Lion House - Lincoln Park Zoo (Kovler Lion House, Pepper Family Wildlife Center)

“The Lion House exemplifies the architectural and social significance of Chicago's Lincoln Park as one of the city's oldest and most prominent parks. The Lion House is a major feature of the Lincoln Park Zoo, one of the oldest and most popular municipal zoos in America.”

“Steinway Hall became renowned as a center of modern architectural design in turn-of-the-century Chicago. Perkins was Architect for the Chicago Board of Education between 1905 and 1910, a time when the school board was dominated by social reformers such as settlement house pioneer Jane Addams.”

“The Lincoln Park Zoo Lion House is primarily the work of Dwight Perkins, an architect of great significance to Chicago architectural history. Dwight Perkins, along with his partners William Fellows and John Hamilton, is a significant early 20th-century Chicago architect, designing prominent buildings in progressive, non-historic architectural styles reflecting the influence of the Prairie architectural style developed by several innovative Chicago designers, including Frank Lloyd Wright, George Maher, and Walter Burley Griffin.”

“The influence of the Prairie style in its design, however, is unusual and reflects the importance of the innovative style, developed by Chicago architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Burley Griffin, George Maher, and Perkins during the early 20th century, to the history of Chicago and world architecture.”

“Perkins was an early significant architect for the Chicago Board of Education, designing a number of schools noteworthy for their progressive designs, details and craftsmanship, including Carl Schurz High School (designated a Chicago Landmark), Bowen High School, and Cleveland and Trumbull Public Schools.”

“Purchase of animals had cost $17,000, while the sale of surplus stock brought in $8,500. In 1903, the development of Lincoln Park turned away from Victorian ideals of beauty, including eclectic-looking buildings set within picturesque landscapes, to the modern Prairie School of architecture which emerged out of the Midwest, particularly Chicago and its suburbs.”

“The Lion House's innovative style reflects the interest that Dwight Perkins had, as the building's architect, in innovative designs for large-scale public buildings, including both park and school buildings, that normally would have been designed in historic architectural styles.”

“The Commission's recommendations influenced the South Park Commission-the Lincoln Park Commission's counterpart on Chicago's South Side-as it implemented an innovative program of developing small neighborhood parks in working-class neighborhoods.”

“The east and west facades of the building, which are located at the ends of the gable roof, have monumental round-arched building entrances which reflect Perkins's combination of Classical forms and Prairie details in the building.”