Park, legacy of revitalization

The new event space at the Birmingham Zoo held its first event Thursday evening as current and former board members, supporters and community leaders gathered to celebrate the completion of Henley Park.

In addition to officially cutting the ribbon and opening the space, the evening served as a moment of reflection on how far the Zoo has come since 1999, when Birmingham city officials and private business owners decided something needed to be done to save the zoo.

Birmingham Mayor William Bell was in attendance, and spoke of his brief involvement with the process and his love for the zoo.

"Being a son of Birmingham, I'm grateful to all of the memories I have of this zoo," he said, but he harkened back to the dark days of the late 1990s, when the zoo was seeing fewer than 275,000 visitors a year and the largest donation to the efforts was $25,000.

Bell thanked the countless individuals that have worked together in the time since to make the public-private partnership for the zoo work, as well as those who have both directly and indirectly  made financial contributions to improve the zoo.

"It takes all of us making a commitment that we will do our part," Bell said, and again thanked those in the audience who were contributors.

Arthur Henley, for whom Henley Park was named, was recognized by multiple former chairs of the zoo for his tireless work to bring the zoo back to life, which often meant running the zoo while juggling his own business and family.

Henley, for his part, said that he was humbled by the attention, but that it wasn't just him that saved the zoo.

"This is more a celebration for everybody," he said of the evening. "Everybody did this."

Henley Park is the first phase of a three-phase, $18 million plan to revamp the zoo. The second phase, which includes a brand new entrance to the zoo and a plaza, is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019. The final phase, a new predator enclosure, is slated for the year following.

Dixon Brooke, who has been the campaign chair for the endeavor, said that if current trends hold, the zoo should reach its $18 million goal by the end of 2017.