The Gladys Porter Zoo opened in 1971 as a gift from a foundation to the city of Brownsville.
The Earl C. Sams Foundation envisioned the only zoo south of San Antonio as a place to feature endangered species and to give Brownsville a distinction of its own. The 31-acre site on Ringgold Street in central Brownsville has more than proven its worth to the city. It has become a prime tourist attraction over its 53 years of existence, drawing a yearly average of 432,000 visitors. Upwards of 500,000 tourists and local residents visit Gladys Porter during peak years.
The zoo began to show its age in recent years. Space also became more scarce as standards raised for housing large animals. Its national accreditors – the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums – has pressed the zoo to overhaul and redesign exhibits. The accreditors have also informed the zoo it must find bigger spaces for the facility’s larger animals such as gorillas and big cats.
Those expectations and the possibility of the zoo losing its accreditation spurred the city to engage in a multi-year process with the zoo and the Brownsville Independent School District. The goal was to find more space for the zoo. The former Cummings Middle School campus site is in close proximity to the zoo and is less than a block from Ringgold Street. The Cummings site was determined to be the best spot for zoo expansion. Five years of discussions and studies led to a breakthrough after an early 2024 accreditation site visit mandated that Gladys Porter firm up its expansion plans.
Reaching A Deal
The City of Brownsville announced in mid-September that it had reached an agreement with the school district to purchase the Cummings site on behalf of the zoo.
The interlocal agreement will lead to a $16 million purchase of the Cummings site from the school district. The city will then provide the property to the zoo to design and develop new exhibits featuring some of the zoo’s large animals. The expansion also promises to revitalize the zoo over the next five years.
“The zoo is moving forward in order to remain a world-class facility,” said Dr. Patrick Burchfield, the zoo’s executive director, at a recent press conference. “This will show the sincerity and excitement of the entire community in that we are moving forward.”
The acquisition of the Cummings site was essential if the zoo was going to keep its accreditation, Burchfield said. The Brownsville zoo was reaccredited in March 2024 with a binding expectation that the facility would expand its footprint in the coming years. The Cummings purchase accomplishes that goal. The zoo will nearly double in size with the property acquisition.
“We must maintain that gold standard of accreditation,” Burchfield said. “The Gladys Porter Zoo has to expand in order to maintain current sociobiological standards for our animals.”
‘Buy Us Time’
The city and zoo will work in tandem with the school district over the next five years in transitioning the Cummings site to its new purpose. The project will keep the city’s biggest tourist attraction current and up to new standards.
The old middle school campus currently houses BISD’s Career Technical Certification Center. The district will use the proceeds of the land sale to build a new tech center elsewhere in the district.
“It will buy us time,” Burchfield said of the next few years to plan the site’s future animal exhibits.
The zoo’s accreditors will now know the facility is making good on its promise to expand. Brownsville, in turn, will be assured its world-class zoo will be upgraded and continued to be enjoyed in the heart of the city’s Mitte Cultural District.
“We worked together to create a path forward,” said John Cowen, the Brownsville mayor. “Without doing that, it would have put the zoo at risk and losing everything that makes the zoo special.”
