Quote:
Originally Posted by ladarron
^^^^ Soon Dallas will have the largest urban park over 10,000 acres!
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I think that just about the size of Philadelphia; 10,000 acres - everything is bigger or getting bigger in TX
Fairmount is a grand old place and real jewel to the City
Here some of the history
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/Centennial_Exhibition%2C_Opening_Day.jpg/300px-Centennial_Exhibition%2C_Opening_Day.jpg (broken link) 
Opening day ceremonies at the Centennial Exhibition
The
Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official
World's Fair in the
United States, was held in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the
Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially the
International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine. It was held in
Fairmount Park, along the
Schuylkill River. The fairgrounds were designed by
Hermann Schwarzmann. About 10 million visitors attended, equivalent to about 20% of the population of the United States at the time (though many were repeat visitors).
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[edit] Planning
The Great Sanitary Fair (1864) was the model for the Centennial Exhibition. It had raised $1,046,859 for medicine and bandages during the
American Civil War.
The idea of the Centennial Exposition is credited to John L. Campbell, a professor of mathematics,
natural philosophy and astronomy at
Wabash College,
Crawfordsville, Indiana.
[1] In December 1866, Campbell first suggested to
Philadelphia's mayor that the
United States Centennial be celebrated with an exposition in Philadelphia. The idea had detractors; there was concern that the project would not be able to find funding, whether other nations would attend and that if they did, would the United States' exhibitions be able to stand up against foreign exhibits. Despite the concerns the plan moved forward.
[2]
The
Franklin Institute became an early supporter of the exposition and asked the
Philadelphia City Council for use of
Fairmount Park. In January 1870 the City Council resolved to hold the Centennial Exposition in the city in 1876. Both Philadelphia City Council and the
Pennsylvania General Assembly created a committee to study the project and seek support of the
U.S. Congress. Congressman
William D. Kelley spoke for the city and state and
Daniel Johnson Morrell introduced a
bill to create a United States Centennial Commission. The bill, which passed on March 3, 1871, provided that the U.S. government would not be liable for any expenses.
Joseph R. Hawley
The United States Centennial Commission organized on March 3, 1872 with
Joseph R. Hawley of
Connecticut as president. The Centennial Commission's commissioners were made up of one representative from each state and territory in the United States.
[1] On June 1, 1872 Congress created a Centennial Board of Finance to help raise money.
John Welsh, brother of philanthropist
William Welsh, who had experience raising funds for The Great Sanitary Fair in 1864, was the named board's president.
[2] The Centennial Board of Finance was authorized to sell up to US$10 million in
stock via US$10 shares. The board sold US$1,784,320 worth of shares by February 22, 1873. Philadelphia contributed US$1.5 million and Pennsylvania gave US$1 million. On February 11, 1876 Congress appropriated US$1.5 million in a
loan. Originally the Centennial Board of Finance thought it was a
subsidy, but after the Centennial ended, the government sued for the money back. The
United States Supreme Court would later force the commission to repay the government. John Welsh enlisted help from the women of Philadelphia who had helped him previously in The Great Sanitary Fair. A Women's Centennial Executive Committee was eventually formed with Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, a descendant of
Benjamin Franklin, as president. In its first few months the group raised US$40,000. When the group learned the planning commission was not doing much to display the work of women, the group raised US$30,000 for a women's exhibition building.
[3]
The Centennial Tower, a 1,000-foot (300 m)-tall tower conceived in 1874 by engineers Clarke and Reeves for the 1876 Exposition, was featured in the January 24, 1874 edition of
Scientific American but never built.
In 1873 the Centennial Commission named
Alfred T. Goshorn as the director general of Exposition. The Fairmount Park Commission set aside 450 acres (1.8 km2) of West Fairmount Park for the exposition which was dedicated on July 4, 1873
[3] by
Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson. Newspaper publisher,
John W. Forney, agreed to head and pay for a Philadelphia commission sent to Europe to invite nations to exhibit at the exposition. Despite fears of a European boycott and high American
tariffs making foreign goods not worthwhile, no European country declined the invitation.
[4]
To accommodate people visiting the city for the Exposition, temporary
hotels were constructed near the Centennial's grounds. A Centennial Lodging-House Agency made a list of rooms in hotels,
boarding houses and private homes and then sold tickets for the available rooms in cities promoting the Centennial or on trains heading for Philadelphia. Also to accommodate crowds,
streetcar lines increased service and the
Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains from Philadelphia's
Market Street,
New York City,
Baltimore and
Pittsburgh. The
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad also ran special trains from the
Center City part of Philadelphia. A small
hospital was built on the Exposition's grounds by the Centennial's Medical Bureau, but besides a
heat wave during the summer no mass deaths or epidemics occurred.
[5]
[edit] Structures
There were more than 200 buildings constructed within Exposition's grounds which was surrounded by a fence nearly three miles long.
[6] The Centennial Commission sponsored a
design competition for the principal buildings. There were two rounds, winners of the first round had to have details such as construction cost and time prepared for the runoff on September 20, 1873. After the four design winners were chosen, it was determined that none of them allowed for enough time for construction and limited finances.
Main Exhibition Building, Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, PA (1875-76, disassembled and sold 1881). In terms of total area enclosed, 21-1/2 acres, this was the largest building in the world.
Horticultural Hall, Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, PA (1875-76, demolished 1954). Stereoscopic view from Robert N. Dennis Collection, New York Public Library.
The Centennial Commission turned to architect Henry Pettit and engineer
Joseph M. Wilson for design and construction of the Main Exhibition Building. A temporary structure, the Main Building was the largest building in the world by area, enclosing twenty-one and a half acres.
[4] It was constructed using
prefabricated parts, with a wood and iron frame resting on 672 stone piers, and took eighteen months to complete. Glass was used between the frames to allow in light. Inside, the central avenue was 120 ft (37 m) wide, 1,832 ft (558 m) long and 75 ft (23 m) high. 75 ft (23 m) tall towers sat at each of the buildings corners. Exhibits from the United States were placed in the center of the building and foreign exhibits were placed around the center based on the nation's distance from the United States. Exhibits inside the Main Building dealt with
mining,
metallurgy,
manufacturing, education and science.
[7]
To the west of the Main Building was Machinery Hall. Machinery Hall was also designed by Pettit and Wilson and was similarly designed except that the building's frame was just made of wood. The building, which took six months to construct, was the second largest building at the Exposition and was 1,402 ft (427 m) long and 360 ft (110 m) wide. There was a 208 ft (63 m) by 210 ft (64 m) wing attached on the south side of the building. Exhibits displayed at Machinery Hall revolved around machines and industry.
[8]
The third largest structure at the Centennial was Agricultural Hall. Designed by James Windrim, Agricultural Hall was 820 ft (250 m) long and 540 ft (160 m) wide. Made of wood and glass, the building was designed to look like various
barn structures pieced together. The building's exhibits included products and machines in
agriculture and other related businesses.
[9]
Unlike most of the buildings constructed for the Exposition,
Horticultural_Hall was meant to be permanent. Horticultural Hall was designed by Hermann J. Schwarzmann. Schwarzmann, an engineer for the Fairmount Park Commission, had never designed a building before. Horticultural Hall had an iron and glass frame on a brick and marble foundation and was 383 ft (117 m) long, 193 ft (59 m) wide and 68 ft (21 m) tall.
[10] The building was styled after
Moorish architecture and designed as a tribute to
The Crystal Palace from
London's
Great Exhibition. The building's exhibits specialized in
horticulture and after the Exposition it continued to exhibit plants until it was badly damaged by
Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and was demolished.
[6]
Memorial Hall
Also designed by Hermann J. Schwarzmann,
Memorial Hall is made of brick, glass, iron and granite. Memorial Hall's was designed in
beaux-arts style and housed the art exhibits. The Centennial received so many art contributions a separate annex was built to house it all. Another building was built for the display of
photography.
[11] Memorial Hall continued to house the school, and afterwards and was taken over by the Fairmount Park Commission in 1958.
[12] The museum school is now the
University of the Arts. The building was later used as a police station and has now been renovated to house the
Please Touch Museum.
[4][13]
The British buildings were extensive and among other things showed to America the evolved bicycle with Tension Spokes and a large front wheel. Two English manufactures displayed their high wheel bikes (called "Ordinary bikes" or slang "penny farthings") at the Exposition: Bayless Thomas and Rudge. It was these displays which caused Col. A Pope to decide to begin making high wheel bikes in the USA. He started the Columbia Bike Company and within a few years was publishing a journal "LAW Bulletin and Good Roads". This was the beginning of the good roads movement by the bicycling faternity which led to the AAA pushing further in 1903.
Twenty-six U.S. states had their own building of which the Ohio House is the only one that still exists.
[14] Not including the United States, eleven nations also had their own building. The
United States government had its own cross shaped building that held exhibits from various government departments. The Women's Pavilion was the first structure at an international exposition devoted to showing off the work of women. The rest of the structures at the Centennial consisted of corporate pavilions, administration buildings, restaurants and other buildings designed for public comfort.
[15]
[edit] Exposition
Interior of Horticultural Hall. (1876)
The formal name of the Exposition was the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and products of the Soil and Mine, but the official theme was the celebration of the United States Centennial. This was reinforced by promotional tie-ins, such as the publication of
Kate Harrington's
Centennial, and Other Poems, which commemorated the Exposition and the centennial. At the same time, the Exposition was designed to show the world the United States' industrial and innovative prowess.
[1] The Centennial was originally set to begin in April for the anniversary of the
Battles of Lexington and Concord, but construction delays caused the date to be pushed ahead to May 10. Bells rang all over Philadelphia to signal the Centennial's opening. The opening ceremony was attended by U.S.
President Ulysses Grant and his
wife and Brazilian
Emperor Dom Pedro and his
wife. The opening ceremony ended in Machinery Hall with Grant and Dom Pedro turning on the
Corliss Steam Engine which powered most of the other machines at the Exposition. The official number of first day attendees was 186,272 people with 110,000 entering with free passes.
In the days following the opening ceremony, attendance dropped dramatically, with only 12,720 people visiting the Exposition. The average daily attendance for May was 36,000 and 39,000 for June. A deadly heat wave began in mid-June and continued into July hurting attendance. The average temperature was 81 °F (27.2 °C), and ten times during the heat wave, the temperatures reached 100 °F (37.8 °C). The average daily attendance for July was 35,000, but it rose in August to 42,000 despite the return of high temperatures at the end of the month.
[16]
Cooling temperatures, news reports and word of mouth began increasing attendance in the final three months of the Exposition, with many of the visitors coming from farther distances. In September the average daily attendance rose to 94,000 and to 102,000 in October. The highest attendance date of the entire Exposition was September 28. The day, which saw about a quarter of a million people attend, was Pennsylvania Day. Pennsylvania Day celebrated the 100th anniversary of the
Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 and Exposition events included speeches, receptions and
fireworks. The final month of the Exposition, November, had an average daily attendance of 115,000. By the time the Exposition ended on November 10, a total of 10,164,489 had visited the fair.
[5]
[edit] Exhibits
Italian Dept. Memorial Hall Annex
Interior, Main Exhibition Building, looking west from grandstand
Technologies introduced at the fair include the
Corliss Steam Engine.
Pennsylvania Railroad displayed the
John Bull steam locomotive that was originally built in 1831.
[17] Waltham Watch Company displayed the first automatic screw making machinery and won the Gold Medal in the first international
watch precision competition. Until the start of 2004, many of the fair's exhibits were in the
Smithsonian Institution's
Arts and Industries Building in
Washington, DC, adjacent to the Castle building.
Consumer products first displayed to the public include:
A reconstruction of a "colonial kitchen" replete with spinning wheel and costumed presenters sparked an era of "Colonial Revival" in American architecture and house furnishings. The Swedish Cottage, representing a rural Swedish schoolhouse of traditional style, was re-erected after the Exposition closed, in
Central Park, New York. It is now the
Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre.
Right Arm and Torch of
Statue of Liberty, 1876 Centennial Exposition.
The New Jersey official State Pavilion was a reconstruction of the Ford Mansion, which served as General George Washington’s Headquarters during the winter of 1779-80 in Morristown, New Jersey. The reconstruction had a working "colonial kitchen" featuring a polemical narrative of "old-fashioned domesticity." This quaint hearth and home view of the colonial past was juxtaposed against the theme of progress, the overarching theme of the exhibition serving to reinforce a view of American progress evolving from a small hearty colonial stock and not from a continual influx of multi-ethnic waves of immigration.
The right arm and torch of the
Statue of Liberty were showcased at the Exposition. For a fee of 50 cents, visitors could climb the ladder to the balcony, and the money raised this way was used to fund the rest of the statue.
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Balboa Park
