OSPA Annual Convention

It’s a classic Portland story: the city’s premiere wildlife conservation center started because a pharmacist had a few too many bears in his back room.
The Oregon Zoo, originally known as the Portland Zoo, owes its existence to a British seaman-turned-pharmacist named Richard Knight (often referred to as R.B. Knight).If you're looking for a story about how a simple hobby turned into the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi, you’ve found it.
Here is the breakdown of how Knight’s "side project" became a city institution:
-The Pharmacy Menagerie - In the 1880s, Knight operated a pharmacy at Third and Morrison in downtown Portland. Having been a sailor, he maintained connections with seafaring friends who would frequently bring him exotic animals from their travels.
- Knight began housing these animals in the back of his drug store. His collection eventually included:
-Parakeets and exotic birds
-Monkeys
-A grizzly bear and a brown bear
The "Accidental" Founding (1888)
As you can imagine, keeping bears in the back of a pharmacy in a growing city wasn't a sustainable business model. By 1888, the bears had become too large and expensive for Knight to manage.
-The Request: Knight originally approached the Portland City Council to see if they would buy the animals.
-The Compromise: The city wasn’t interested in buying them but offered Knight two circus cages and a spot in City Park (now Washington Park) to keep them.
-The Donation: Knight still had to pay for their food and care, which proved too much. On November 7, 1888, he officially donated the bears and their cages to the city. This act is recognized as the official founding date of the zoo.
Evolution of the Zoo
From those two bears, the collection grew rapidly:
1894: The zoo had expanded to over 300 animals.
1925: It moved to the site where the Portland Japanese Garden now sits.
1959: The zoo moved to its current location in the West Hills to accommodate larger exhibits (and eventually its world-famous elephant program).