On December 20, 1936, about 100 people paid 25 cents each to walk a trail cut through coral rock and hammock at Red Road and hear Franz Scherr talk about his birds. Scherr was paying $25 a month to rent the land, so he made back the first month's rent on opening day.
This December 20 is the 90th anniversary of that opening. It falls on a Sunday in the middle of the Nights of Lights run at Pinecrest Gardens, which is held on the same 14 acres at Red Road and Killian Drive. The Gardens is still a ticketed evening attraction built around the paths and theater the Scherrs left behind. What the property doesn't hold is much of a record of the attraction. The Village is now asking residents to supply that record from their own photo albums, shoeboxes and home movies.
The buildings survived. The memories went home with the visitors.
Parrot Jungle ran at its original site for 66 years and drew more than a million visitors before it moved to Watson Island in 2002 and reopened as Jungle Island. Its guests included Sir Winston Churchill and President Jimmy Carter. The Village completed its purchase of the property on December 17, 2002, with grant help from the Florida Communities Trust. The Village Council dedicated it as a municipal park on March 8, 2003.
A lot of the physical attraction is still there. According to the Gardens' history page:
- The original entrance on Red Road is still standing.
- The Banyan Bowl, the geodesic dome that holds a 530-seat theater, opened as the Parrot Bowl.
- The National Park Service added the property to the National Register of Historic Places on October 17, 2011, as the Parrot Jungle Historic District. The listing cites its landscape architecture, its building architecture and its place in Florida tourism history.
The stories behind those structures were never stored on site. Pinky the cockatoo, who rode a bicycle on a high wire, survives in visitors' snapshots, along with the flamingos and decades of bird shows under the banyans. That is why the Gardens' next history project depends on residents.
What "Wings, Scales & Wonder" is asking for
The exhibition is called Wings, Scales & Wonder: Pinecrest's Legacy of Living Attractions. It will be on view January 16 through May 31, 2027. It covers three attractions that operated in what is now Pinecrest, and the Gables Courier reported in July that the project is part of the Village's 30th anniversary celebration.
Two of the three attractions are less familiar to newer residents than Parrot Jungle. The Courier's account:
- Miami Serpentarium. Bill Haast opened it in late 1947 on U.S. 1, next to what is now the Pinecrest Municipal Center. He performed live venom extractions beneath a 35-foot cobra statue, and the Serpentarium ran until 1984.
- Miami Rare Bird Farm. Zoo animal broker Alton V. Freeman founded it in 1938 on seven acres and billed it as the largest bird farm in the world. It had a giant walk-in aviary, ostriches, cheetahs and Bengal tigers. Able and Baker, the monkeys who in 1959 became the first primates to survive spaceflight, were raised there. The farm closed in 1961.
The Rare Bird Farm closed 65 years ago, so the people who remember it firsthand are a shrinking group. Every year that passes makes their photos and stories harder to collect.
The Courier lists the kinds of items the Gardens accepts as donations or temporary loans:
- Admission tickets, brochures, souvenir programs and postcards
- T-shirts, pins, employee uniforms and name badges
- Photographs, home movies and newspaper clippings
- Animal feeding cups
- Personal letters, scrapbooks and diaries
Some residents have already sent material, including a 1980 photograph from Aymee Fernandez, 1960s images from Maryann Scarletti Rio and a 1972 contribution from Rosemarie Wuerl. The exhibition page asks for photos and a short note sent to [email protected]. Selected submissions will appear on the Village's social media and in the exhibition. With the exhibit opening in mid-January, December is the practical window to go through old albums and send what you find.
The holiday season runs on the attraction's old grounds
The anniversary falls inside the busiest stretch of the Gardens' year, and nearly all of that season takes place on structures Scherr built for paying crowds.
Nights of Lights runs December 4 through December 27, 2026, on select nights from 6:30 to 10 p.m. It brings light displays across the grounds, Santa and the Grinch on select nights, story time, holiday vendors, live performances and a nighttime visit to the playground. A few details matter when you plan a night:
- Parking is free.
- Tickets are good only for the date you choose. Sales are final, there are no exchanges, and the event goes on rain or shine.
- Gardens members get a discount at the gate with a membership card and photo ID.
- The Jolly Craft Corner and holiday classes need separate add-on tickets.
- No pets or outside food are allowed. Service animals are welcome.
On the sample schedule for Friday, December 11, Conchita Espinosa performs at 7 p.m., alongside the Grinch, carolers, story time and a wreath-making class.
The weekend concerts use the old Parrot Bowl. Miami New Times picked the Banyan Bowl as Best Outdoor Venue in its 2025 Best of Miami, and its preview of the 2026-27 season lists the 17th annual jazz series, the fifth annual Tropical Nights and the second annual Sound Sessions. The December shows lead up to the anniversary:
- Saturday, December 12, 8 p.m. Allan Harris sings Nat King Cole Christmas as part of Jazz at Pinecrest Gardens.
- Saturday, December 19, 8 p.m. Orquesta La Oferta opens Tropical Nights with a tribute to El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico. The orchestra is endorsed by El Gran Combo's own musicians and plays "No Hay Cama Pa' Tanta Gente" and "Julia."
Single tickets for both series cost $55 to $60 in Level A and $45 to $50 in Level B, including a $5 processing fee. The three-show Tropical Nights subscription is $150 or $135 by level. The series continues with Baila Nova Plays Jobim on February 27 and Cortadito's tribute to Buena Vista Social Club on April 3.
November has its own nights under the dome. Todo el Mundo Dice Aho is on Saturday, November 14, with Peia, Ima Nazca, Teresa De Jesús and Jesús Hidalgo. Candlelight: Juan Luis Guerra is on the calendar for Friday, November 20.
Old Florida, from the next generation
Two other Gardens projects this season also look back at the roadside-attraction era.
The 13th Annual Student Art Contest is open to students across Miami-Dade County, and this year's theme is "The Roadside Gallery: A Tribute to Old Florida's Attractions." Entries open November 10 and are due January 11. Selected work will hang in a gallery exhibition during the 2027 Art & Design Fair. With the exhibit opening January 16, the contest gives students reason to talk to grandparents about Parrot Jungle at the same time the Gardens is asking those grandparents for their photos.
The grounds also have a new specimen with a long story behind it. According to the September 2026 Pinecrest Sun, the Gardens acquired a juvenile Dragon Tree, Dracaena draco, a globally endangered Canary Island native. It stands about 15 feet tall and has not branched yet. Look for a tall, yucca-like tree with a thick, bare trunk near the Blue-Beaked Yuccas in the dry Lake Garden. Its resin dries blood-red, and Medieval traders sold it as "dragon's blood." The species is rarely found in Florida botanical gardens or public parks.
Daytime visits cost $8 for ages 2 to 64 and $5 for seniors 65 and older under the rate that took effect in April. The Village called it the first adjustment in more than 15 years. Children under 2 get in free. In 1936, admission was 25 cents.
At 1 Nation Realty, Todd Nation likes the kind of local history a 90-year-old trail through the hammock carries. If an old Parrot Jungle postcard or a family photo from Red Road turns up while you go through December boxes, we'd be glad to hear the story behind it. When a conversation about Pinecrest moves beyond the Gardens, request a private consultation.
