Ziems Conservatory (Toledo Zoo & Aquarium)

The Toledo Zoo dates from 1900, and its official timeline places the building of the conservatory in 1904, the year T. J. Ziems was appointed the zoo's first official keeper, whose name the building bears. The zoo describes it as a botanical exhibit designed for tropical plants, ferns, orchids and palms. In 2014 local press counted it among the oldest buildings on the grounds.

According to Wikipedia, the financial crisis of the early 1980s, which a local levy passed in November 1980 (restricted to capital improvements) could not resolve, led to the closure of the Museum of Science and the conservatory. The zoo states that it was rededicated on 27 July 2000, after renovations funded by Mr. and Mrs. Tom S. Ziems in recognition of five generations of their family.

The building later housed tropical plants and served as winter quarters for Galápagos tortoises: in November 2014, Emerson, a tortoise that had arrived in August and was at least a century old, received a climate-controlled enclosure there. On 3 June 2021 a Toledo Blade headline announced a plan to convert the conservatory into a restaurant; the article, behind a paywall, could not be read, and the zoo's pages now present the building as an open exhibit. Reimagined by the Reptile House staff, it has housed two desert biomes since 29 March 2025.

The zoo's audio tour describes a tall, curved roof on a white-painted metal framework, almost entirely glazed so that natural light pours in; 2014 press coverage mentions a "distinctive" glass roof above a climate-controlled space. A photograph of the front published on Wikimedia Commons shows a central entrance pavilion with an arched pediment bearing the word CONSERVATORY, flanked by glazed wall sections that continue under the glass roof; in front of the door lies a rectangular pool with a stone coping.

Inside, the plan divides into two zones. On one side the Australian exhibit is separated from visitors by a glass barrier about five feet (1.5 m) high; on the other, the walk through the American Southwest has no barrier, so that lizards sometimes bask on the path itself. The zoo states that the hot-desert exhibit mirrors the native climate of its species.

The zoo describes two desert biomes. On the Australian side, behind the glass, grow trees and shrubs from Australia and live bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps), frilled dragons (Chlamydosaurus kingii), Cunningham skinks, blue-tongued skinks, among them the Centralian blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua multifasciata), and a Kimberley rock monitor. On the Southwest side, the barrier-free path runs through cacti and other plants of the region, among chuckwallas, desert iguanas, two kinds of whiptail, zebra-tailed lizards and spiny lizards (Sceloporus magister).

The zoo's March 2025 press release summarises the plant collection as cacti, succulents, trees and shrubs from Australia and the southwestern United States. The plants were funded by Tom, Gretchen and Lisa Ziems. Before the makeover, 2014 press coverage mentioned bananas, palms and ferns under the roof; according to the audio tour, the building remains the winter home of the zoo's Galápagos tortoises.

The conservatory stands inside the Toledo Zoo. The zoo asks visitors to watch their step, since lizards sometimes sun themselves on the path, and not to touch the cacti; the space is wheelchair accessible, and strollers are left outside. On hot days the animals retreat to cooler spots, which makes early morning the best time to see them.

To extend a visit on the theme of reptiles, the audio tour points to the ProMedica Museum of Natural History, renovated in 2019 with a two-story greenhouse, where it mentions the Komodo dragon and the Gila monster. The 1934 Reptile House, a building from the WPA era, and, in fine weather, the outdoor Galápagos tortoises complete the circuit.