Volume 11 , Issue 20

Worlds Fair of 1904

The photo on the left is a photographed of Washington University that NW Okie took awhile back when she was in St. Louis, Missouri. Did you know that the Washington University is one of the buildings that did not get razed after the 1904 World's Fair?

1904 World's Fair, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri, was reported at stlouis.missouri.org as "The Twentieth Century was born in Forest Park with the grandeur and spectacle of the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition -- The World's Fair of 1904. From April 30 through December 1, 1904, more than 20 million people went to the fair, an average of more than 100,000 each day."

It was the largest of all world fairs that covered an area of 1272 acres, reaching as far west as the Big Ben Boulevard and south to Oakland Avenue. Of the 1272 acres, 615 were private property and included all of the land owned by Washington University.

Fair visitors saw exhibits ranging from a cow made entirely of butter, to their first look at the automobiles and electric lights. They ate hot dogs, drank ice tea and licked ice cream in cones.

The only buildings remaining from the fair were: the administration building for the fair which became Washington University's Brookings Hall; the Palace of Fine Arts was turned over to the Art Museum in 1906; and in 1905, the city paid $3,500 to buy the bird cage from the federal government exhibit but that did not include the birds.

The World's Fair of 1904 celebrated the Centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, an event in American history having an importance secondary only to the Declaration of Independence. The territory acquired from France by this purchase embraced all the land lying between the Mississippi River and the crest of the Rocky Mountains, and its ownership by the United States made possible the extension of the nation's boundaries to the Pacific Ocean.

It was reported that there was no centennial ever so grandly celebrated. This Exposition was described as a visit within its gates -- an event to be always remembered with pleasure, satisfaction by young and old alike.

The Festival Hall and Grand Basin of 1904 of the Worlds Fair of 1904, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, must have been a spectacular affair back then with all its palaces of ... art, education liberal arts, mines and metallurgy, machinery, electricity, industries and agriculture where young visitors came from far and near to meet friends on "The Pike." AND ... a young girl from as far away as Nevada viewed electricty at the worlds fair palaces for the very first time.

The immense architecture of the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis was only temporary. After the Fair closed almost everything was demolished and Forest Park in St. Louis was returned to its previous, although enhanced, condition. For more information visit the following website: The 1904 World's Fair Society -- www.crawforddirect.com world fair tour.

The 1904 World's Fair was described as "The architecture of the Fair" where you could imagine yourself visiting a magical, almost imaginary city, where there were palaces, princesses and daily parades -- You would have seen perfectly planned and constructed Utopian model for the future.
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