Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
This building covers five acres, and is worthy to be ranked with the
Exposition palaces. Under the tower is a fine vaulted loge and a
reception room, both opening into a splendid balconied ballroom behind,
all finished in the Exposition travertine. The walls of the reception
room are hung with magnificent tapestries, loaned by Mrs. Phoebe A.
Hearst. The west wing contains the administrative offices of the
Exposition and the Woman's Board, and the directors' club rooms. The
large eastern wing is entirely filled with the displays of the
fifty-eight California counties. (p. 182.) These together form one of
the most noteworthy exhibits in the entire Exposition. They demonstrate
the fact that a multitude of other resources besides her gold entitle
California to be called "the Golden State."
The Oregon Building, Foulkes and Hogue of Portland, architects,
imitates, though it does not reproduce, the Parthenon of the Athenian
Acropolis. (p. 191.) Doric marble is replaced by the natural columns of
the great trees of Oregon, and the frieze of Phidias, by the fretwork of
the bark of pine and fir. There are forty-eight of the great columns,
the same number as in the outer colonnade of the Parthenon, and,
coincidentally, one for each State of the Union. They were cut from
among the largest of trees. The Douglas fir, next to the redwood and the
sequoia the most massive of living things, furnished most of them. But
the largest happen to be the two giant incense cedars, which stand on
either side of the main entrance. These are eight feet and ten inches in
diameter. Then there are two columns on the south side, both cut from a
spruce that was four feet seven inches through at 101 feet above the
ground.
In exterior proportions the building reproduces the Parthenon, but the
Parthenon had a double row of columns around its porch, the Oregon
temple has but a single row. In size it is considerably larger than the
Partheon. The great flagpole is a single stick of Douglas fir, 251 feet
long, set in a 200-ton block of concrete. The building contains an
excellent exhibit of Oregon's resources.
The Washington Building, A. F. Heide of San Francisco, architect, is a
striking example of the French Renaissance. (p. 191.) Unlike most of the
state buildings, it is used largely for the exhibition of home products.
Its motion pictures, its group of wild life, and its displays of
agriculture, mining, forestry and fisheries, are all designed to
advertise the remarkable scenery and resources of the Evergreen State.
Washington is an important exhibitor in the Palaces of Horticulture,
Agriculture, Food Products, Mines and Education.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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