The WPA expansion

When Franklin Roosevelt became president, he was desperate to lift the economy out of the Depression and launched the WPA or Works Progress Administration to employ out-of-work people. 

Harry Wichers, a Manhattan architect and member of a local service organization, the Sertoma Club, spearheaded a successful drive to secure WPA funds to develop the park and animal displays.

He designed a crescent shape of stone animal enclosures, and a rather haphazard collection of animals began to look like a zoo. His original architectural drawings, dated 1932, are on display at the zoo.

Today, visitors to Sunset Zoo can walk to the bottom of Exhibition Asia and find a large mural depicting the WPA project painted by local artist Phyllis Pease. Exhibition Asia uses some of the original WPA columns.