Pinecrest Gardens wants your old Parrot Jungle snapshots, your Serpentarium postcards, and anything else connecting you to three iconic South Florida attractions.

The municipal park is building "Wings, Scales & Wonder: Pinecrest's Legacy of Living Attractions," a community-sourced exhibition honoring Parrot Jungle, the Miami Serpentarium, and Rare Bird Farm. The project is part of the Village of Pinecrest's 30th anniversary celebration, according to a call for submissions published by the Pinecrest Tribune on Monday, July 27.

The three attractions operated in what is now Pinecrest from the mid-1930s through the early 2000s.

What they're looking for

Pinecrest Gardens is accepting donations and temporary loans of admission tickets, brochures, souvenir programs, postcards, T-shirts, pins, photographs, home movies, newspaper clippings, employee uniforms, name badges, animal feeding cups, personal letters, scrapbooks, and diaries. Community members who have already shared images include Aymee Fernandez, whose 1980 photograph appeared in the Tribune article, along with contributions from Karla Rocha, KUMC Preschool (1988), Maryann Scarletti Rio (1960s), and Rosemarie Wuerl (1972).

To submit, email [email protected] with your name, a brief description of the item, and any dates or stories connected to it. Selected submissions may appear in the exhibition, on Village of Pinecrest social media channels, and in future historical publications.

No opening date has been announced. Pinecrest Gardens described the project as still in development.

A 90-year legacy on one stretch of road

The sites honored in the exhibition sit within a few miles of each other along the corridor that became Pinecrest.

Franz and Louise Scherr opened Parrot Jungle on December 20, 1936, on 20 acres at Red Road and Southwest 111th Street. Admission cost 25 cents. The park became famous for bird shows beneath its banyan trees and for Pinky, a cockatoo that rode a bicycle on a high wire. The Village of Pinecrest purchased the property on December 17, 2002, with grant assistance from the Florida Communities Trust, according to Pinecrest Gardens' history page. The site opened as a municipal park on March 8, 2003, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Bill Haast opened the Miami Serpentarium in late 1947 on U.S. Route 1, next to what is now the Pinecrest Municipal Center, according to the Village of Pinecrest's history page. Haast performed live venom extractions from snakes beneath a 35-foot cobra statue. The Serpentarium operated until 1984.

Zoo animal broker Alton V. Freeman established the Miami Rare Bird Farm in 1938 on seven acres, purchasing the land for about $40,000, according to village records on the Flagler Grove area. Billed as the largest bird farm in the world, it featured a giant walk-in aviary, a dozen ostriches, and exotic animals including cheetahs and Bengal tigers. Monkeys Able and Baker, raised at the Rare Bird Farm, became the first primates to survive spaceflight in 1959. The farm closed in 1961.

How to participate

Email photographs, memories, or artifact information to [email protected]. Include your name, a description, and any associated dates or stories. No submission deadline has been announced.

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