Marjorie McNeely Conservatory

Saint Paul acquired the land around Como Lake in 1873 for a public park. Frederick Nussbaumer, superintendent of parks from 1891 to 1922, enlarged that vision with gardens, recreation and places where people could encounter plants and animals; the zoo itself began in 1897 with a gift of three deer kept in a fenced pasture. The conservatory, designed under his leadership, opened on November 7, 1915, and drew nearly 3,000 visitors on its first day. It served both as a production house for plants used across the city and as a year-round retreat for the public.

Spring and holiday flower shows were introduced in 1925, and the Sunken Garden was added in 1927. In 1962 a violent hailstorm broke more than half of the glass and damaged many plants. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and a major restoration from 1987 to 1992 replaced the glazing and updated its building systems.

The twenty-first century brought a series of additions: a Visitor Center shared with the zoo in 2005, with classrooms, the Fern Room and the Orchid House; the Tropical Encounters exhibit in 2006; the Ordway Gardens in 2013, a new wing for the bonsai collection; and the Centennial Garden, opened for the building's hundredth anniversary in 2015. The conservatory now bears the name of Marjorie McNeely.

The 1915 building is a Victorian glasshouse, arranged around a large central dome, the Palm Dome, which rises 64 feet (about 19.5 m) and measures 100 feet (about 30.5 m) across. Glazed wings extend from it, including the Sunken Garden, a lowered display garden added in 1927 and designed for floral compositions changed several times a year. The whole conservatory covers about half an acre, roughly 2,000 m².

More recent additions are grouped around this historic core. The 2005 Visitor Center, shared with the zoo, contains the Fern Room and the Orchid House, the latter reserved for staff, while the Ordway Gardens of 2013 form a separate wing with a bonsai gallery and a terrace of native grasses. The 1987–1992 restoration renewed the glass while keeping the building's original outline.

The Palm Dome holds more than 150 palm species, with orchids and bromeliads shown in rotation. The North Garden is devoted to useful plants such as aloe, bamboo, banana, cacao, coffee, fig, macadamia, mahogany, cassava and papaya. The Fern Room displays tree ferns, bird's-nest ferns and several maidenhair ferns.

The Sunken Garden stages five seasonal flower shows a year, with chrysanthemums taking the lead in autumn. The Ordway Gardens house the bonsai collection, and Tropical Encounters, opened in 2006 as a joint project with zoo staff, brings together plants and animals of Central and South America in a re-created rainforest. The Enchanted and Exedra Garden, a butterfly garden of perennials, annuals and grasses, adds colour in the warmer months.

The conservatory stands in Saint Paul's Como Park and shares its entrance with Como Zoo; both are free, with a voluntary donation suggested. It is worth timing a visit to one of the five Sunken Garden shows that follow one another through the year. Nearby, the Japanese garden, opened in 1979 with support from the Ordway family and renovated in 1990–1991 under the supervision of Masami Matsuda, is an outdoor garden in the sansui style, best seen in the warmer months. The conservatory, gardens and zoo are easily combined in a single outing.