Description

Caretakers residence at the Murphy Park Zoo, Prescott, Arizona.

Murphy owned 350 acres in the western limits of Prescott.  It included what is now Hassayampa Drive, Country Club Drive, around Indian Hill and back over to Coronado Drive, Vista Drive and High Street.  Park Avenue led to what he called Murphy Park.

The Murphy Park Zoo was a gift to the community.  It was privately developed, maintained at no cost to the city and the public was free to enjoy it.  And, in the end, Murphy offered it to the city. 

The entrance to the zoo and the caretaker’s house were on Country Club Drive.  The house on the corner of Country Club Drive and Park Avenue was where the birds were located, and it marked the northeast corner of the zoo. 
 

Most of the animals were native to Arizona.  Zoo residents included: two antelope, two blacktail deer, coyotes, two bobcats, a black eagle, four mountain lions (the only ones in captivity in the US), a badger, two civet cats, four foxes, two porcupines, two peacocks, a raven, two guinea pigs, bears, pheasants, and the “imported” eight monkeys and two baboons.

A. W. Edwards, Murphy’s financial representative, lived in the caretaker’s house and managed the zoo.  A resident keeper, Mary Powers Plummer, took care of the animals.  Her home had cages and grounds.