From the June 5, 1911 New York Times:

“Russell Hopkins, Consul General of Panama, has purchased the house at 1,045 Fifth Avenue for his baby son, John Randolph Hopkins, who was born two months ago in the St. Regis and who is now at his father’s country home, in Irvington-on-Hudson. The baby’s grandmother, Mrs. Lawrence, widow of Dr. J..J. Lawrence, who lives in the Hotel Plaza, said yesterday she would spend $25,000 in furnishing a suite of five rooms in the new house for her grandson.

Mr. Hopkins wished to purchase Mrs. William B. Leeds’s house, and offered $250,000 for it, but it was refused, so he bought the Fifth Avenue house, between Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth Streets.

The roof of the house will be covered with a steel wire cage and half converted into a playground. The other half will be used as a small private zoo. Mr. Hopkins has maintained a private zoo at Irvington for years for the entertainment of his guests and the instruction of the village children.

Mr. Hopkins had a baby hippopotamus there last Summer, but, owing to its splashing propensities and inordinate appetite, he had to get rid of it. A bear cub will arrive form the Rocky Mountains this week, sent by one of his old guides to the son and heir.”