First settled in the 18th century by French colonists, Belle Isle once boasted a zoo, botanical garden, aquarium, and a conservatory! In the 1880s, Frederick Law Olmsted was commissioned to prepare a design for the entire island park. Only a few of the elements from his original proposal, however, were implemented.

Belle Isle is a unique location, nestled on a 1,000-acre island in the Detroit River between the United States and Canada. Both the conservatory and aquarium were designed by German-born Detroit architect Albert Kahn (1869-1942). Though Kahn is best known for his reinforced concrete buildings, the Belle Isle Aquarium and Horticultural Building (as it was known), was built with a wood skeleton, and it was Kew’s Palm House rather than the Bauhaus that inspired his firm’s design. 

Both the conservatory and aquarium opened in 1904. As Alan and Nancy describe it in their book, The Conservatory: Gardens Under Glass, “...at the heart of the gardens, the conservatory has a palm house in the 85-foot high domed center...The four wings contain a tropical house, a cactus house, a sunken fernery, and a show house that offers changing displays.”

Anna Scripps Whitcomb (1866-1953), daughter of the Detroit News founder James E. Scripps (1835-1906), bequeathed her collection of 600 orchids to the conservatory, which was later renamed in her honor in 1955 after a major restoration.