The Belle Isle Aquarium is back!

Well…we can all celebrate! The Belle Isle Aquarium is making her comeback after years of hard work and dedication from volunteers. The Belle Isle Aquarium and Conservatory turned 108 this past Saturday and was open to the public; a rare occurrence since being closed in 2005 by then mayor Kwame Kirkpatrick.

The newly formed Belle Isle Conservancy will open the aquarium to the public for no charge on the first Sunday of each month and the second and third Saturdays of each month from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The aquarium will be run by volunteers, some of whom have spent countless hours and hard work keeping her in pristine shape over the years.

Here are some quick facts about the aquarium:

The aquarium was designed by famed architect Albert Kahn
First opened to the public on August 18, 1904
When opened it was declared the finest building of its kind in the world
It was the oldest continuously operated fresh water aquarium in North America
The Friends of the Belle Isle Aquarium , now a part of the Belle Isle Conservancy, won two grants to repair the roof and windows

For more information on the Belle Isle Aquarium and the Belle Isle Conservancy please click here.

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About Jeffrey S. Buck

I'm currently a Project Manager at Cypress Partners, LLC in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. I graduated from Wayne State University in 2008 with a B.A. in Journalism. Looking to broaden my view of the world, I spent a semester abroad studying at the University of Salford, a Greater Manchester University in England. I enjoy doing an array of activities, including following Detroit sports teams, SCUBA diving, traveling, reading, playing tennis, hand-written letters and going to the movies. I am the co-founder of the Woodward Spine, a blog about Detroit and its surrounding communities. The Woodward Spine aims to inform its readers about relevant news and events through creative and informative posts in these core areas: news, opinion, entertainment, history, sports and development. The Woodward Spine serves the tri-county metro Detroit area, concentrating mainly on the communities that lie along the Woodward corridor.

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