Kirby Park Ruins

This place is on private property. Listing for informational purposes only. Please do not visit without express permission from the land owner. In 1932, the Wilkes-Barre Municipal Zoo opened as “a park for the people,” the design of which had been commissioned a decade previous. Not big by any stretch, the park nevertheless showcased monkeys, bears, buffalo, deer, wild birds and other small animals, as well as a wading pool and walking trails – all of which were doubtless enjoyed by the public. Yet disaster struck as early as 1936 when the park was flooded, and the zoo got placed in a “natural zone” – on one side of the dike created to manage the situation, and which to this day divides Kirby Park. Cut off from the city side of the park, the small zoo fell into disrepair, and by 1946 – following animals dying in captivity and reports of infestation by vermin – little remained but the monkey house. Today, the ruins of buildings that once belonged to the zoo are still standing – as is the river observation deck and caretaker’s cottage – but as a place it’s clearly a shadow of its former self.