When I came to the Bronx Zoo in 1956, a new aquarium was under construction at Coney Island. The society’s long-term aquarium, which had been down in the battery, which the society operated from 19 two until really about 1940, had been long closed. So the society had been induced, I could almost say forced to put its new aquarium on Coney Island, by Robert Moses, the very famous park commissioner of New York City who wanted to redevelop Coney Island for what he thought of as worthy efforts and he felt the aquarium could do that. So the aquarium was put there rather a smaller facility than the society had envisioned I understand. And the aquarium opened in June of 1957. So it was a matter of months after I came that the aquarium opened under the famous Aquarius Christopher Coates. And during the aquariums closure, an exhibit of fishes had been maintained at the Bronx Zoo’s lion house. And the staff of the aquarium was housed at the Bronx Zoo, including its scientific staff.
