Meet me at the fair
by chuckofish
One hundred and ten years ago today the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (informally known as the St. Louis World’s Fair) opened in my flyover town. It was quite a Big Deal.
Are those elephants in the lower left?
The Fair’s 1,200 acre site was designed by George Kessler and was located on the grounds of what is now Forest Park and on the campus of my flyover university. There were over 1500 buildings, connected by some 75 miles of roads and walkways. It was said to be impossible to give even a hurried glance at everything in less than a week. The Palace of Agriculture alone covered some 20 acres.
Exhibits were staged by 62 foreign countries, the United States government and 43 of the then 45 states. 19,694,855 individuals were in attendance at the fair.
Here is a map of the Fair.
The fairgrounds were filled with spectacular buildings.
The Palace of Liberal Arts
The Aviary was built by the U.S. government and was the largest free flight birdcage ever built.
It is still here, a part of our zoo. 
The administrative center of the Fair was none other than Brookings Hall at my home away from home.
The Fair hosted the 1904 Summer Olympics, the first ever held in the U.S.
Many of the events were held at Francis Field.
The field has been updated, but is still very much in use at my flyover university.
Well, it’s probably true that we peaked back in 1904, but we’re still a pretty cool place. And it’s fun to see that parts of our illustrious past are still very much a part of our everyday life in the twenty-first century.
dual personalities 
Neat post!
Note in the background of the Francis Field World’s Fair shot the U. City City Hall building is visible. It was the HQ of the publishing, real estate development (the nucleus of U. City), educational institution and banking empire of Edward Gardner Lewis, which he intentionally started in 1902 by purchasing 85 acres just northwest of the Worlds Fair grounds. The mail-distributed “Womans Magazine” became the largest circulation magazine on earth, but the US Postal Service attempted to prosecute him (unsuccessfully) for using the mail to “advertise.” Lewis cost the USPS money by mailing at RFD and magazine rates, and they wanted to shut him down.
Banking regulators forced him to close his ‘mail-order’ bank because it was deemed he was competing with Postal Money Orders.
It seems the government really didn’t like E. G. Lewis! Lewis was forced into bankruptcy in 1924 by creditors holding only $10,000 in notes. It is thought they were encouraged in a conspiracy by Postal Inspectors.
I love the pic at the top! The fair must have really been something!!
Especially with elephants!
And wasn’t Parkview built around that time? I wish I could have gone to the fair. I bet it was amazing.
Our house was built in 1903.
And, yes, it must have been a fabulous time in St. Louis!
Our (former) home in the Hillcrest subdivision in Clayton just west of DeMun on Aberdeen is on the site of the Philippine Exhibit (I think these were the guys who went after the dogs in what is now Dogtown!). Anyway, I recall seeing TR visiting this exhibit in a film on the World’s Fair…who knows, he might well have trod on the sacred ground of our homestead!
That is, indeed, a cool thought!
Yikes, I am behind on blog reading! Awesome post — I’ll have to go pay Brookings a visit when I’m home!