Beardsley Park
a.k.a. Beardsley Park;Beardsley Zoological Gardens
1875 Noble Ave., Bridgeport, CTBeardsley Park is a good example of a rural park of the type for which Frederick Law Olmsted established his national reputation as a landscape architect. The typical tree-buffered ring road runs around the perimeter of the park. Secondary roads, following the gentle natural contours, lead to open lawns surrounded by natural plantings. These characteristic Olmstedian features are in large part well-preserved. The Beardsley Zoological Gardens at first (1922) were an intrusion in the park but have now assumed significance in their own right as the only remaining zoo in Connecticut.
Beardsley Park reflects the social history of Bridgeport because, from the time of the gift of the parkland, when it was a farm in a rural area, it has been developed into an urban pleasure ground for city dwellers, become the site of the state's only remaining zoo, and in recent years been saved by state action of a type unbeknownst at the time it was founded
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.