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Henson: I guess from what you said that the zoo at that point did have fairly close contact with the Smithsonian itself?

Mann: Yes, of course, at that time the zoo was financed by District of Columbia which made it very difficult.  The money came from the District and the administration, of course, was the Smithsonian.  So it was hard to get them to work together.  The only time that Bill really got a lot of money was during the [Great] Depression, with the WPA [Works Progress Administration], and the PWA [Public Works Administration], and I think there was another one.  That was when he built the reptile house--no the reptile house was before that--the small mammal house, and the elephant house, new wing on the bird house, the new shops, and garages, the working places.  Then later, in 1940, there was still some money left in the PWA; and he was able to build the zoo restaurant and new police station.*  The new police station was something that was quite badly needed. The old one had been a small room upstairs over the lion house. Of course, that led to that famous story about the sign on the grounds "Lost Children Will be Taken to the Lion House!"  That was because that was police headquarters.

Now the police headquarters are so sophisticated you can hardly believe it.  [Sybil E.] Billy Hamlet, who is on the staff of the zoo now, was telling me the other day about coming home--she lives right across the street from the zoo, 3000 Connecticut [Avenue]. Instead of leaving her car on Connecticut Avenue she prefers to leave it in the zoo parking lot. Usually she just leaves it there when she goes home 

*Police station was not constructed until 1956.