indescribably grand is one of many terms used to describe the World's Fair that st. Louis held in 1904 this was an event where fair organizers pulled out all the stops to make this the greatest World's Fair at the time there were a dozen large exhibit palaces that displayed the latest products and technology there were concessions that took bear goers to another country and leaders from all over the world would visit the fairgrounds as honored guests millions of people from all over the world would visit st. Louis and a world-class education could be obtained for the admission price of 50 cents this is the story of the 1904 World's Fair [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] first of all what is a World's Fair a World's Fair is an exposition designed to bring together disparate exhibitions from countries provinces States manufacturers to show the latest items that they want to promote about their location or company the first official World's Fair was London's Great Exhibition in 1851 held inside the Crystal Palace over 50 nations participated and over six million people visited the fairgrounds from 1851 to 1904 14 World expositions would be held in that over 50 years they evolved from being kind of an agriculture State Fair type exhibition to becoming more worldly with more countries and States and manufacturing processes and companies that showed their newest inventions because it was the Industrial Revolution and things were just coming along every few years that would amaze people now it's customary for a World's Fair to celebrate something significant for example the United States would be a perfect place to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's expedition so in Chicago hosted the Columbian Exposition in 1893 it was the most extravagant World's Fair at the time as a result former of st. Louis Mayor David Roland Francis was determined to produce a bigger and better World's Fair in st. Louis to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase David R Francis had been mayor of st. Louis and then the youngest governor of Missouri and he tried to get the 1890 293 Fair for st. Louis but failed so after serving as president McKinley's Secretary of the Interior for a few years he came back to st. Louis and his businesses and began efforts to have a World's Fair in st. Louis in 1903 to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase to quickly summarize Louisiana Purchase the United States purchased the Louisiana territory in 1803 from Napoleon this doubled the size of the United States giving the new nation land from New Orleans to Montana st. Louis was one of the most important cities in the Louisiana territory David Francis and the Louisiana Purchase exposition company wanted to celebrate how far society had developed since 1803 that brought the idea to Congress and they agreed to loan five million dollars for the fair if the Missouri government and people of st. Louis would contribute another ten million that's a total of fifteen million dollars which is over a hundred million dollars adjusted for inflation the people of st. Louis were more than willing to contribute so after the money was raised a world's fair would be coming to st. Louis in 1903 [Music] initiating a World's Fair to st. Louis was the easy part but now those in charge needed to prepare and build everything in only a few years the first order of business was to decide where to place the fair believe it or not Forest Park was only one of the locations considered other suggestions work Ronal at park and o'fallon park here are a few reasons why Forest Park wasn't the only choice first part was half developed and on the edge of st. Louis with transportation to Forest Park already other places were a little bit more suburban or they didn't have the water features that the fair organizers really wanted to have kind of to emulate Chicago being on Lake Michigan they wanted water features to have boats and fountains and stuff like that that was a very Victorian idea also the eastern half of Forest Park was already developed as a pleasure spot for residents and a tourist spot for visitors if the fair was held at Forest Park then that would be one less place for millions of fair goers to visit however that's exactly why others wanted the fair to be in Forest Park it was already one of the most beautiful places in the city so why not give the park the honor of hosting one of the most historical events in st. Louis history therefore the city of st. Louis loaned the western half of the park for the fair some of the conditions required the restoration of the park the removal of fair structures and the construction of a permanent building that would become the st. Louis Art Museum now that the location was picked it was time to turn the western half of Forest Park into the fairgrounds they had to then come up with the layout and the plans remove hundreds of trees where they were going to build these enormous palaces and re sculpt the land all with the equipment that was available in 1904 a difficult challenge unfortunately for the people of st. Louis only then did they realize what it meant to transform Forest Park into the Louisiana Purchase exposition for over a year half of Forest Park looked like a wasteland of course it would look like this during the fair and they tried to save as many trees as they could but it was still heartbreaking to see such a natural part resculpted also what would happen to Forest Park after the fair was over despite all this the people of st. Louis did their best to hold their judgments so what needed to be done between groundbreaking and the opening of the fair first they needed to make sure there was enough land for the exposition they started with the western half of Forest Park from modern-day de Bolivar to skincare Boulevard but if they wanted the fair to be as grand as promised then they had to expand thankfully Washington University was willing to lease its entire new and not yet occupied campus a hundred and nine acres of land there were another ten parcels of land available north and west of Forest Park so the area of the exposition went from 657 acres to 1272 acres on top of developing over twelve hundred seventy acres of land twelve large exhibit palaces needed to be built these were the grand centerpieces for the exposition nicknamed the ivory City based on the pictures they were fantastic pieces of architecture almost 700 people were required to build the average Palace doing jobs such as carpentry plaster work painting and general labor work the smallest of these palaces was the Palace of Forestry fish and game at four acres still larger than most buildings of the fair and the size of a large department store today the largest was the Palace of Agriculture eighteen point four acres almost five times as large as the palates of forestry most of the palaces were nine to 15 acres in size here's a visualization for how much material was needed to build one typical Palace suppose a freight train - consists of 40 cars 18 of these trains were required to haul the lumber to st. Louis for the construction of a single exhibit building the structured iron for that building called of two trains of 20 cars each three trains of 100 cars of plaster and two trains of 50 cars of sand entered into the construction of the palace eighteen car loads of roofing material ten cars loaded with and for car loads of nails were the smaller items David Francis last but definitely not least the quality of the city water was terrible and st. Louis mayor Rolla Wells knew this the great thing about holding a World's Fair is that it gave the city government a huge reason to fix the issue the people of st. Louis may have been used to the poor water quality but millions of visitors would be disgusted also david francis had nightmares that if brown water filled the Grand Basin a primary focal point of the exposition that the fountains and waterfalls would spray dirty water onto various statues he pressured mayor Wells on a daily basis to fix the water problem it wasn't until March of 1904 less than two months before the fair opened when John Wick's furred and the st. Louis Water Department discovered that mixing iron and milk of lime would be the solution that they were looking for to produce clear clean water with all of these problems and ambitions the Louisiana Purchase exposition company had to postpone the fair for a year and these were only some of the reasons for the delay well the fair was delayed from 1903 to 1904 for several reasons funding for the fair wasn't secured to really green light the construction effort until the summer of 1901 which only would have given them a year and a half to build enormous palaces to coordinate with all of the states and many dozens of foreign countries to build buildings and the combination of getting all of that participation coordinated and built to a level that they desired just resulted in a delay from 1903 to 1904 and that was decided in the middle of 1902 after about a year's worth of efforts they felt they could have completed most of the large buildings but the number of exhibits wouldn't have been what it was in the number of foreign countries and states would not have been what it ended up being in 1902 opening day was delay from April 30th 1903 to April 30th 1904 there was a three day ceremonial dedication of the exhibition buildings on the original opening date and President Theodore Roosevelt was the guest of honor over 20,000 people attended the dedication in one of the palaces but they would have to wait another year before the fair really opened [Music] [Music] open ye gates swing yd portals enter here in ye sons of men learn the lesson here taught and gathered from it inspiration for still greater achievements is what David Francis proclaimed when the Louisiana Purchase exposition opened on April 30th 1904 over 200,000 people attended opening day and for the first time the general public would experience what they could see and do at the fair besides the twelve palaces over 50 nations participated with exhibits and 21 of those nations built pavilions on the fairgrounds as for the United States 42 states and territories were represented through pavilions and exhibits multiple concessions let you see the world without leaving st. Louis and no two days of the fair were the same exposition organizers designated specific days to celebrate the different nations united states and territories and industries that took part in the fair it would take at least a week to see everything at the fair the marketing around the world was immeasurable well given the extra time of the delay to 1904 they took advantage of every possible media that they could they had artwork done and distributed to various cities and countries across the United States and even into Europe they had pamphlets they had coordination with the railroads in order to get them to promote it on their trains and offer special excursion prices to the World's Fair companies participating would promote that they're going to be at the fair come and see us newspapers published advance notices about things as they were being coordinated and built and pamphlets and looks about the fair were published probably as much as a year in advance the purpose of the Fair was to educate fair goers on how much the world had developed since the Louisiana Purchase and the best place to see the latest products and technologies would be inside the palaces these were the most beautiful and iconic buildings found at the fair the cost of these buildings was almost six and a half million dollars and covered a hundred and thirty-five square acres of fairgrounds well they've kind of followed the lead in many ways and many other ways that they did for the Chicago World's Fair they contracted with a lot of different companies a lot of different architects and while they kind of had a standard building height that they designed for all of the major palaces the different companies were free to use their own architectural style as long as it kind of fit in with what was called the bows arts movement of the early 20th century most palaces were dedicated to only one industry and all were free to enter while most nations and states had their own pavilions and exhibits on the fairgrounds the major palaces contained additional exhibits from the participating territories and businesses well there was everything from the latest of enormous generators and hydroelectric pumps that would power the fair coal burning things to produce electricity there were products from around the world you could buy statues from Italy made out of marble by Italian sculptors you could buy linens from Ireland products from Japan and not only buy these products in many places you could also sample their food from countries around there were so many things to learn when walking into these structures so here's a small handful of interesting facts about all 12 of the major palaces the largest of the palaces was the Palace of Agriculture with over 18 acres of interior space the Palace of Agriculture housed state pavilions structures and exhibits built entirely of grain salt and corn Canada built a replica of the Library of Parliament in Ottawa from 3,000 different species of grain and native grasses at the Palace of Education and social economy fair goers could observe a wide range of classes from elementary education all the way to the college level the German exhibit in this palace showcased the nation's advances in medical technology such as treatments for diseases and early demonstrations of x-ray machines the Palace of Fine Arts was the only permanent palace instead of wooden plaster it was made from steel and stone and fireproof perd the agreement with the city of st. Louis after all nations from all over the world would be sending their finest works of art so the architects had to make sure the palace was strong and fireproof the Palace of Forestry Fish and Game may have been the smallest palace but there was still plenty to say hundreds of types of fish large and small were swimming and display tanks forestry products were displayed and animals from distant lands were shown a wide array of fresh fruit was always available at the Palace of horticulture on October 4th the exposition celebrated apple day and every visitor to this palace was given a free Apple the monthly World's Fair Bulletin was published within the Palace of Liberal Arts this gave fair goers the opportunity to witness the high level of production from a large printing press the octuple perfecting printing press would print and fold 96 thousand 8 patient's papers in one hour the palace of manufacturers was considered the shopping center of the fair among luxurious fashions and jewelry the brown shoe company had a notable presence in this palace 75 textile workers would produce 300 pairs of shoes a day and all were available for purchase the Palace of Mines and metallurgy gave fair goers an opportunity to see how valuable resources were collected there was a lot to see inside the palace but many people were also interested in the gulch found right outside the palace for a small fee very could visit a reproduction of a gold mine or a coal mine the Palace of Transportation displayed nearly every form of transport at the time from ox carts to the mallet the largest train in the world train engines and passenger cars dominated the exhibit on four miles of track also France was the leading producer of automobiles at the time and dedicated the majority of their exhibit to this achievement the Palace of Aryan Industries featured everything from jewelry to Persian rugs to Knorr manuscripts detailing their discovery of America the wrecks flink eight roofing company provided the roofing services for all the palaces at the fair therefore they were given exhibit space within this palace to display their products Thomas Edison set up his own exhibit at the Palace of electricity featuring every type of lamp he designed throughout his experiments AT&T set up telephones throughout the palace that could call long distance a significant luxury and technological advancement in 1904 the US government building was not one of the official palaces but it deserves an honourable mention because it showcased many items and processes from various government agencies for example there was an operating post office the Smithsonian exhibited a wide array of dinosaur bones and many rare books and manuscripts could be found in the Library of Congress finally at the Palace of machinery General Electric displayed a 3,000 horsepower steam turbine that powered all the lighting throughout the Fair thanks to this impressive innovation the buildings throughout the fairgrounds were brightly illuminated at night in a display that surpassed the world's Fair's in Chicago and Buffalo [Music] you [Music] aside from buying souvenirs and visiting the special exhibits the palaces were freed visit however there was an area of the fairgrounds called the pike that housed about fifty concessions attending these concessions cost between ten to fifty cents for many fair goers it wasn't worth it to visit the pike when so many exhibits were available for free with so much respectable family amusement all free and so much of an education likewise to be obtained without charge the crowd is slow and cautious about entering the pay shows on the pike stroll up that road and you will find it a moving sea of faces enjoying each other and join the brilliant lights and enjoying the free samples shows by the entrances regardless the concessions on the pike made over fifty three million dollars and only three concessions lost money during the fair so what could you see on the pike it seems that most of the fair concessions fall into four general themes foreign lands museums performances and rides the foreign lands concessions gave fair goers the opportunity to visit different countries of the world without leaving st. Louis you could start the day at the Chinese village visit Ireland Paris or Cairo and then you could go back in time and visit old st. Louis showing off the city when it was founded in 1764 this would be considered the most efficient way someone could see the world at the time people were not able to travel in 1904 the way we travel or it can be accomplished today with modern train or even airplane flight trains were they wait to get around and it would take you two or three days to get to the east coast for st. Louis so the glamour of seeing people and structures and food from distant lands in Africa or South America Europe Japan China was a definite reason to come to the World's Fair and experience these different cultures for the first time two notable concessions in this category were Tyrolean Alps and Jerusalem the Tyrolean Alps was one of the most expensive single exhibits at the fair costing 750,000 dollars this exhibit was a recreation of a Tyrolean village a restaurant a theatre shops and a tram ride where the birthplace of Mozart was recreated but the main attraction to fair goers was the recreation of the Alps based on the pictures they looked like real mountains in fact one patron was so disappointed they spent so much time and money going to see the real Alps when he could have seen this concession for only 25 cents there was even a ride that let fair goers through the mountains as for Jerusalem this exhibit wasn't on the main pike but it was an authentic recreation of Jerusalem streets the concession covered 11 acres and consisted of 22 streets and 300 buildings some of the notable places to visit were the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the garden of the guest's M&E and the manger where Jesus was born there were five dedicated museums on the pike and these were some of the least popular exhibits at the fair after all there were many more exhibits in the palaces just outside the pike that were free to the public one popular museum was the battle Abbey which displayed war memorabilia and Cyclorama is a famous American battles but the most successful museum was the palatal costume a wax museum displaying fashion and hairstyles from ancient Roman times to the latest fashions from Paris over 30 rooms displayed $100,000 worth in clothing as for the performances this is a broad definition since there are many different things to see it's also worth mentioning that Tyrolean Alps Jerusalem and other foreign land concessions offer performances for an additional fee still these weren't your typical vaudeville performances the most extravagant performance was the Boer War concession this was a battle recreation where many of the performers were real soldiers who fought in the Boer War just a few years before 1904 three battles were reenacted for the audience house fire fighters was a 50-minute show that displayed real fighter fighters in action rescuing people from burning buildings and showing what it's like to put out a fire the fire was a combination of Lights steam stained-glass celluloid silk and mechanical applications in terms of percentages this was one of the most profitable exhibits on the pike finally there were the rides on the pike and all over the fairgrounds fairgoers could tour the park through miniature train rides trolley cars automobile rides roller chairs or they could write a genuine Italian gondola on the grand Basin in front of festival hall but like most things at the fair there were modern marvels to experience one of these was the Scenic Railway a roller coaster with three miles of track this wasn't the debut of the roller coaster but that didn't make this coaster any less thrilling the construction costs were nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars but at ten cents a ride the Scenic Railway made a 37 thousand dollar profit last and certainly not least one of the most iconic attractions at the fair was the ferris wheel this modern marvel made its debut in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition was constructed at a cost of three hundred and eighty thousand dollars and costs a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to transport it from Chicago for 50 cents you could get a bird's-eye view of the fair from over two hundred and sixty feet high well before they came to the World's Fair most people living in cities of various sizes in this part of the country had never been in a building larger than maybe two three or four stories structural steel coming into use and the quote skyscrapers of the time we're only being built in the bigger cities back east and Chicago and st. Louis had just built a building that was nine stories tall when George Washington Gale Ferris invented the ferris wheel he wanted to compete with people going up in a balloon ready to get higher and looked down on cities and things like that he built the ferris wheel to 264 feet high so that people could be taken up in cars that could hold up to 50 or 60 people to a height that they had never seen before and looked down and the World's Fair laid out around it the ferris wheel had 36 cars that could hold 60 people each not only was this one of the most popular rides but cars could be rented at an hourly rate over 50 marriages were celebrated on the ferris wheel most in a specially decorated car [Music] even though there was so much to see it the palaces in the pike there was so much more to see throughout the fairgrounds about 50 Nations and 42 states and territories were represented at the exposition so they built pavilions throughout the fairgrounds the only states not represented were Delaware and South Carolina and the territory of Hawaii these pavilions were often meant to represent the territory's culture or sometimes to replicate a notable building from the nation or state a few examples include the Missouri pavilion the largest of the state buildings China which was the first time China was represented at a world's fair and most notable was the Philippine exhibit across 47 acres dozens of buildings showed artifacts from the New Commonwealth of the United States over 1,500 native Filipinos lived on the fairgrounds and a number of Native villages were constructed to show the peoples of the Philippines and a total cost of two million dollars this was the most expensive exhibit but was likely the most popular also the exposition had celebrations sporting events and concerts no two days to the fair were the same almost every State Territory nation and Industry celebrated their own special day at the fair well the World's Fair wanted to have special days to just keep attracting people for different reasons there was a machinery day there was a transportation day there was a German day there was a Spain day and each of these days typically would have a parade trying to be famed with the special exhibits that were in those buildings the people from those buildings for example when Missouri had Missouri Day the governor came and people and mayor's from all over the state came to participate in the parade to see the Missouri building and the World's Fair in general German day was possibly the greatest among all the foreign days over a hundred and eighty four thousand people attended the fair the fourth largest single attendance during the Exposition german-born American Senator Carl Schurz german-born st. Louis journalist Emil prio Trias and German ambassador Hermann spec von Sternberg all spoke of the unbreakable bond between the United States and the German Empire one more story worth mentioning happened towards the end of the fair when a not so typical American was finally able to attend the fair this man was the re-elected President Theodore Roosevelt he came to st. Louis during the dedication of the exposition buildings in 1903 but between his re-election campaign and his busy schedule he thought he would not be able to attend exposition President David Francis insisted he come to the fair and asked Navy secretary Paul Morton in exposition Treasurer William Thompson to help persuade Roosevelt president Roosevelt attended the fair with his family on November 26th and the fair celebrated President's Day the presidential party toward the Palace of Liberal Arts they toured more than half of the foreign pavilions they spent hours at the Philippine exhibit and they attended a grand banquet of the Tyrolean Alps he left st. Louis at midnight and when a newspaper correspondent asked him about his visit he answered why my boy I've had the time of my life all good things must come to an end on December 1st 1904 the fair celebrated David Francis day the final day of the Louisiana Purchase exposition mayor Rallo Welles declared Francis day to be a public holiday urging businesses and offices to close in order to attend the fair over two hundred and three thousand people attended the final day the closing ceremony was held at the Plaza st. Louis David Francis and his colleagues were met with a long standing ovation during his farewell address he compared his love of the fair to the love he had for his sons mrs. Francis and I have been blessed with six sons if we recall to lose one of them tomorrow the only consolation I could find would be the record he left behind him so when we were all called upon to lose our great exposition the only consolation left to us is the record at least behind it farewell a long farewell to all thy slender he threw an electric switch and every light on the fairgrounds was turned off auld lang syne was sung by the crowd while fireworks were displayed [Music] you [Music] after trying to bring a World's Fair to st. Louis for over ten years it was all over over the past seven months 19 million people had attended the fair so what's the legacy of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase exposition well the World's Fair had a tremendous impact on the st. Louis it brought in a workforce of tens of thousands of people to construct a fair uncountable amount of supplies to build the enormous palaces and things like that the infrastructure that got built improving the trolley lines etc to bring all the people to the fair and one of the things that was probably I think the most lasting legacy was that a newer process was invented early in 1904 and implemented to really purifying clean produced clean water for all of the water attractions fountains and canals that went around the World's Fair just before the fair opened a matter of weeks and that is probably one of the biggest legacies was this new process that was implemented in many cities across the country as for the World expositions they're still held to this day Chicago hosted another fair in 1933 New York City hosted one of the most notable expositions in 1939 in Dubai will host the World's Fair in 2020 all the world expositions held since 1851 are significant for a variety of reasons but one aspect that sets st. Louis apart for most is its size at 1272 acres it was the largest World's Fair at the time by far the first fair to come closest New York in 1939 but a larger fair wasn't held until Shanghai until 2010 so why didn't st. Louis host another World's exposition well the cost of putting on a World's Fair just got bigger and bigger and after the Victorian era essentially ended in around 1915 with some World's Fairs both here and overseas after World War one the world kind of contracted a little bit and transportation got better World's Fairs just did not become quite as important there were many World's Fairs still held New York had one in 1939 Chicago one in 1933 but the cost with these on was just becoming higher and higher just like the costs of hosting an Olympic Games was getting much larger to build all these stadiums to build all the buildings and it became an expense that st. Louis just was never willing to step up to doing together regardless this was affair for the history books David Francis wanted to host the greatest Exposition at the time and he succeeded millions of people visited the city at its height and were not disappointed to this day the legacy of the fair is present through the st. Louis Art Museum the Missouri History Museum the Jefferson Memorial the World's Fair pavilion and the beauty still present in Forest Park and the Grand Basin the fair truly was indescribably grand
Wow, what a great video. 18 palaces - but no Palace of Poison! It took over a week to see the complete fair. The first Ferris wheel - 60 passengers in each car. The McHugh Daily building in Pacific was reconstructed from the bricks of the 1904 Worlds Fair.
Does anyone know why most of it was torn down? It looked beautiful and so intricate. I visited the History Museum recently but didn’t see a reason as to why not more of it was built to be permanent architecture and history.