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PHOTO BY RITTASE
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, and which was the scene of many important Exposition events.
The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition
A RECORD BASED ON OFFICIAL DATA AND DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS
By
E. L. AUSTIN
Director-in-Chief
AND
ODELL HAUSER
Director of Publicity
WITH CONTRIBUTED CHAPTERS BY OTHERS PROMINENT IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE EXPOSITION AND 100 PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Published by
CURRENT PUBLICATIONS, Inc. 123 SOUTH BROAD STREET PHILADELPHIA, PA.
1929
Second Printing, July, 1929
Copyright, 1929 by
Current Publications, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design from “ America Welcomes the World ” official Exposition poster Copyright, 1926, by Elliott Brewer Philadelphia
and lithographed for him by A. HOEN & SON Baltimore
Reproduced by Permission
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President and Mrs. Coolideje with their official party escorted to the tribune in the Stadium by Mayor and Mrs. Kendrick on President's Day at the Exposition, July 5.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from
This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries
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C O N T E N T S
FOREWORD by W . Freeland Kendrick INTRODUCTION by John Frederick Lewis
Page
CHAPTER I
The Exposition in Perspective . 19
CHAPTER II
Early History of the Project . 27
CHAPTER III
Period of Preparation . 35
CHAPTER IV
Opening Day to Closing Day . 48
CHAPTER V
The Financial Phases by Albert M. Greenfield . 54
CHAPTER VI
Architectural Features . 59
CHAPTER VII
Construction Achievements . . 70
CHAPTER VIII
Participation of Foreign Nations . 81
CHAPTER IX
Federal Government Participation by Rear Admiral H. O. Stickney . 104
CHAPTER X
State and Civic Participation . 122
CHAPTER XI
Pennsylvania’s Building and Exhibits by Gifford Pinchot . 130
24 8770
CHAPTER XII
Women’s Patriotic Contribution by Mrs. J. Willis Martin .
151
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, .CHAPTER XIII
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High Street, the Memo’raBi® 'by; 7^..,/., Willis May-tin. . . 160
CHAPTER XIV
Other Activities of Women by Mrs. J. Willis Martin . 174
CHAPTER XV
Military and Naval Displays . 183
CHAPTER XVI
Notable Ceremonies and Occasions . 190
CHAPTER XVII
Music and Musical Organizations by Herbert J. Tily . 210
CHAPTER XVIII
In the Palace of Fine Arts . 228
CHAPTER XIX
Pageantry, Drama and Spectacle by William W. Matos . 238
CHAPTER XX
Education and Social Economy by Joseph R. Wilson, LL.B . 249
CHAPTER XXI
Exhibits in Social Economy by Joseph R. Wilson, LL.B . 271
CHAPTER XXII
Aviation and National Air Races by Hollinshead N. Taylor . 293
CHAPTER XXIII
Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures . 306
CHAPTER XXIV
Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Exhibits . 339
CHAPTER XXV
Palace of United States Government, Machinery and Transportation. . 355
CHAPTER XXVI
Special Buildings . 365
CHAPTER XXVII
The Gladway, Amusements, and Concessions . 372
Pace
CHAPTER XXVIII
Celebration of Special Days . 376
CHAPTER XXIX
Religious Events . 414
CHAPTER XXX
The Municipal Stadium by Edward P. Simon . 419
CHAPTER XXXI
Sports Events by Robert T. Paul and Henry Penn Burke . 424
CHAPTER XXXII
Conventions, Congresses and Other Events . 434
CHAPTER XXXIII
A Mecca for Motorists by J. B orton Weeks . 441
CHAPTER XXXIV
Sesqui-Centennial Live Stock Show by B. H. Heide . 445
CHAPTER XXXV
Dog Show, Poultry, Pigeon and Pet Stock Shows . 458
APPENDIX
Officers, Directors, and Executive Committee of Sesqui-Centennial Ex¬ hibition Association . 462
National Sesquicentennial Exhibition Commission . 463
Council of Governors . 463
Committees . 464
Administrative Personnel . 475
Staff . 476
Awards by International Jury of Awards . 482
American Youth Award and American Teacher Award . 497
Festival Chorus . 499
Exhibitors and Concessionaires . 517
Westward across the Forum of the Founders , the Court of Honor of the Exposition, dedi¬ cated to the Founders of the Republic.
A section of the Col¬ umns of the Signers, thirteen in number , each bearing a bronze tablet with the names of the Signers of the Declaration of Indepen¬ dence from one of the original thirteen States. To the right rear is the mammoth Liberty Bell.
The Sesqui- Centennial International Exposition
FOREWORD By W . Freeland Kendrick
FORMER MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA, AND PRESIDENT OF THE SESQUI-CENTENNIAL
EXHIBITION ASSOCIATION
The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition was brought into being to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was inconceivable that the year which marked the arrival at that milestone of American Independence should not be signalized by some observance far greater in scope and magnitude than the customary Fourth of July exercises.
It was an anniversary that belonged to our whole people but upon Philadelphia devolved a peculiar responsibility to act as host for the occasion. For it was here that the stirring events of 1776 were centered. Independence Hall and Carpenters’ Hall and other settings of those memorable days still stand as they were then. Enshrined in its place of honor as our country's most precious historic relic rests the Liberty Bell, whose voice proclaimed the signing of the Declaration.
Upon Philadelphia, then, rested the obligation to take the initia¬ tive. She would have been recreant to her duty if she had not done so and the omission would have brought reproach upon her good name. With these considerations in mind, a number of our repre¬ sentative citizens had for some time been reflecting on the project , of a fitting celebration. The brilliant precedent of the Centennial Exposition in 1876 dictated that the proper form was an interna¬ tional exposition. Plans for such an undertaking were put under way and had been in progress with more or less success when the present writer took office as Mayor of Philadelphia in 1924. From that time on the whole force of the city government was put behind the project, help was obtained from many directions, and the Exposi¬ tion became a reality.
Its gates were opened not on June 1, 1926, as had originally been planned, but one day ahead of that time, or on May 31. It is to be admitted that the Exposition was not completed when it was opened, but it was largely completed in its externals at least. Herein was a distinct departure from precedent in international expositions, for we have become used to the condition that postponement of the opening date is the rule rather than the exception.
The public will never know the difficulties that were met and over¬ come. The Exposition was virtually built between January and June and its construction in that time represented an almost miraculous achievement by the engineering staffs.
There were proposals to postpone the opening a year in order to secure a greater degree of preparation, as well as to hold the Exposi¬ tion over another year, the first made before the opening and the
9
10
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
latter near the close. Rightly or wrongly, the present writer threw his influence against postponement and against reopening on the general principle that the object of the Exposition was to celebrate our country’s one hundred and fiftieth anniversary and that this came in 1926 and no other year, wherefore the Exposition should open in 1926 and close finally in the same year.
Many nations accepted President Coolidge’s invitation on behalf of the Exposition to participate, many noted personages attended, and many notable events were held. Nearly six and one half million admissions were recorded at the gates. And of all those who came from far and near it may be said, in furtherance of the patriotic pur¬ pose which underlay the whole event, even the humblest might tread the very ground on which Washington and Jefferson and Franklin walked.
Thus the Exposition accomplished its primary purpose, which was to afford the people of the United States and the people of the world an opportunity to meet in solemn celebration of one hundred and fifty years of American independence. It offered a visualization of the spiritual, scientific, economic, artistic and industrial progress that has been made in the United States and other countries during the half century since the Centennial Exposition.
The exhibits were enthralling in their interest, as was attested by the attitude of the crowds of visitors constantly passing before them. Nor were the aspects of affording relaxation and amusement for the visitors neglected. There was satisfaction for the ear in the great musical festivals and recital programs and for the eye in the far- stretching vistas of beauty and charm which the architects created.
The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition is now nothing but a name. To many it has brought imperishable memories of col¬ orful events and delightful associations. These memories persist and gradually obliterate the recollections of the difficulties, as is the way with humankind. We look back at the Exposition today at a dis¬ tance of more than two years since its close and as this perspective lengthens we shall come to value more and more highly the lasting benefits that resulted from the Exposition. We shall realize the measure in which it accomplished the objects set forth in President Coolidge’s invitation to foreign nations to participate, namely : “ex¬ hibiting the progress of the United States and other nations in art, science and industry, and trade and commerce, and the development of the products of the air, the soil, the mine, the forest and the seas.” We shall also feel a sense of satisfaction that so ambitious an under¬ taking was set as the measure of what we thought in keeping with the observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our country’s independence.
The beautiful Persian Building fronting on Edgewater Lake, one of the exquisite archi¬ tectural features of the Exposition.
INTRODUCTION By John Frederick Lewis
MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SESQUI-CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION
ASSOCIATION AND FORMER PRESIDENT
To commemorate the signing and proclamation of the Declaration of Independence was the purpose of the Sesqui-Centennial Interna¬ tional Exposition, to state that purpose as broadly as it can be stated and yet with the utmost possible economy of words. It was this pur¬ pose which animated the many men and women who contributed their services and their money to its accomplishment from the time of its earliest suggestion to the time when the gates closed and the Exposi¬ tion became a thing of the past.
It is well we should be reminded of this in retrospect, as they thought of it in prospect. Our people are apt to take the Declaration of Independence and the circumstances which surrounded it too much for granted. It shall be the task here to seek to make the events of the year 1776 live again within the pages of a book as the Exposition sought to make them live again in its patriotic observances, its archi¬ tectural design with the Forum of the Founders and the columns of the signers, and its High Street of ’76.
One hundred and fifty years after the event, the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition sought, as did the Centennial Exposition one hundred years after it, to reconsecrate American patriotism by reminding the nation of its beginnings. It invited the American people to assemble at the most sacred spot on the American continent; upon the most important date in the entire history of political liberty; and to com¬ memorate an event farther reaching in its effect than any which has transpired since the beginning of the Christian era.
Consider these facts :
When the delegates from the United Colonies met in Pennsyl¬ vania’s Old State House and renounced allegiance to Great Britain, they took their lives in their hands. They were actuated by the purest sense of duty to their country.
For the first time in the history of the world, a great nation was born in the faith : “that all men are created equal, that they are en¬ dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.’’
What the delegates did was nothing less than high treason. They threw off allegiance to England and they levied war against her. Renunciation of allegiance and levying war against the supreme
11
12
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
power of a state constituted the highest civil crime a citizen could commit. Had the Revolutionary War failed, they could not have escaped punishment. Proving that their motive was to secure the repeal of a law which they believed infringed their liberties would not have been a good defense. Lord Mansfield declared, in the trial of Lord George Gordon, that it was the unanimous opinion of the Court that an attempt by violence to enforce the repeal of a law was levying war against the King and was high treason.
Many of the delegates were trained lawyers. They were all men of intelligence. They knew the consequences of their act. They knew that in 1719, during the reign of Queen Anne, Matthews, a printer, was convicted of high treason and executed for publishing a pam¬ phlet entitled “Vox populi, vox Dei” — “The Voice of the People is the Voice of God,” though the very words of the title and its doc¬ trine originated with the learned and saintly Alcuin of York as long before as the Eighth Century. They knew that an offender convicted of high treason was condemned to be drawn to the gallows, and not to be carried or walk, that he was to be hanged by the neck and then cut down alive, his head cut off and his body drawn and quartered, his property confiscated and his very blood attainted, so that his own sons and daughters could not inherit through his contaminated veins. Hence the solemnity of this Declaration.
Every word in it was carefully weighed and considered. It is a stately document. For literary taste, dignity of style, evidence of historical learning, and well founded knowledge of human and divine law it had never been equalled. Sound in legal form, sincere in state¬ ment, resolute and righteous in spirit, it is a masterpiece of eloquence. Hence the significance of its closing words : “With a firm Reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor.” Its language calls to us from the past and we should not “draw nigh hither” unless ready “to put off the shoes from off our feet, for the place whereon we stand is holy ground.”
When the Declaration of Independence was adopted it was at once printed in broadside form, by direction of Congress, for distribution to the heads of the army and for public proclamation. These broad¬ sides were signed by John Hancock, President of Congress, and attested by Charles Thomson as Secretary. It was from one of these that the Declaration was first publicly proclaimed, July 8, 1776. It was read by John Nixon in behalf of William Dewees, Sheriff of Philadelphia. A procession assembled at the Hall of the American Philosophical Society, which was then on Second Street, and marched to the State House Yard, where they collected about a platform
INTRODUCTION
13
erected by the society to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. The actual reading was at noon. The Sheriff was directed to have all his officers and constables attend. The Committee of Safety was present. A number of the Delegates to Congress filed out from the rear door of the State House and the Declaration was read in a voice clear and distinct enough to be heard on the opposite side of Fifth Street. A printed copy of this broadside, presumably the original read by Nixon, is in the possession of the American Philosophical Society, which owns too the quaint old arm chair upon which Jefferson sat in the house at Seventh and Market Streets while he drafted the immortal document.
As soon as the Declaration was proclaimed, the royal insignia in the Courts were taken down and burnt amid demonstrations of joy. The old State House bell with its famous words : “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” was rung, and continued to be rung upon every anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, until finally cracked in tolling July 8, 1835, for the death of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.
The Fourth of July, 1776, is indeed the most important date in all the history of political liberty, and without exception the most critical. The men who adopted the Declaration of Independence were lovers of the British Constitution. They had grown up under its benign influence. Their rights as Englishmen formed their dearest heritage. They were citizens of British colonies. Their mother coun¬ try was the most powerful nation in Europe. They were proud of her accomplishment. She had frustrated the attempts of France to connect by a chain of forts the French settlements in Canada with those in Louisiana. Some of the delegates, like Washington in Brad- dock’s Campaign, had fought for her. Canada had been conquered and French authority north of the Colonies annihilated. Upon the continent of Europe, English arms, with the sole alliance of Fred¬ erick the Great, King of Prussia, had successfully withstood all the other powers combined. Hanover had been recovered from the French. The Battle of Minden had been fought and won. Humiliat¬ ing treaties had been wrested from the French and Spanish. In India Lord Clive had laid the foundations of the British Empire. Eng¬ land’s men of war had swept the ocean and made her mistress of the seven seas, so that the ships of every nation dipped their colors at the sight of her flag.
Few, if any, of the delegates desired independence. The Colonies were well off in free institutions. Many of them had originated in a desire for greater freedom than even the laws of England secured her resident citizens. Many of their settlers had gone into the wilder-
14
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
ness to seek religious liberty. Feudalism as a system had never ex¬ isted among them, merely its forms as a theory of land tenure. Their charters, or written constitutions, secured their people rights which in some respects were superior to those of their relatives across the water. Rhode Island’s Constitution provided that all power should revert annually to the people and that the officers of the Crown should be elected anew by popular vote. George III wondered why he was sovereign of such a democracy. Connecticut had been given by the Stuarts so liberal a charter that it was freely drawn upon in 1787 as a basis for our own Federal Constitution. Pennsylvania’s charter reflected the gratitude of Charles II for the services of Admiral Penn and his friendship for the Admiral’s son, the great Founder of the Commonwealth, and the “Frame of Government of the Province of Pennsylvania agreed upon in England” was designedly made attrac¬ tive to those who loved liberty and order. As William Penn put it : “Any government is free to the people under it (whatever be its frame) where the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws.”
The Colonists in general had been loyal subjects of the British Crown. They had consented to have their trade regulated to their own detriment and the advantage of the English merchant. They cherished the Magna Carta of 1215 with as much sincerity as their fellow citizens living in England. To use the words of John Adams in 1776, they knew that “the British Constitution had liberty as its end and use, as much as grinding corn is the use of a mill.” They knew that it was identified with the law of nature and regarded civil law as written reason. When England needed men or money for national defense they had willingly granted both, and they were slow to believe that their King had bribed the peoples’ representatives with the peoples’ own money in order to enforce his obstinate will. Their attitude for years when they met in public or private was to secure their liberty rather than their independence. The sentiments they generally entertained were well expressed by John Jay in his address to the people of Great Britain : “Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory.”
The first Continental Congress, of 1774, took no action toward declaring independence. Such a measure does not seem to have been considered even a possibility. Upon the contrary, it avowed allegiance to the King and assured him that the Colonists yielded to no other British subjects in attachment to his person, his family, and his gov¬ ernment. Its members were entirely without power to act. They were authorized to consult together and advise how best to obtain redress of grievances and restoration of harmony. They sent peti¬ tions to the King and Parliament and published addresses to the peo¬ ple of England.
Queen Marie of Roumania, with Princess Ilcana and the official party, in the specially- constructed royal box in the Auditorium at the entertainment arranged in her honor.
15
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INTROritrCTfON
In fact, prior to 1775, there was no question whatever of separa¬ tion, and during the Revolution itself John Adams declared that he would have given anything to restore matters as before with security. Even Jefferson and Madison admitted in the presence of the English Minister that a few seats for the Colonists in both Houses of Parlia¬ ment would have set at rest the whole question.
The Second Continental Congress, of 1775, was invested with no greater power than the First and it took no action upon the question of separation. The spirit which pervaded that body is shown by the fact that John Dickinson, who always retained a strong desire for reconciliation, was permitted to draw a Second Petition to the King according to his own ideas and the Congress passed it with scarcely an amendment. The petition was so conciliatory that some members could not refrain from expressing their dissatisfaction, but when it was adopted Dickinson was delighted, thanked Congress and said: “There is only one word, Mr. President, in the paper of which I disapprove, and that is the word ‘Congress.’ ” Benjamin Harrison of Virginia replied: “There is only one word in the paper, Mr. Presi¬ dent, of which I approve, and that is the word ‘Congress.’ ”
The declaration setting forth the causes of taking up arms ex¬ pressly assured their fellow subjects in every part of the Empire : “That we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so
happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored.”
Washington in all his demands upon Congress never wasted his powers urging that allegiance to England should be thrown off, and even during the year of Paul Revere’s ride, Lexington, and Con¬ cord, when war was a reality, a majority of the people of the Col¬ onies seemed to have desired reconciliation. Those who favored independence were comparatively few. Not until after the death of Warren at Bunker Hill did independence become a possibility. That, in Jefferson’s words, “cut off our last hope of reconciliation and a frenzy of revenge seized all ranks of people.”
Great Britain declared her intention to force the colonies to sub¬ mit, and Congress, without any express power, proceeded to resist the force. George III was obstinate, if nothing else. The delegates “in the name of the good people of these Colonies,” — “appealing,” as they say, “to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,” carried their cause from the law of England to the law of nature, and from the King of England to the King of Kings, and He broke “the staff of the wicked and the sceptre of the rulers.”
The contest was one of pure principle. The taxes to be raised were too inconsiderable to interest the people of either country. Whether the Colonists used stamped paper or not, or drank tea or
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SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
quit it, were matters of little consequence. As Daniel Webster puts it, they went to war against a preamble, against the recital in an Act of Parliament, of a right to legislate concerning them without con¬ sulting their wishes. Lord Chatham admitted in 1775 that the spirit which pervaded America was the same which established British liberties at a remote era and based them on the grand fundamental maxim that no subject of England shall be taxed but by his own con¬ sent.
Again and again they had petitioned for a redress of their griev¬ ances. “In every stage of these oppressions,” as the Declaration states, “we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.” They urged that the conquest of Canada had been with their assis¬ tance, but Great Britain lost all bounds to her ambition. Her Govern¬ ment looked upon the Colonies as sources of revenue, and claimed the right to tax them without limitation and bind them by statutes, in all cases whatsoever. This was slavery undisguised. Failure to declare independence was surrendering the contest.
The initial action in Congress towards independence was upon June 7, 1776, when Charles Thomson, its Secretary, records in its Secret Journal that “certain resolutions” were moved and seconded.
The first of these was that the Colonies “are and of right ought to be free and independent States.” It was offered by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia and seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. It was debated in Committee of the Whole. Some of the delegates felt that they were without power to act. The people of the Middle Col¬ onies : Pennsylvania, Delaware, the Jerseys, and New York, were not yet ready to bid adieu to the British Constitution.
The consideration of the resolution was postponed from June 7 to June 10. Upon June 11 Congress resolved to appoint a committee of five members to prepare an appropriate Declaration, should inde¬ pendence be approved. Jefferson was the first named. He had been a member of Congress for about a year, had attended but a small part of his time, and had never spoken in public. Action by Congress was again postponed until July 1 in order that the assemblies of the Middle Colonies might have an opportunity to take off the restric¬ tions upon their delegates and let them vote for the measure.
The committee to draw up the Declaration appointed Jefferson and Adams as a sub-committee, whereupon Jefferson wanted Adams to make it, but Adams declined because in his opinion it was preferable to have a Southern man rather than one from Massachusetts and because Adams “had a great opinion of the elegance of Jefferson’s pen and none at all of his own.” An original draft of the Declaration
Looking across Broad Street, the main con¬ course of the Exposition, with the Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Exhibits in the im¬ mediate background and the Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures to its left.
INTRODUCTION
17
in the handwriting of Jefferson with the amendments adopted by Congress was sent to Richard Henry Lee, who had been called home by the illness of his wife. It was presented to the American Philo¬ sophical Society by Lee’s grandson in 1821, is now a treasured pos¬ session of that venerable institution, and is lodged in its old building on Independence Square. Jefferson was President of that society from 1797 to 1814.
Congress further debated the subject of independence on July 2. The New York delegates declined to vote because they were without definite instructions. South Carolina, three to one, voted “no” until the majority of the delegates should decide “yes.” Pennsylvania voted “no,” four to three. The delegates from Delaware were a tie, with one member missing, but before the motion was put in regular session of the delegates in general Congress assembled, Caesar Rod¬ ney of Delaware, apprised by special messenger, arose from a sick bed and, protecting his diseased face with a veil, made his famous eighty-mile ride and reached the State House door in boots and spurs, just in time to reverse Delaware’s vote, so that when John Dickinson and Robert Morris absented themselves Pennsylvania stood three to two in favor of independence and South Carolina voted solidly “yes,” twelve of the thirteen colonies thus declaring for independence. The adoption of the form of Declaration alone remained. This was fi¬ nally approved on the evening of July 4 by the twelve colonies, when the militia pulled down the leaden statue of George III and melted it into bullets.
The Declaration of Independence was not engrossed on parchment and finally signed until August 2, upon which date the Journal re¬ cords that the Declaration, having been engrossed and compared at the table, was signed. It was then that Hancock declared : “We must be unanimous; we must all hang together” and Franklin said: “Yes, or we shall all hang separately.” Hancock was the first to sign his name in a large strong hand and said: “There! John Bull can read my name without spectacles and now double his reward of five hun¬ dred pounds for my head.”
The adoption of the Declaration was farther reaching in political effect than any event since the beginning of our era. Its immediate influence was tremendous. It created more astonishment in Europe than in the United Colonies. It was heralded by the friends of lib¬ erty wherever it became known. It delighted the French, amazed the Italians, and encouraged the Poles and Hungarians. Everywhere in Europe men were astonished that a few scattered Colonies should have the courage to withstand the greatest power on earth. Revolu¬ tion followed. Dynasties toppled and overturned. Kings became re-
18
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
pentant and whatever remnant of belief in their divinity existed, ex¬ ploded.
This was the act and these the principles commemorated by the holding of the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition. If it had done nothing else but serve to recall them vividly to the minds and hearts of the heritors of the courageous and far-sighted men of 1776, it would amply have served its purpose.
The circular court of the Illinois Building con¬ tained a replica of the Lincoln Statue by St Loudens.
CHAPTER I
THE EXPOSITION IN PERSPECTIVE
EPHEMERAL CHARACTER OF EXPOSITIONS — PERMANENT INFLUENCE — HIGH STREET — “FREEDOM” — AMERICAN YOUTH AND TEACHER AWARDS — EDUCATIONAL, FINE ARTS AND MUSIC IMPORT — HIGHLIGHTS — NEGATIVE SIDE — CRITICISMS — SOURCE OF AN¬ TAGONISM — HANDICAPS — FUNDAMENTAL ERROR — POSTPONEMENT PLANS — DECI¬ SION MADE — PHILADELPHIA PROGRESS COMMITTEE.
Three years ago a city was reared as if by the wave of a magic wand and all the world was invited to come and view its wonders. Treasures of many lands were assembled there. The streets of the city were traversed by millions of people, including royalty and rulers, statesmen and diplomats, leaders in every walk of life. The facades and towers and domes and minarets of its many buildings formed a skyline of rare beauty. It was the daily scene of color¬ ful events, pageantry, spectacles and festivals. Because of its many- hued structures it was called “The Rainbow City.”
At the end of six months the gates of the city were closed. Its streets no longer echoed to the sounds of festivity. Its treasures were packed up and taken away. Its buildings were deserted. The reason for its existence had ended. Soon the skyline vanished and only a few buildings remained as memorials of what had been. The magic city had faded as the rainbow fades.
Such was the history of the Sesqui-Centennial International Ex¬ position in its material form. It is the history of all great exposi¬ tions. There is always something tragic in their impermanence.
Looking back upon the Exposition from the vantage point that time gives the historian, it will be seen that impermanence applied only to its material form and that there was a permanent character not only in the underlying ideals that brought it into being but also in the influence it has had on contemporary life.
Whatever else may be said of the Exposition there can be no doubt regarding its ideality of purpose. It wTas undertaken as a patriotic duty. As to money-making, that was out of the question. In fact, in planning it the people of Philadelphia knew they were as¬ suming heavy financial responsibilities. Leading citizens who were convinced the city would derive burdens instead of benefits from it enthusiastically put their shoulders to the wheel to make it a reality. It is hardly conceivable they would have done so except through highly idealistic motives. At a time when it was the fashion to criticize the nation as inordinately materialistic the Exposition was proof to the contrary.
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20
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
The offering of such proof at such a time was a distinct influence on contemporary life. It attested that America still responded to an appeal based on other than commercial motives and was still mindful of the principles on which it was founded. When the United States had become the most powerful nation in the world, entering upon a period of material well-being without parallel in all history, it was significant that three among the outstanding achievements of the Exposition stressed the importance of maintaining high spiritual standards.
One of these achievements was the truly remarkable revi¬ talization of early American ideals, atmosphere and activities in High Street, a faithful reproduction of the main street of Philadel¬ phia as it was in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was signed. High Street was a source of renewed confidence in the deep foundations of American life, and as such it undoubtedly had a lasting effect on the millions who visited it.
The pageant “Freedom” was another achievement of the Expo¬ sition that created a lasting impression of spiritual value on all who witnessed it. Conceived on a colossal scale and produced many times in the course of the Exposition period, it emphasized with all the art of the stage and music and spectacle the great human struggle for freedom through the ages, the heroism and sacrifices that made possible the benefits enjoyed by the American people today.
Then there was the establishment of the American Youth Award and the American Teacher Award. Recognizing the important part the youth and teachers of America have played in the development of the nation, the directors of the Exposition determined that recog¬ nition should be paid them on the very spot where the stirring events of 1776 occurred. Each state and the District of Columbia accord¬ ingly selected a boy and a girl of high school age adjudged its best representatives of American ideals in youth and a woman school teacher who within its boundaries had accomplished the greatest good for the children of her state. The youths and teachers were brought to Philadelphia to spend a week in contact with the scenes of Amer¬ ica’s beginnings and to take part in notable events of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the nation. They were received by President Coolidge in Washington and were awarded medals. Throughout the nation there was notable interest in the selection of the boys and girls and teachers, with the result that truly fine representatives were chosen who were not only inspired to greater accomplishments by the honors accorded them but were inspiring examples to others. So successful was this undertaking in attracting public attention to the nobler side of American life in
Governor Ritchie with members of the Mary¬ land patriotic societies in the Forum of the Founders on Maryland Day.
THE EXPOSITION IN PERSPECTIVE
21
contrast with the other phases that often receive unworthy glori¬ fication that steps have been taken since the Exposition by public- spirited citizens to make the American Youth Award and the Ameri¬ can Teacher Award a permanent inspirational institution.
In many other respects the Exposition set in motion or gave additional momentum to forces that remain as potent influences in the life of the nation. In the field of education it presented an un¬ precedented opportunity for educators to compare modern methods and their results. The increasing appreciation of the fine arts was given added impetus by one of the most comprehensive collections ever assembled. Music in all its forms was presented on a scale so broad and with artistic standards on so high a plane that the reputation of America as a musical nation was confirmed and ex¬ emplified as never before.
So much for the “intangibles” of the Exposition. In its material aspects it was equally distinctive. There was no slavish following of precedents, but a sincere effort to make it conform to its purpose. And yet of “biggests” and “firsts” and such superlatives there were many, both in its general features and in particular exhibits.
To start with, no other exposition on so large a scale was ever built in so short a time. If it had not been for lessons in emergency construction learned in the World War it would have taken years to have accomplished what was done in months. As it happened, few believed that such rapid construction as took place was possible and this undoubtedly affected the attendance even after the Exposi¬ tion was completed.
In architectural features the Exposition represented a signifi¬ cant departure from the conventional. Recognizing that a distinc¬ tive American architecture had developed through the requirements of modern conditions, an adaptation was made for the first time at any exposition of one of its most characteristic features, the so- called “setback” or pyramidal style, developed especially in the sky¬ scrapers of large cities.
Indirect colored illumination of buildings has become a beautiful night effect that is now not uncommon, but it was at the Exposition that this method of beautification was shown for the first time on a large scale. Mechanical rotation and blending of colors in out¬ door lighting was also a novelty at the Exposition, demonstrated with fascinating effects in a superb electrical fountain.
The huge illuminated Liberty Bell that was erected at a cost of approximately $100,000 near the entrance to the Exposition was the largest electrical structure every erected and presented a spec¬ tacle that will long be rememberd by every one who saw it.
The Pennsylvania Building and the Persian Building were archi-
22
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
tectural gems that represented new conceptions of beauty in expo¬ sition structures.
On any day at the Exposition the visitor could witness aerial activities by Army, Navy and civilian fliers that were beyond the dreams of the years when previous expositions had been held.
The exhibits of the United States Government were the most comprehensive ever shown at any exposition. Among foreign ex¬ hibits those of Japan formed the largest and most complete display of the arts and products of that nation ever made.
The Diesel engine, one of the significant contemporary advances in power plant construction, was represented by the greatest as¬ semblage of its types ever displayed.
Paintings and sculptures valued at nearly $8,000,000 in the Palace of Fine Arts, including the oldest piece of tapestry in the world and the finest collection of Rodin outside of Paris; diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds valued at $10,000,000 in the British exhibits; tapestries from the Royal Household of Spain valued at $15,000,000 — these surely were worthy of superlatives.
One of the greatest organs ever constructed was installed in the Auditorium of the Exposition where it was played by the leading organists of the country.
Among the notable precedents established in connection with the Exposition was the appearance for the first and only time of the likeness of a living President upon any legal coinage of the United States. Coins struck in commemoration of the event were a silver half-dollar and a $2.50 gold piece. The former bore on the obverse side the profile of George Washington superimposed on that of President Coolidge.
It was the first exposition at which a field mass was celebrated and at this religious ceremony in the Stadium on the Exposition grounds all records were broken for attendance at an event of this nature.
A sports program that made athletic history was climaxed by the first world’s heavyweight boxing championship contest ever held at an exposition. At this contest the title passed from Jack Dempsey to Gene Tunney.
The greatest live stock show the East has ever seen and the first dog show sponsored by the American Kennel Club were held in connection with the Exposition.
It was in keeping with the general recognition of the broadening scope of woman’s sphere in modern life that women were called upon to take a greater part in planning and administering the Ex¬ position than had been the case in connection with any previous in¬ ternational exposition. High Street was their outstanding contri¬ bution.
Gloria Swanson, film star, firing can¬ non to signalize opening of National Air Races.
Suzanne Lenglen, of France, shaking hands with Mary Brownie, of Amer¬ ica, at conclusion of tennis match in Auditorium.
Gertrude Ederle, first woman to swim English Channel, in rolling chair at Exposition . zvith two noted airmen.
THE EXPOSITION IN PERSPECTIVE
23
As typical of the cultural influence of the Exposition in many unanticipated channels it may be recorded that the reproduction of High Street led to renewed interest in many fine old Colonial man¬ sions that stand in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and set in mo¬ tion plans for their restoration and preservation. The Junior League of Philadelphia has been active in this work.
In wealth and variety of exhibits the Exposition was truly repre¬ sentative of the progress in the liberal and mechanical arts that had been achieved in the fifty years since the Centennial Exposi¬ tion. In many cases this progress was shown by direct contrast of the products or methods of 1876 with those of 1926.
Modern wonders of applied science, such as the radio, electri¬ cal refrigeration, “talking'’ motion pictures, multiple message teleg¬ raphy, labor-saving devices for the home and for business, picture transmission via wire and air, had their first comprehensive show¬ ing at the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition and there, too, for the first time was to be observed in varied lines the contemporary trend in the application of principles of artistic beauty to even the most utilitarian of products.
Installations of such modern devices as sound-amplifying sys¬ tems, through which it is possible now for outdoor speeches and announcements to be carried to the remotest ear of vast human assemblages, and the Auditorium Orthophonic Victrola for repro¬ ducing music on a similar scale, came within the experience of mil¬ lions for the first time at the Exposition. So successful was the installation of the latter in the Palace of United States Govern¬ ment, Machinery and Transportation that the Government asked the Victor Company to make a similar installation in the United States Building at the Ibero-American Exposition, which opened in Seville, Spain, recently.
The Virgin Islands, latest addition to the family of the United States, exhibited at the Sesqui-Centennial for the first time at any exposition.
Historical exhibits of extraordinary interest were to be found in all the main palaces as well as in foreign and state buildings. They ranged from the anchor of the Santa Maria, flagship of Co¬ lumbus, and a chalice from which he drank to the loud speaker of the ill-fated dirigible Shenandoah; from the original charter of Charles II granted to William Penn to the original apparatus used by Marconi in signaling across the Atlantic Ocean ; from the first telegraphic instrument and the first telephone instrument to the latest modern miracle of transmitting pictures by wire; from the old frigate “Constellation’’ and the flagship of Dewey at Manila to the NC4, the first seaplane to cross the ocean from America; from a page of
24
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
the Gutenberg Bible to the first X-ray tubes used in America ; from the gig in which Jefferson rode from Monticello, Virginia, to Phil¬ adelphia to the airplane in which Commander Byrd flew to the North Pole and back; from a fragment of a tree under which Cortes slept during his conquest of Mexico to apparatus used by Franklin in his conquest of lightning.
Patent Office models of inventions by Edison, Eads, Ericson and Gatling were to be seen as well as the largest electric locomotive in the world. A collection of amber articles valued at $1,000,000 vied in interest with a pearl pagoda from Japan, made of 50,000 genuine pearls also worth $1,000,000.
A unique exhibit at the Exposition was that showing the progress of the Negro race in industry, art and science. It was comprehen¬ sive in scope and offered a striking revelation of the remarkable advances that had been made by the race in cultural advancement.
Building after building, from the five great palaces built for gen¬ eral exhibition purposes to structures designed for special displays, from the foreign and state buildings to the individual houses of High Street, showed exhibits that were fairly bewildering in their variety. The things of interest in one comparatively small build¬ ing alone — the Government model post office — were worthy of a day’s study, and it was estimated that more than a cursory view of the entire exhibits would require two weeks of time.
Some reader of a generation now unborn coming upon these writings in the future years may be moved to inquire why, if such a story of positive achievement may be credited to the Sesqui-Cen- tennial International Exposition, certain criticisms associated with it still survive. This record would not be complete unless cognizance were taken of this aspect of the situation. Moreover, both Chicago and New York are considering the holding of international exposi¬ tions and in both these places the criticisms levelled at the Sesqui- Centennial Exposition have been instanced as proving that “the day of the international exposition is over.” A constructive purpose will be accomplished, therefore, if some attention is given to the negative side of the Exposition in order that others may understand and profit.
We may start with the assertion that if the Exposition had opened on or about July 15, 1926, when it was completed, and if its history previous to that time had been a blank page, it would have been an unqualified success and that if its opening had been postponed until 1927 it would have been a triumphant success. It is the things which happened prior to July 15, 1926, which laid the foundations for the criticisms.
THE EXPOSITION IN PERSPECTIVE
25
Even so, the Exposition has never had complete justice done it. Looking back at the Exposition as it was constituted after July 15 one notes with surprise that there are those unwilling to allow its manifest excellences to overweigh the things that have been said in dispraise. It is still as true as it was during the course of the event that there are those who magnify its defects and accord scant cour¬ tesy to its merits.
One significant point is to be made in that connection at the outset. It is that most of the surviving criticism of the Exposition comes from Philadelphia and most of the praise comes from out¬ side.
Therein is reflected a curious but characteristic phase of the civic consciousness of Philadelphia. A certain portion of the population of the city which William Penn founded — how large the per¬ centage one would give a good deal to know — is firmly addicted to the habit of destructive criticism.
As a result of the perennial activities of this portion of the city’s population, Philadelphia has not always been able to give a good account of herself before the rest of the country. False charges which have been trumped up by one branch or another of this ele¬ ment purely for home consumption have been echoed outside the city and taken for the truth, to the detriment of the city’s reputa¬ tion. The effect of this state of affairs as a whole has been that, of all the great cities of the country, Philadelphia has told the outside world the least about her successes and the most about her failures. For it is characteristic of this element in the population that the last instinct it would allow validity is the instinct to subordinate per¬ sonal preferences to the good of the city as a whole.
It may well be imagined that a project as vast as the Sesqui-Cen- tennial Exposition offered golden opportunities to the negative- minded. They were seized upon with avidity and made the most of. It can be stated without danger of contradiction from any fair- minded person that the things which did the most to harm the Ex¬ position and supply the criticisms which in some cases survive to this day originated in Philadelphia.
The net result was to give the impression to the country that Philadelphia was incapable of properly conducting an Exposition. That feeling undoubtedly caused many persons to stay away dur¬ ing the Exposition season. However, it is to be observed that the rest of the country showed more willingness after the Exposition was well started to admit it was wrong than did Philadelphia. Those Philadelphians who were originally opposed to the Exposi¬ tion continued in their opposition, entirely lacking the feeling that since the city had inescapably committed itself to the Exposition,
26
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
it was the duty of all good citizens to drop their personal inclina¬ tions and pull together for the city’s greater glory.
As this book is about to go to press a movement has been started under the auspices of the Philadelphia Progress Committee which takes cognizance of exactly the conditions that have been alluded to and has as one of the primary items in its program of constructive effort for the city, the elimination of the negative or derogatory attitude. This is a laudable purpose and one which the authors of this book would aid by every means in their power. It is our feeling that the work of the Philadelphia Progress Committee will be aided if it can be pointed out in a specific manner how the attitude which they hope to eradicate has worked harm on one of the largest under¬ takings the city has had in hand for years.
It is unfortunate that the Exposition had these heavy handi¬ caps to contend with, because to overcome them required an amount of effort which could ill be spared from the project itself. The task which the executive staff had to meet would have been impossible even had everything been favorable, for no set of favorable circum¬ stances could have overcome the lack of time available. It is clear in the light of perspective that postponement of the opening was the logical requirement but postponement, although proposed, was de¬ cided against. Herein lay the fundamental error of the Exposition.
It would have been wiser, as events have proved, if the example of other international expositions held in the United States had been followed, for postponement of original opening dates may be said almost to have been the rule rather than the exception. But in this case the original date was adhered to. The opening saw the project not completed but feature after feature was added and by the middle of July there was an exposition which was complete and which, as those responsible for the direction know, elicited ad¬ miration from many who had attended most of the international ex¬ positions of recent years.
Thus in dignity of conception, magnitude of scale and diversity of interest the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition fulfilled the patriotic purpose for which it came into being, the appropriate and adequate celebration of 150 years of American independence. An event of such deep import and far-reaching influence, with a total attendance of 6,408,289, is worthy not only of a historical record such as this but also of an honorable page in the history of the nation.
Section of mammoth parade of American Lc- (jion in national convention as it flowed into Exposition grounds to be reviewed by Vice- President Dawes and General Pershing.
CHAPTER II
EARLY HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
JOHN WANAMAKER’S PROPOSAL IN 1916 — WORLD WAR INTERVENES — PROJECT REVIVED IN 1920 — MAYOR J. HAMPTON MOORE REQUESTS INITIAL APPROPRIATION FROM PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL — COMMITTEE OF 100 FORMED — SESQUI-CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION ASSOCIATION CHARTERED — PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE TAKES FIRST ACTION IN 1921 — SITES DISCUSSED — SECRETARY HOOVER’S INTEREST — CITY COUN¬ CIL’S PLEDGE IN 1922 — DELEGATION CALLS ON PRESIDENT HARDING — PRESIDENT HARDING SENDS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS — MASS MEETING IN ACADEMY OF MUSIC — CRITICAL PERIOD — W. FREELAND KENDRICK ELECTED MAYOR — PRESIDENT COOLIDGE FAVORS EXPOSITION.
The first definite suggestion that Philadephia’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Indepen¬ dence should take the form of an internationtl exposition was made ten years in advance of the sesquicentennial year, although even prior to that suggestion there had been tentative discussion of the subject. October 16, 1916, may be set as the date on which public attention was first focussed on the project in a concrete way. On this date there occurred a meeting of prominent business and pro¬ fessional men of the city. Its object was to formulate plans for ad¬ vertising Philadelphia. John Wanamaker addressed the meeting and proposed that an international exposition be held in Philadelphia in 1926.
Mr. Wanamaker, who had been a member of the finance commit¬ tee of the Centennial Exposition in 1876, argued that an interna¬ tional exposition would not only commemorate fitly the patriotic anniversary but would demonstrate to the nation and to the world the city’s remarkable progress and achievements in the fifty years following the Centennial Exposition.
Thus was born the idea out of which developed the Sesqui-Cen- tennial International Exposition and upon Mr. Wanamaker there¬ after was bestowed the title of “Father of the Sesqui-Centennial.,,
At that particular time, however, the World War was on. Euro¬ pean and Asiatic nations were embroiled in the greatest conflict of history. Armed forces of our own government were stationed on the border line of our sister republic, Mexico, ready to repel in¬ vasion by an insurgent leader of that country.
The President and Congress of the United States had adopted a policy of neutrality with respect to the war being waged with an in¬ creasing intensity in Europe and were endeavoring to preserve a feel¬ ing of amity toward the countries involved. The time was hardly propitious for the launching of a movement dependent upon peace¬ able relationship of the combatants.
27
28
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
Protagonists of the Exposition felt, however, that with the cessa¬ tion of hostilities the swords of war would be beaten into plowshares and that following the mobilization of industry for destruction would ensue a period of international progress in which industry would perfect its efficiency to an unprecedented degree. Their con¬ ception was that the constructive genius of man, given impetus b> wartime necessity, would have created inventions of a mechanical na¬ ture far eclipsing anything previously known and that an exhibition of these alone would create tremendous interest.
The prolongation of the war for a period of two years, the en¬ trance of the United States into the turmoil and the unsettled finan¬ cial conditions of nations caused the idea to lie dormant until the lat¬ ter part of 1920, when J. Hampton Moore, Mayor of Philadelphia, called a meeting of men prominent in civic affairs to revive it. At this meeting preliminary steps were taken toward forming an organi¬ zation which would provide a nucleus of representative men and women to further the project. A resolution was passed empowering the Mayor to name a committee of one hundred citizens to work out a plan.
On April 19, 1921, at the request of Mayor Moore, City Council appropriated $50,000 for the furtherance of the project. This was the first financial move in connection with the Exposition.
Meanwhile, in February, the committee of 100, of which John Wanamaker was honorary chairman, had decided to obtain a State charter for an association to be known as “The Sesqui-Centennial Exposition Association,” a name subsequently changed to “The Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Association.”
On April 8, 1921, Mayor Moore, Alba B. Johnson, then president of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and John Frederick Lewis, president of the Academy of Fine Arts, appeared before Re¬ corder of Deeds James M. Hazlett with a petition to the Governor of Pennsylvania for a charter. Other subscribers to the papers of in¬ corporation were Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, widow of the for¬ mer Mayor, and Mrs. Caroline Tyler Lea.
Twenty directors in addition to the five named above were listed as follows: John Hampton Barnes; Judge Eugene C. Bonniwell; Edward W. Bok; Colonel J. Howell Cummings; Agnew T. Dice, president of the Reading Railway; Colonel James Elverson, Jr., Ellis A. Gimbel, Colonel John Gribbel; John S. W. Holton; Mrs. J. Willis Martin; John H. Mason; George W. Norris, governor of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank District; William Potter, former Minister to Italy; Samuel Rea, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad; the then Governor William C. Sproul; Andrew F.
Presentation of portrait of John Wanamaker, “ Father of the Sesqui-Centennial ” to Exposi¬ tion. At left of portrait , E. N. Brewer, who made the presentation. At right, Ernest T. Trigg and Colonel Collier. Exposition officials.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
29
Stevens, Edward T. Stotesbury; former Governor Edwin S. Stuart; John Wanamaker and E. A. Van Valkenburg.
All members of this group had evidenced upon many occasions during the period in which the United States was engaged in war their willingness to make any personal sacrifice in the interest of any movement to serve their country. Their executive ability was un¬ questioned. Each was a leader in an important field. What was true of the directorate also was typical of the personnel of the other members of the committee.
The Pennsylvania State Legislature first aided the Sesqui-Cen- tennial plans when on April 28, 1921, it adopted a resolution declaring “the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should prepare for and participate in” the celebration, and requesting that the Federal Government “approve the holding of the Sesqui-Centennial Ex¬ position in Philadelphia in 1926, and appropriate steps be taken to invite the participation and cooperation of the nations of the world.”
Another important work of the Legislature was to amend Acts of 1887 and 1917, relating to incorporation of non-profit making com¬ panies for encouragement of arts, sciences, agriculture and horti¬ culture, in such a way as to give the Sesqui-Centennial Association the right of eminent domain and thus make it possible to take over private property for its purposes, and to permit the Association to obtain loans through the issuance of bonds. The State Legislature also passed a bill authorizing the appointment of a State Commission of three members of the State Senate, three from the State House of Representatives and twenty-five citizens to cooperate with the Exhibition Association in its plans.
The charter and by laws of the Association were approved and adopted June 3, 1921, and Mayor J. Hampton Moore became its first president.
Philadelphia was by this time fully conscious of the obligation it had assumed in arranging for a fitting and proper observance of the anniversary of the event that established the United States as a nation, an observance that would be worthy of the honor and dig¬ nity of the city as well as the country, and the governing body of the municipality was in thorough accord with the spirit of responsi¬ bility felt by the citizens.
Ernest T. Trigg was elected chairman of the executive committee of the Association. The board of directors was augmented, head¬ quarters were opened, weekly meetings of the executive committee were held, and the Association as a whole met monthly.
Mrs. Barclay H. Warburton, daughter of Mr. Wanamaker, had urged the appointment of a women’s committee and in order to
30
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
stimulate widespread interest in the coming celebration suggested that offices in several of the leading cities be established. This women’s committee was formed later.
One of the first things considered was the location of a site upon which the Exposition would be held. Within the environs of the city fourteen locations were available, each of which would provide the space deemed necessary. The Centennial Exposition in 1876 had been held in Fairmount Park, the largest municipally owned park in the country, and this site was among the others considered. The region of the Parkway, a boulevard leading to the entrance of the park from the center of the city, was another site studied, as was also territory adjacent to League Island Navy Yard.
While the matter of location was being discussed, United States Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania, a native of Philadelphia, was requested to enlist the government’s permission to utilize land within the confines of the Navy Yard.
Mr. Wanamaker visited President Harding in the interest of the Exposition following the introduction of a bill in Congress by Repre¬ sentative George P. Darrow of Philadelphia providing for the full cooperation of the Federal Government with the Exposition authori¬ ties and directing the President and Secretary of State to invite foreign nations to participate.
The Exposition project received added impetus from a speech delivered by Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce of the United States, at a dinner given by Mr. Wanamaker in Philadelphia on December 16, 1921. The dinner was attended by the Governor of Pennsylvania, Mayor of Philadelphia and civic and industrial leaders.
Secretary Hoover urged subordinating the commercial or trade aspect of the proposed exposition and emphasizing its idealistic phases, demonstrating the progress made by our nation in the arts, sciences, education and other fields of human endeavor. Mr. Hoov¬ er’s words carried special weight because of his personal observation of the attitude of European governments when he was abroad in 1914 in the interest of the World War.
Following Secretary Hoover’s inspirational message, Solicitor General James M. Beck, a native Philadelphian, who never relin¬ quished his interest in the Exposition until it closed five years later, appeared before City Council and in a stirring speech emphasized the necessity of provision by the city of a substantial fund to be used in connection with the Exposition in order to give assurance to the Federal authorities that the city was vitally interested in the celebration.
Interior view of the Argentine Building on Edgewater Lake, where many notable recep- tions zee re held.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
31
At the same time Mayor Moore and the executive committee of the Association asked City Council for support. On January 19, 1922, Council pledged future support to the extent of $5,000,000 and “as much more as may be required” for the Exposition and officially endorsed the aims of the Association.
This manifestation of the support of the city government of Philadelphia for the project had an immediate stimulating effect. Mayor Moore asked the State Legislature to appropriate $2,500,000 at a special session being held, and Joseph McLaughlin, another Philadelphia member of Congress, who was on the Industrial Arts and Expositions Committee of that body, stated that the govern¬ ment should allot $20,000,000 to the Exposition.
Mayor Moore and a delegation of Philadelphians called upon President Harding and the interest in the Exposition increased. A site that would embrace the Parkway and part of Fairmount Park was approved. General John J. Pershing was suggested as Director-in-Chief. Former President William Howard Taft praised the undertaking. State leaders favored it and Federal sanction was forecast in Washington.
On March 24,1922, President Harding in a special message to Congress urged endorsement of the Exposition, referring to its national and international significance. The text of President Hard¬ ing’s message follows :
“To the Senate and House of Representatives:
“It seems appropriate to call the attention of the Congress to the fact that the fourth day of July, 1926, will mark the 150th anniver¬ sary of the Declaration of Independence, and the beginning of our separate national existence. I am sure the Congress will agree that such an epochal event, which has meant so much to our own Re¬ public, and has proved such a stimulating example to liberty-loving peoples throughout the world, should have fitting commemoration.
“The Declaration of Independence was written and signed in Philadelphia. In that city also the Constitution of the United States was framed. So that fine and characteristically American city may claim honors as the birthplace of the nation and also of its perma¬ nent governmental institutions.
“Because of these things the centennial anniversary of the Declar¬ ation of Independence was signalized by a world exposition in Phila¬ delphia in 1876. Mindful of the success of that enterprise, and of its helpful influences, a movement was recently initiated by the Mayor of that city which is already cordially supported by an organ¬ ization of its representative citizenship, to celebrate the Sesqui- Centennial anniversary by holding ‘an exhibition of the progress of
32
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
the United States, in art, science and industry, in trade and com¬ merce, and in the development of the products of the air, the soil, the mine, the forest and the seas; to which exhibition the people of all other nations will be invited to contribute evidences of their own progress, to the end that better international understanding and more intimate commercial relationships may hasten the coming of universal peace.’
“I am advised that it is proposed to hold this exhibition on a scale of impressive grandeur commensurate with the occasion to be cele¬ brated, and the position of eminence in world progress which our Nation has come to occupy. The City of Philadelphia has pledged an appropriation of $5,000,000, and the State of Pennsylvania has taken suitable action to provide for the generous participation of the Commonwealth, and the request now comes to the Federal Govern¬ ment to signify its approval so that the participation and coopera¬ tion of the nations properly may be invited.
“There is every assurance that necessary additional funds for the general expenses of construction and operation will be assured by the public-spirited citizens of Philadelphia through the Sesqui-Cen- tennial Exhibition Association, which is now organized and heartily committed to the task of making the occasion in every way worthy of the great event it will celebrate.
“I believe the proposed celebration worthy of the indorsement of the Congress, and I recommend, therefore, the enactment of a suit¬ able measure fixing the year 1926 as the time for commemorating the Sesqui-Centennial of the Declaration of Independence, and designating the City of Philadelphia as the place for the official ceremony, and for holding an international exposition in which all the nations may be asked to participate.
“Such a sanction will not only challenge the attention of our own people to the patriotic and ennobling deeds of the American founders and lead us to survey anew the basic landmarks of our history, but it will contribute materially to the growing spirit of amity among the peoples of the earth and to the fuller realization that the progress of mankind is shared by all nations. It will emphasize the advan¬ tages of peaceful and friendly intercourse and remind all mankind that its greater achievements are along the ways of peace. Finally, and this I would especially emphasize, it will fittingly signalize a new era in which men are putting aside the competitive instruments of destruction and replacing them with the agencies of constructive peace.
“All races and nations have contributed generously to bring civili¬ zation thus far on the way to realization of the human common-
Towers, facades and landscaping of one of the main exhibit palaces illuminated at night by colored flood lights.
“Rockets’ red glare, bombs bursting in air,” at the re-enactment of the bombardment of Fort McHenry, a feature of Baltimore Day.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
33
wealth. Each has contributed of its especial genius to the common progress; each owes to every other a debt which cannot too often be acknowledged. This is the one debt which men may go on forever increasing with assurance that it will impose no burdens, but only add to their prosperity and good fortune.
“We cannot doubt that the great international expositions here¬ tofore held have done much to bring to all mankind a feeling of unity in aspiration and of community in effort. Nor can we ques¬ tion, I think, that in this era of larger cooperation and unprecedented eagerness for helpful understandings, there is peculiar reason for emphasizing the thought of mutual support in all the enterprises which promise further advance toward the goal of universal good.
“So it seems wholly fitting that this occasion should receive suit¬ able sanction by the Congress, that the lessons of American develop¬ ment and progress may be emphasized at home, and a new spirit of American sympathy and cooperation signalized to all the nations.
“In inviting display of evidence of the progress and achieve¬ ments of other peoples, we will further inspire our own endeavors, and prove our interest in the accomplishments of all who contribute to human advancement, wherever they may be.
“In connection herewith I am inclosing copies of a chronology of the Sesqui-Centennial project, together with a copy of the resolution passed by the City Council and approved by the Mayor of Phila¬ delphia on the first day of February, 1922.
WARREN G. HARDING”
“The White House.
“March 24, 1922.”
On April 18, the Board of Directors resolved to have the Expo¬ sition formally dedicated on July 4, 1926, the President of the United States to be invited.
Mayor Moore resigned as president of the Association at the an¬ nual meeting held May 9, 1922 and John Frederick Lewis was chosen as his successor. Mr. Lewis stipulated he would serve only until a permanent president was elected. He resigned June 26, 1922 and was succeeded on August 2 by Colonel Franklin D’Olier, for¬ mer President of the American Legion, who continued in office until October 12 of the following year.
An administrative personnel under the direction of Colonel John Price Jackson as executive director was engaged to formulate and carry out plans for the financing of the project. Yearly subscrip¬ tions were solicited and a sale of participating bonds was started and
34
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
later abandoned. A mass meeting to stimulate interest in the Sesqui- Centennial was held in the Academy of Music on October . 25, 1922.
During the period from June, 1922, until late in the following year, the affairs of the Exposition passed through many crises. An¬ tagonism to the project had developed in various quarters. Plans relative to the scope of the Exposition had been prepared by Victor Rosewater, former Chairman of the Republican National Commit¬ tee, who had been engaged as assistant to the president of the As¬ sociation, and later as secretary, having succeeded Edward Robins. These plans had been subjected to constantly recurring changes and were then abandoned. Colonel D’Olier labored indefatigably to bring order out of chaos, but it seemed inevitable that the Exposi¬ tion would be considerably curtailed. Colonel Jackson resigned on December 6, 1923. Mr. Moore was to be succeeded as Mayor by W. Freeland Kendrick, who had been elected in November and who became honorary president of the Exposition on November 28, 1923.
On November 9 Secretary Hoover had paid a second visit to Philadelphia and in the course of his speech announced the fact that President Coolidge, who had succeeded to the Presidency after the death of President Harding, was in favor of the Exposition.
CHAPTER III
PERIOD OF PREPARATION
MAYOR KENDRICK PRESIDENT OF EXHIBITION ASSOCIATION — OPENING DATE SET FOR JUNE 1, 1926 — DELEGATION VISITS PRESIDENT COOLIDGE — PRESIDENT TRANSMITS RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONGRESS — ENABLING LEGISLATION PASSES — NATIONAL SESQUI-CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION COMMISSION CREATED — PRESIDENT NAMES MEM¬ BERS OF NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION — PRESIDENT ISSUES PROCLAMATION TO NATIONS OF WORLD — PLANS APPROACH DEFINITE FORM — STATE AND CIVIC PARTICI¬ PATION INVITED — WOMEN’S COMMITTEE FORMED — EXECUTIVE STAFF ORGANIZED — PARTICIPATION CERTIFICATE CAMPAIGN RAISES $3,000,000 — BUILDING PROGRAM CHANGED — MEETING OF NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION IN INDEPENDENCE HALL — OPENING DATE SET AS MAY 31, 1926 — RAPID CONSTRUCTION — EXPOSITION OPENED ON DATE SET.
A new Board of Directors was elected when W. Freeland Ken¬ drick assumed the presidency of the Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Association in January, 1924, shortly after his induction as Mayor. In July following G. W. B. Hicks was appointed Executive Secre¬ tary and was in charge of the preparatory work until February, 1925, when Colonel David C. Collier was appointed Director-Gen¬ eral. Colonel Collier, a native of San Diego, California, had been associated in an executive capacity with the Panama-Calif ornia Ex¬ position in San Diego and was Commissioner-General of the United States’ participation in an exposition held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mayor Kendrick in collaboration with Director-General Collier and Ernest T. Trigg, chairman of the executive committee, began active preparations for holding the Exposition with the opening date set as June 1, 1926.
President Harding and Congress previously had sanctioned the holding of the Exposition, but on a site embracing the Parkway and part of Fairmount Park. The final selection of League Island Park and adjacent territory in South Philadelphia as the Exposi¬ tion site was followed by a decision to obtain Presidential and Con¬ gressional sanction of the change.
A delegation of directors and officers of the Association, headed by Mayor Kendrick, went to Washington, February 14, 1925, to enlist the support of the members of the Library Committee of the Senate and the Industrial Arts and Expositions Committee of the House of Representatives, the Pennsylvania delegation in each branch of Con¬ gress, and the approval of President Coolidge.
Secretary of Commerce Hoover arranged an audience with the President, who gave the delegation his assurance that he would
35
36
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
recommend to Congress that all necessary Federal sanction for the Exposition be given. Accordingly he sent the following message to Congress under date of February 14, 1925 :
“Herewith I transmit to Congress copy of a communication this day received from the Mayor of Philadelphia relative to a celebra¬ tion for which that city has made an appropriation of $5,000,000 to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I recommend that favorable consideration be given to the various sug¬ gestions made in the communication.”
The letter from Mayor Kendrick to President Coolidge referred in the President’s message read :
“As mayor of the city of Philadelphia and as President of the Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Association, I have the honor to request you to take the following action :
“1. To issue under the authority conferred by the resolution here¬ tofore adopted by Congress, and through diplomatic channels, an invitation to the nations of the world to participate in the sesqui- centennial of American Independence to be held in the city of Phila¬ delphia from the 14th day of June, 1926, to a date in the fall of that year.
“2. To include in these invitations, if you think proper, a request for the presence of naval vessels of the foreign governments in the Delaware River on the opening day to remain, if possible, until the termination of the exhibition. I suggest that such action on the part of various nations will not only emphasize the friendliness of their attitude, but will also contribute greatly to the success of the exhibi¬ tion.
“3. To send to the Congress a message favoring the passage of a resolution at this time to include the following provisions :
“First : Authorizing the appointment by the President of a na¬ tional Commission to consist of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce, this commission to represent the Govern¬ ment of the United States in connection with the exhibition.
“Second : Authorizing the President to appoint an advisory com¬ mission of 108 members — to be composed of two citizens from each of the states of the Union and also from Alaska, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Canal Zone and the Virgin Islands, such appointments to be made by the President on the nomination of the governors of the states and territories.
“Third : Authorizing the minting at the Philadelphia Mint, and the subsequent issuance to the authorities of the Sesqui-Centennial exhibition, of not more than 1,000,000 silver coins of 50 cents de¬ nomination, to be paid for at par by the Sesqui-Centennial Exhi¬ bition Association : and
MEMBERS OE THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Left . to right, first row,' E. Puscy Passmore, Joseph P. Gaffney, George F. Sfroulc, Ellis A. Gimhel, Dr. Josiah H. Penniman; second row, Ralph T. S enter, W. Freeland Kendrick, president. E. J. Laf- ferty, vice-president, George Wharton Pepper; third row, William C. Sprout, Charles H. Grakelow. Jules E. Mastbaum, Samuel S. Fleisher, Robert Glcndinning ; fourth roie, Augustus F. Daix, Jr.. Charles B. Hall, Dr. Wilmer Kr jisen. Isaac D. Hctzcll, John Frederick Lewis; fifth row, Samuel M. Vauclain, Mrs. Blanche A. Beliak, Martha P. Quinn, Simon Walter, Henry F. Fillers.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS ( continued )
Left to right, first row, Vincent A. Carroll, E. T. Stotcsbury, Thomas E. Mitten, J. S. IV. Holton, Agnew T. Dice; second row, George H. Biles, Philip IT. Gadsden, Mrs. Arthur H. Lea, Mrs. J. Willis Martin; W . W. Alatos; third rozv, Joseph Bernhard, Furey Ellis, David G. Frank en field, Edwin R. Cox, Albert M. Greenfield; fourth row, Dr. Herbert J. Tily, Rowe Stewart, Francis Shrink Brown, Janies M. Bennett, L. H. Kinnard; fifth row, George W. Elliott, S. M. Swaab, Charles H. Kendrick, Mrs. Barclay IT. Warburton, Edwin M. Abbott; sixth rozv, Charles J. Webb, Dr. John P. Turner, Eli Kirk Price.
PERIOD OF PREPARATION
37
“Fourth: Authorizing the issuance of a $1 bill illustrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, such issuance to be in form and quantity as shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury.”
Enabling legislation was passed by both Houses of Congress and a National Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Commission was created. This consisted of Frank B. Kellogg, Secretary of State, and Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, with George Akerson as Secretary.
President Coolidge appointed a National Advisory Commission with Honorable James M. Beck, former Solicitor-General of the United States as Chairman, and the following members :
Alabama — Dr. George H. Denny, President, University of Ala¬ bama, Tuscaloosa; Judge James J. Mayfield, Montgomery.
Arkansas — Miss Annie Griffey, Little Rock; Ray Wood, Fayette¬ ville.
Arizona — Honorable John Elwood White, Mayor of Tucson; Miss Sharlot M. Hall, Prescott.
California — Honorable Herbert Fleishhacker, San Francisco; Mrs. J. B. Lorbeer, Santa Monica.
Canal Zone — Richard G. Taylor, Colon; Gerald B. Bliss, Colon.
Colorado — Honorable Sterling D. Lacey, Lieutenant-Governor of Colorado; Clayton C. Dorsey, Denver.
Connecticut — Honorable Frank B. Weeks, Middletown; Miss Katherine Byrne, Putnam.
Delaware — Joseph Bancroft, Esq., Wilmington; Willard Speak- man, Esq., Wilmington.
Florida — Honorable W. J. Wicker, Coleman; Honorable A. W. Corbett, Miami.
Georgia — Colonel Charles T. Nunally, Atlanta; Commander Mal¬ colm McKinnon, Naval Aide, Brunswick.
Hawaii — Honorable Harry S. Dennison, Honolulu; Honorable James S. McCandless, Honolulu.
Idaho — Stanley Easton, Wallace; Oliver O. Haga, Boise.
Illinois — James E. MacMurray, Chicago; B. H. Heide, Union Stock Yards, Chicago.
Indiana — Stanley J. Straus, Chicago; Honorable Clyde A. Walb, LaGrange.
Iowa — Honorable W. C. Haskell, Cedar Rapids ; Honorable Earl C. Mills, Des Moines.
Kansas — A. C. Jobes, Kansas City; Ewing Herbert, Hiawatha.
Kentucky — Honorable James W. Turner, Paintersville ; Colonel P. H. Callahan, Louisville.
Louisiana — Honorable W. O. Hart, New Orleans ; Honorable James A. Smitherman, Shreveport.
38
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
Maine — Honorable Guy P. Gannett, Augusta; Honorable James C. Hamlen, Portland.
Maryland — Waldo Newcomer, Baltimore; A. S. Goldsborough, Baltimore.
Massachusetts — Colonel Wellington Wells, President of Massa¬ chusetts Senate, Boston; Colonel Frank L. Nagle, Boston.
Michigan — Justus S. Stearns, Ludington.
Minnesota — Honorable Francis A. Gross, Minneapolis; Honor¬ able Charles R. Adams, Duluth.
Mississippi — Mrs. H. M. Pratt, Columbus; Mrs. J. T. Randle, Hattiesburg.
Missouri — Dr. E. B. Clements, Macon ; A. J. Davis, St. Louis. Montana — Honorable C. B. Power, Helena; Honorable W. W. McDowell, Butte.
Nebraska — Mrs. C. H. Dietrich, Hastings; William J. Coad, Omaha.
Nevada — Honorable George Wingfield, Reno ; Honorable Samuel M. Pickett, Reno.
New Hampshire — Benjamin H. Worcester, Manchester; Walter M. Parker, Manchester.
New Jersey — Honorable George S. Silzer, Metuchen ; Honorable Bloomfield H. Minch, Bridgeton.
New Mexico — Honorable A. A. Jones, U. S. Senate, Washing¬ ton, D. C. ; Honorable S. B. Davis, Jr., Department of Commerce, Washington, D. C.
New York— Honorable Sol Bloom, New York City; Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, New York City.
North Carolina — Honorable A. L. Brooks, Greensboro; Mrs. W. M. Reynolds, Winston-Salem.
North Dakota — Captain I. P. Baker, Bismarck; Samuel F. Crabbe, Fargo.
Ohio — Honorable C. L. Knight, Akron; E. E. Cook, Cleveland. Oklahoma — Mrs. T. B. Ferguson, Watonga; Sam Morley, Me- Alester.
Oregon — Dr. William Kuydendall, Eugene; Whitney L. Boise, Portland.
Pennsylvania — Honorable James M. Beck, Washington, D. C. A. L. Humphreys, Pittsburgh.
Rhode Island — Honorable George C. Clark, Providence; Mrs. Richard Jackson Barker, Riverton.
South Carolina — Honorable Christie Benet, Columbia; Mrs. Le¬ roy Springs, Lancaster.
South Dakota — Judge James McNenny, Deadwood; Dr. G. W. Nash, President, Yankton College, Yankton.
PERIOD OF PREPARATION
39
Tennessee — Honorable Edward Hull Crump, Memphis; Horace VanDeventer, Knoxville.
Texas — John T. Dickinson, New York City, W. E. Muse, Glen- rose.
Utah — James H. Moyle, Salt Lake City; Ernest Bamberger, Salt Lake City.
Vermont — Honorable Fred A. Howland, Montpelier; Honorable Guy W. Bailey, Burlington.
Virginia — Colonel Garrett Buckner Wall, Richmond; S. N. Huff- ard, Bluefield.
Washington — W. J. Milroy, Olympia ; David J. Whitcomb, Seattle.
West Virginia — Honorable Wells Goodykoontz, Williamson; W. E. Stone, Wheeling.
Wyoming — Honorable Bryant J. Brooks, Casper; Honorable Patrick J. Quealy, Kemmerer.
Wisconsin — Fred H. Dormer, Milwaukee; Julius P. Heil, Mil¬ waukee.
On March 19, 1925, President Coolidge in a proclamation invited the nations of the world to participate in the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition “for the purpose of exhibiting the progress of the United States and other nations in art, science and industry, trade and commerce and the developments of the products of the air, the soil, the mine, the forest and the seas,” and requested that they co-operate with the Exposition “by appointing representatives and sending thereto such exhibits as will most fitly and fully illustrate their resources, their industries, and their progress in civilization.”
Realizing that Federal participation and that of foreign countries now were assured, Mayor Kendrick and the Exposition management determined that the scope of the celebration should be on an elabo¬ rate scale.
The honor and good faith of the city, so rich in historical tra¬ dition, were pledged to the effective and impressive realization of the Exposition project. The city and the nation had given to the world their pledges that the anniversary of the action of the United States of America in asserting the right to be numbered among the sover¬ eign nations would be as fittingly celebrated in 1926 as it had been in 1876 with the Centennial Exposition.
With the site definitely determined and the guaranty of adequate financial support from the City Council, together with the expecta¬ tion of additional funds from other sources of revenue, no serious obstacles remained in the way of consummation of the project. The realization that only a few months more than a year remained in which to plan and build an Exposition city which should compel the
40
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
admiration of the world served as an incentive to those under whose direction the mighty task had been placed, impelling them to put forth every effort to acquit themselves worthily.
A plan embracing the physical construction of the Exposition and outlining its possible sources of revenue was prepared. It was de¬ cided to sell space in the main exhibits buildings at $5 per square foot. Men with previous experience in the management of ex¬ positions of an international character were added to the adminis¬ trative personnel, among them being Captain Asher C. Baker, who was selected for the post of Director of Exhibits and Foreign Partic¬ ipation. In June, 1925, E. L. Austin accepted the post of Comp¬ troller.
Headquarters which had been established in one of the Indepen¬ dence Hall group of buildings were moved to a location opposite at 523 Chestnut Street. Ground was broken for the Administration Building at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue and construction started, and work was begun on the first of the main exhibits build¬ ings.
While the visualization of the spiritual, scientific, economic, artis¬ tic and industrial progress that had been made in America and the world during the fifty years which had elapsed since 1876 was the primary object of the projected Exposition, plans also were made to tell the story of American freedom and American progress by a series of pageants and parades which would surpass anything of the kind theretofore seen. A concrete municipal stadium with seats for 80,000, and a potential seating capacity of more than 100,000, then in course of construction, would provide the physical requirements for such a carnival of pageantry.
In the general plan for the Sesqui-Centennial celebration, Inde¬ pendence Hall, shrine of American liberty where the Declaration was signed, and Independence Square, naturally were given a promi¬ nent part. Many notable gatherings and impressive exercises, with men prominent in the nation participating, were to take place where Washington, Jefferson and Franklin walked and talked and plan¬ ned the founding of the nation. Multitudes of visitors were to see, under momentous circumstances, the old buildings, practically as they were in the eventful days of 1776, where the decisions leading to American Independence were reached. Distinguished visitors from countries which, following the example of the United States, adopted a republican form of government, and from others indebted to that example for broadened human rights, were to lay their hands upon the Liberty Bell and comment on its message to the world in
PERIOD OF PREPARATION
41
1776 and what it had meant in the century and a half which had elapsed.
To be truly representative of the occasion, it was agreed, the Ex¬ position should be international in scope, belonging as much to the world at large as did the message of human freedom to be celebrated again upon its 150th anniversary. In securing its independence, the United States not only worked out its own salvation, but dem¬ onstrated to all peoples of the earth that a republican form of gov¬ ernment could be established, survive and prosper. Extraordinary efforts, therefore, were to be made to insure the greatest possible degree of participation by the governments and peoples of foreign countries.
In order to present an opportunity to the states of the Union to join in the celebration, particularly those which like Pennsylvania were the scene of stirring events in Revolutionary times, an invita¬ tion was extended to the commonwealths to take an active part. The fact that many of the states had concluded their biennial legislative sessions presented serious difficulties, but in many cases appropri¬ ations for state buildings and arrangements for active participation were made. In states whose legislatures had adjourned, opportunity for civic participation was extended to the most important munici¬ palities. The invitation to cities to erect buildings and provide ex¬ hibits was extended not only to the mayors and councils, but also to chambers of commerce, boards of trade and other associations.
In order to assure the most effective nation-wide representation, a personnel of men and women familiar with the divergent phases of exposition management was assembled from all sections of the country. From a staff of employes numbering a mere handful, the list was expanded more and more as the Exposition grew. Members of the Board of Directors and of the committees of the Exhibition Association, serving without pay, devoted much of their time to the administration of departments of the work in which they were vi¬ tally interested. This was particularly true of the members of the Women’s Committee, who chose as their part a reproduction of Philadelphia’s original High Street, later Market Street, as it ap¬ peared in Colonial times. The result was one of the outstanding achievements of the Exposition, and one which enjoyed a degree of popularity never surpassed at any exposition. The story of High Street is one of trials and triumphs, as is briefly and impressively re¬ vealed in this tribute paid by Miss Sarah L. Lowrie, member of the Women’s Committee to Mrs. J. Willis Martin, chairman, following the Exposition :
“No leader can tell a complete story because she cannot talk about
42
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
herself. Yet the whole story if it is read between the lines is eloquent of the leadership and enthusiasm of one woman who took up a for¬ lorn hope and gave it the impetus of her personality and reputation for success and for patriotism, kindling thereby a fire of enthusiasm which burnt clear and at white heat in hundreds of minds for over a year of hard work and much serving. Apart from the work done, there was the fellowship of work which brought together such varied groups and gave them not only a common purpose but a very real relationship of friendship and of co-operation.
“It was a year of accruing spiritual values and warm apprecia¬ tions for the co-workers, and a testing time for higher standards of citizenship for thousands of Americans who were brought into per¬ sonal contact with the Committee and its indomitable leader.
“We ended our eighteen months of labor with much that made us richer for the experience. Not the least was our trust of the woman who administered the great trust of leadership and our knowledge of her goodness and integrity. In the end her chief asset was for her fellow women, for she helped us to know one another better and arrive at a more secure sense of fellowship which promises much for future understanding and co-operation.”
Patrons of art and music offered the benefit of their knowledge and experience, with the result that in these important fields the Ex¬ position achieved a high degree of merit and distinction.
In order to insure participation by states whose legislatures were still in session, representatives were sent to address these bodies and interview the governors. Publicity matter was sent to newspapers and periodicals throughout the country, and speakers addressed civic organizations everywhere and gave radio talks.
A speaker’s bureau was formed with John M. Patterson, prom¬ inent Philadelphia lawyer and former Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia as chairman. During the preliminary stages of the Exposition Mr. Patterson died. Among the most prominent of the members of the bureau who devoted much time to this feature was City Treasurer Harry A. Mackey, later Mayor of Philadelphia.
Mr. Mackey probably delivered more speeches in the interest of the Exposition than other man connected with the bureau. Upon the occasion of a transcontinental trip, Mr. Mackey spoke in many sections of the country. In addition, he addressed radio audiences every week during the broadcast of what was known as “Sesqui” hour in a Philadelphia station.
The co-operation of the broadcasting stations in Philadelphia also added to the value of this form of transmitting information to the public.
PERIOD OF PREPARATION
43
The acquisition of Captain Asher C. Baker as Director of Ex¬ hibits provided an opportunity of sending abroad a man thoroughly familiar with the most effective methods of interesting potential ex¬ hibitors in foreign countries, as he had made similar pilgrimages in the interest of the Panama- Pacific Exposition in 1915. Captain Baker sailed for Europe in the Summer of 1925, visiting virtually all the principal countries in Europe. Where the time was too short to arrange for government exhibits by any of these countries, Cap¬ tain Baker urged commercial groups and individual merchants to take space and make displays of merchandise and other articles pe¬ culiar to the country of their origin.
Early in 1925 Colonel Collier had prepared an elaborate plan em¬ bracing a building program which in the opinion of construction experts could not be accomplished in the intervening eighteen months before the opening date, finally set as May 31, 1926. Incorporated in the list of proposed buildings were two large exhibits palaces pro¬ viding for more than seventeen acres of floor space. It was deemed imperative that these buildings should be erected, even if the build¬ ing program were to be changed in other respects. Consequently, bids were advertised and the contract awarded for the first of the two structures on September 15 at an original figure of $850,000 and work was started immediately.
In the latter part of April, 1925, Governor Pinchot of Pennsyl¬ vania had signed a bill previously passed by the State Legislature appropriating $750,000 as the state’s share in the Exposition. This was to provide for the erection of a state building and a display of Pennsylvania’s manufacturing, mining, agricultural and other re¬ sources.
Several foreign governments had indicated their intention of ac¬ cepting the invitation of President Coolidge to participate in the Exposition, and plans for foreign buildings and exhibits were under consideration.
A number of states had appointed commissions to arrange for participation. Among the first of these was New Jersey. Members of the New Jersey Commission visited Philadelphia and selected a location on which to erect the state building. This was to be a per¬ manent building, a contribution to Philadelphia’s League Island Park at the conclusion of the Exposition. It was a replica of the old stone barracks built by the English for the Hessian Troops in Tren¬ ton, and later used by the Revolutionary forces after the victories following Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. Ground was broken for this building November 25, 1925.
With a dual purpose of increasing interest in the Exposition and
44
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
providing additional revenue, a drive for members had been started by the Exhibition Association in July, 1921. The dues were set at $10 a year, and a number of subscriptions were received. A cam¬ paign to sell participating bonds was abandoned as has been men¬ tioned. However, in October, 1925, a campaign was launched for the sale of participating certificates under the supervision of Albert M. Greenfield, Chairman of the Finance Committee, with the grati¬ fying result that the issue of $3,000,000 was oversubscribed within ten days after the first offering was made.
At the time the participation campaign was proposed it was almost the universal opinion that the results would be disappointing. Mr. Greenfield devoted his full energy to the task, spending hours at the telephone himself calling upon those from whom he sought aid, and due to his organizing ability and the indefatigable efforts he put forth, the fears of failure proved groundless and the success of the campaign was complete. It is not too much to say that, coming at the precise time it did, this successful effort of Mr. Greenfield and his associates marked a turning-point in the Exposition’s affairs. For his leadership in this campaign Mr. Greenfield was awarded the Gold Medal of the Exposition “for conspicuous services as chairman of the Finance Committee.”
There now existed an effective working organization of many and various parts, prepared to proceed with all possible speed with the building and assembling of the Exposition. The one really for¬ midable problem remaining was that of time, and to meet this a radical change in the number, size and character of projected build¬ ings was made in order to have the Exposition ready for opening on May 31, 1926. Colonel Collier, whose ambitious building pro¬ gram had to be in part abandoned, resigned October 29, leaving Mayor Kendrick in direct charge. Captain Baker, on his return from Europe, was named Director-in-Chief, which position he filled until his death after the Exposition opened.
The executive staff of the Exposition as constituted when the final plans were being worked out comprised, in addition to Mayor Ken¬ drick as President, E. J. Lafferty, member of the Mayor’s cabinet and an outstanding business official, Vice-president; Captain Asher C. Baker, a native of New Jersey, who had been prominently identi¬ fied with a number of international expositions, Director-in-Chief ; E. L. Austin of Philadelphia, an executive who had been identified with leading utility interests, as Comptroller (later Director-in- Chief), G. W. B. Hicks of Philadelphia, previously identified with municipal celebrations and civic organizations, as Executive Secre¬ tary (Mr. Hicks later resigned and was succeeded by S. van T. Jester
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Left to right, first row, Alexander Bower, Director of Fine Arts; IV. E. Cash, Director of Concessions : S. van T. Jester, Executive Secretary ; S. H. Knight, Supervising Engineer; second row, William S. Crosier, Special Commissioner; E. L. Austin, Director-in-Chief; Captain A. C. Baker (deceased ). Director-in-Chief ; R. H. Burnside, Director of Pageantry ; third row, R. J. Pcarse, Director of Works; Odell Hauser, Director of Publicity ; A. L. Sutton, Director of Domestic Participation and Special Events; J. R. Wilson, Director of Education, Social Economy and Foreign Participation: C. A. Bonyun, Chief Accountant ; G. J. Siedler, Assistant to Director-in-Chief ; C. E. Tefft, Chief of Sculp¬ ture Division; F. A. Robinson, Landscape Architect.
PERIOD OF PREPARATION
45
of Philadelphia) ; A. L. Sutton of San Francisco, who had been con¬ nected with several expositions, as Director of Domestic Participa¬ tion and Special Events; Odell Hauser as Director of Publicity; Jo¬ seph R. Wilson of Philadelphia, attorney and author, as Director of Education, Social Economy and Foreign Participation; R. J. Pearse, of Iowa, builder and designer of fairs and expositions, as Director of Works; W. E. Cash of New York, with experience in connection with other expositions, as Director of Concessions; John E. D. Trask of Philadelphia, art critic, connected with other expositions, as Director of Fine Arts (upon Mr. Trask’s death he was succeeded by Alexander Bower of Maine, who also had been connected with the fine arts departments of other expositions) : G. R. Lewis, affili¬ ated with state fairs management, as Director of Installation of Ex¬ hibits; Mrs. J. Willis Martin of Philadelphia, prominent among women’s civic organizations, as Chairman of the Women’s Board; George F. Zimmer of New York, as Director of Aviation (Mr. Zimmer later resigned and was succeeded by Major Howard F. Wehrle of Kansas City, manager of the National Air Races) ; Wil¬ liam W. Matos, Chairman of the Division of Pageantry; R. H. Burnside of New York, former director of the New York Hippo¬ drome, as Director of Pageantry, and Murdoch Kendrick of Phila¬ delphia, as General Counsel. (Upon Mr. Kendrick’s death he was succeeded by Edwin M. Abbott).
Fears that the designated opening date would find the Exposition far from complete resulted in a movement for postponement of the celebration until 1927, and this caused a temporary cessation of building activity until January 20, 1926, when the National Ad¬ visory Commission met in Independence Hall. At the conclusion of an all-day session, in the course of which eloquent speeches for and against postponement were made, the decision to adhere to May 31, 1926, as the opening date was reached.
The finally definite date of opening now was but a little more than four months away, and the Exposition builders were confronted with the task of accomplishing in scarcely more than a third of a year the greater part of the work requiring two or more years at other expositions. The members of the Exhibition Association and other bodies upon whom the burden of extraordinary achievement rested were unappalled. Determination to succeed was the prevailing spirit, and “full speed ahead!” was the order of the day. From that time forward the Exposition grounds by day and through many nights were the scene of tremendous activity; with all possible effort and energy expended it seemed that the race with time could not be won completely, yet day by day it became more clearly apparent that
46
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
the approach to completeness would be much closer than many of the advocates of postponement had believed to be physically or humanly possible.
The same necessity for rapidity in the physical construction of the Exposition buildings demanded a similar maximum of effort ex¬ pended in the detailed preparation for installation of exhibits and the conduct of the Exposition. With the exception of the Stadium and the two exhibits buildings, the Exposition still was in an embryonic state. The other buildings were yet to be planned and constructed, and the filling in and treatment of grounds, and the allocation of sites and areas for special purposes, still were to be accomplished. The exercise of original judgment with hardly any precedent to fol¬ low was necessary with almost instant decisions to be made.
The results of Captain Baker’s first trip abroad did not come up to expectations, and it appeared that the number of foreign govern¬ ments accepting President Coolidge’s invitation to participate in the Exposition might be smaller than had been hoped for. Con¬ sequently, Captain Baker made a second trip to Europe for the pur¬ pose of insuring government action wherever possible, and where this could not be obtained, to induce industrial and commercial groups or individuals, representative of their countries, to exhibit. In this he was successful to a notable degree, but at serious cost to himself. Stricken with illness under the strain of his strenuous efforts, he returned to Philadelphia and shortly afterward died in his home at Princeton, N. J., a martyr to his efforts for the Ex¬ position.
One plan that previously had been determined upon was the sell¬ ing of exhibit space. For this purpose salemen were employed to visit the leading industrial and commercial establishments through¬ out the country. In this field of activity difficulties were encountered, many possible exhibitors being inclined to hold off until they could receive definite assurance of the possibility of completion of the Exposition.
In order to hasten the preparation of the Exposition grounds as a whole and sites for the various structures, the aid of the Depart¬ ment of Public Works was sought, and George H. Biles, Director, was placed in charge, operating in conjunction with the Exposition’s own Department of Public Works. The transformation effected in the grounds during weeks preceding the opening was the cause of wonder to those who visited them daily, and even more to those who did so at intervals of a week or more. Meanwhile, the Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Exhibits and the Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures had reached completion and exhibits were being
PERIOD OF PREPARATION
47
installed, and the work was being rushed on the Palace of United States Government, Machinery and Transportation, the Palace of Fine Arts and various state buildings, High Street, and the struc¬ tures on many concessions. At the entrances ticket booths and gates were nearing completion, and outside the main gates two huge pylons were rising to serve as towering pedestals for colossal twin statues, “Heralds of the New Dawn.”
On the appointed day, May 31, 1926, the Sesqui-Centennial Ex¬ position, incomplete in some respects but withal impressive, was formally opened. Secretaries Hoover and Kellogg were present as representing the Government and there was a brilliant array of for¬ eign notables. The exercises are described in detail in another chapter as are those of July 5 when President Coolidge came to the Exposition.
CHAPTER IV
OPENING DAY TO CLOSING DAY
INCOMPLETE AT START — PUBLIC REACTION — CAUSES OF ATTITUDE — COMPLETION AN¬ NOUNCED TO COUNTRY BY SECRETARIES HOOVER AND KELLOGG — ATTENDANCE STA¬ TISTICS — SUNDAY OPENING - WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY OF AWARDS —
CLOSING OF GROUNDS — PAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS — COOPERATION OF CITY COUNCIL.
The fact that the Exposition was incomplete on the opening date, May 31, and for a considerable period thereafter was not in itself any justification for foreboding. Other international expositions had opened incomplete and overcome the handicap. In fact it might be said to have become generally recognized that expositions on a large scale are never ready on the date set. Nevertheless in the case of the Sesqui-Centennial, though even from the very beginning there were many and varied attractions well worth a visit, the impression spread throughout the country that it was not yet worth coming to see. There was a tendency to make no allowances for the traditional unavoidable delays but rather to magnify the difficulties that stood in the way of final accomplishment.
Three main causes may be advanced for this attitude on the part of the public. In the first place, the people of Philadelphia, familiar with the site and in the habit of regarding it as unattractive waste land on the whole, not to be compared with the many beauty spots of the city, were at no time confident of the ability of engineers and builders to transform it into a desirable background for the Expos¬ ition display. The majority were skeptical, many were openly or secretly antagonistic. Strangers in the city quickly sensed this feel¬ ing on the part of the residents and reflected it in their own attitude.
Second, to all who were not closely familiar with the marvelous speed of modern construction, one of the lasting by-products of war¬ time emergency work, it was virtually impossible to visualize in ad¬ vance all that could be done almost overnight. They read or heard of what remained to be done to carry out the plans and, not believing in miracles, they shrugged their shoulders, decided it was impossible and that ended it. The Exposition would be ready for the following year. They would wait until then. Meanwhile they committed them¬ selves to other plans for their vacations.
The third cause was the disappointment felt by 250,000 members of a great fraternal order who came to Philadelphia to hold their an¬ nual convention during the first week of the Exposition. Arriving from every section of the whole country, each of this vast host was a potential advertiser for the Exposition. They had acquired the
48
The Persian Bail ding by night with its grace¬ ful dome and minarets reflected in the still waters of Edgewater Lake.
OPENING DAY TO CLOSING DAY
49
conception that the Exposition would be to all intents and purposes complete by the time of the convention. When they saw how much was yet to be done, their disappointment is conceivable. On the Ex¬ position grounds swarms of workmen were busy and the sounds of hammering and riveting were everywhere. Roads were being made or repaved. Exhibits were awaiting installation. All seemed con¬ fusion. It was too much to expect they could realize the ordered plans back of that apparent chaos or estimate the possible speed of accomplishment accurately. They went back to their home towns and word spread the exposition could not be ready for many months. More vacation plans were altered.
And yet a little more than two months after Opening Day, Secre¬ tary of Commerce Hoover found ample justification for making the following statement for the information of the people of the United States :
“The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition now being held in Philadelphia is a complete, excellent and noble exhibition. The American people ought to take cognizance of it and visit it. The exhibits are very instructive and those of this Government are the finest ever placed in any exposition in the history of this country. It merits larger attendance than it has had.
“The Sesqui-Centennial Exposition had fallen into evil ways be¬ cause of lack of completion on the opening date and the public is not yet satisfied that it is complete. The answer is that it represents an expenditure of $18,000,000 to $23,000,000. The people of Phila¬ delphia deserve nation-wide support for the endeavor properly to commemorate the anniversary of Independence.”
Secretary of State Kellogg at the same time issued the following statement :
“As a member of the National Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition Commission, I am glad to add my word of praise for the accomplishment of the people of Philadelphia.
“An exposition worthy of the proper celebration of the 150th an¬ niversary of Independence is now virtually complete. Serious ob¬ stacles have been overcome. The Exposition deserves the support of the people of this great Nation.
“As has been stated before, the Government exhibit is the most complete which has ever been shown in an exposition. It shows the remarkable progress which this country has made since the original Centennial Exposition was held.
“The Government has co-operated with Philadelphia to the fullest extent possible. We believe that Philadelphia now is entitled to rec¬ ognition from the rest of the country for what it has done.
50
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
“It is hoped that the people of this country, in increasing numbers, will take the opportunity to see this great Exposition.”
Although exhibits for sixty-five per cent of the exhibit space sold in the main exposition palaces were ready by Opening Day, comparatively few were installed and the huge buildings presented a somewhat empty appearance to the casual observer until late in June. By July 5, virtually ninety-five per cent of the exhibits were in¬ stalled.
Prior to Opening Day pedestrians were permitted to enter the grounds without charge, to watch the work in progress. No record was kept of the number availing themselves of this privilege, but it is known that it increased by many thousands each day during this period of construction, as the public became aware of the extraordi¬ nary character of the emergency building, grading and planting schedule that was being carried on.
In order to prevent interference with the work which might result from many automobiles entering the grounds, a charge of fifty cents for each car was made in the period from May 17 to May 26, after which the Exposition was closed to all but official cars until August, when admission at $1.00 each, in addition to the admission for each person, was approved.
The price of admission was established at fifty cents for adults and twenty-five cents for children in a general order issued May 26. The original plan was to have all admissions, except on passes, through coin-operated turnstiles, but later it was found advisable to issue tickets for sale to associations, clubs, merchandising con¬ cerns, and other organizations, which distributed them to members and employees.
On Opening Day, May 31, 1926, there were 55,509 paid turnstile admissions and 26,975 free admissions. A large proportion of the latter was of employes engaged in the construction of unfinished buildings, installation of exhibits and other Exposition work.
Agitation in favor of opening the Exposition to the public on Sunday began soon after Opening Day, and met with determined opposition and threats of invoking the so-called Blue Laws of 1794 in the event of a Sunday opening decision with paid admissions. The first practical test of the public’s attitude toward Sunday opening was made on the evening of June 27, when the Philadelphia Music League gave a special performance of the musical pageant, “America,” in the Stadium for the benefit of those who had been deterred by rainy weather from witnessing the regular performance. The gates were thrown open at 6 P. M., admission free. No at¬ tempt was made to count the crowds entering the grounds. Multi-
OPENING DAY TO CLOSING DAY
51
tudes poured into the Stadium until all the seats were taken and thousands of persons occupied the upper portion of the aisles, above the entrances. The gates to the Stadium then were closed.
The following Sunday, July 4, the Exposition was opened to visi¬ tors with the regular admission prices charged. The order of the Board of Directors providing for Sunday opening included restric¬ tions against solicitation or “barking” on Sunday, and confining sales to food, beverages and official souvenirs. Court action was begun by the proponents of Sunday closing, and an injunction ob¬ tained. This was suspended so far as Sunday openings with paid admissions was concerned when the legal department of the Exposi¬ tion took an appeal, and Sunday opening continued until November 28, the last operating Sunday.
The Sunday admissions were from two to four times those on other days of the same week except holidays.
Admissions to the grounds totaled 451,193 in June, increasing steadily each month until the high mark was reached in September, with 1,502,011; dropping to 1,292,681 in October, and falling to 849,193 in November, the final month of operation. The total ad¬ missions in the Exposition period were 6,408,289. The highest number of paid turnstile admissions was 107,937 on Sunday, Oc¬ tober 3. The lowest was 2,687 on June 7, a rainy Monday. From August 16, when the order to permit automobiles to enter the grounds went into effect, to the close of the Exposition, 213,745 cars, carrying 814,418 passengers, passed through the gates.
Although attendance gained rapidly through the latter part of August, throughout September and in early October, in spite of generally adverse weather conditions, the chill rains and raw days thereafter checked the rush of multitudes which had reached its height too late in the year to insure a total attendance commensurate with the high merits of the completed Exposition.
The unprecedented inclement weather of the spring and summer had an appreciable effect upon the attendance. According to the United States Weather Bureau data, out of 184 days the Exposition was open only fifty were listed as clear days. Rain was recorded on 107 days, the remainder being listed as cloudy or partly cloudy, almost as bad for Exposition purposes.
Continued public interest in the Exposition still was manifest as the closing day, November 30, drew near. This and the fact that some of the concessionaires made a plea for further opportunity to dispose of their remaining stocks induced the Board of Directors to issue an order that after the official closing the grounds be kept open to pedestrians and motorists at the same admission fees as before,
52
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
for an additional month. The weather for the most part continued damp and chill, yet the Exposition grounds were by no means de¬ serted even on the most inclement days. Some of the admission gates were closed at once, and others from time to time as it was seen they were not required, the main gate closing and the public finally being excluded with the close of the day, December 31. In this post-Expo- sition period from December 1 to 31, inclusive, 31,152 persons were admitted to the grounds, with 12,248 paid admissions. Admission was paid for 1882 automobiles.
While the building and operation of the Exposition, presenting an almost continuous series of emergencies, offered many serious problems, not the least of them was the selection of the International Jury of Awards. The importance of care in this regard may be seen from the fact that an imperfectly functioning jury system at one American exposition cost several hundred thousand dollars as a result of law suits and involved the employment of a staff of six clerks for two years for the correction of records.
The work of the International Jury of Awards at the Sesqui- Centennial Exposition was accomplished at a cost of $5639.45 up to October 1, and approximately $6500 after that, the only added ex¬ pense being the pay of two clerks for less than one year. This re¬ markable record was due in great measure to the skill and ability of the two men constituting the executive jury, Alvin E. Pope, presi¬ dent, and S. C. Simmons, vice-president and secretary. The former was connected with the jury at the St. Louis and San Francisco expositions, and the latter at Chicago and St. Louis. Their com¬ bined knowledge and experience proved invaluable. Awards to the number of 3230 were granted as follows : grand prizes, 925 ; medals of honor, 430; gold medals, 1000; silver medals, 500 ; bronze medals, 225 ; honorable mention, 150.
With the closing of the grounds, the Exposition remained a lively topic of conversation in Philadelphia. Speculation over the supposed deficit was rife, and extravagant guesses were made regarding what the amount would be. On December 17 City Council approved an ordinance appropriating $5,000,000 for the payment of outstanding bills, but rumors persisted that this would fall short of the amount required.
The close cooperation of the City Council of Philadelphia with the Mayor and the Exhibition Association was such that virtually any demand made upon them for contingent funds had been met with an immediate response. Seven appropriations aggregating $9,060,000 had been made by the city. In addition to these appropri¬ ations, the city extended aid to the Exposition in various ways, the
View of the main esplanade from the south¬ east, showing a tower of the Palace of Agricul¬ ture and Foreign Exhibits in the right fore¬ ground.
One of the vaulted corridors of the Pal¬ ace of Agriculture and Foreign Exhibits.
OPENING DAY TO CLOSING DAY
53
value of the services being estimated at nearly $5,000,000. The aid given by the Department of Public Works in preparing the site dur¬ ing the latter part of May made possible the opening of the Exposi¬ tion on the scheduled date. Important services were rendered also by the city architect, city solicitor, Department of Public Safety and other departments and bureaus.
In justification of the city’s expenditures it was pointed out that it had been benefited greatly in many ways, including the grading, paving and opening up of an extensive residential territory which would return large sums to the city in the form of taxes. Public as well as official Philadelphia was practically unanimous in the view that all obligations incurred in the celebration of the Sesqui-Cen- tennial must be paid.
The report of the receivers of the Exposition, E. L. Austin and Francis Shunk Brown, presented June 19, 1927, showed only $206,- 987.17 as expenses in excess of its income. The joint receivers had been appointed by the United States District Court on April 27, 1927, after the Exhibition Association had joined in a petition for an equity receivership as the best means of protecting the assets of the Exposition.
Opposition to appropriation of city funds to meet the deficit was negligible, but other circumstances caused delays in acting on the matter. The chapter on the financing of the Exposition will show how its affairs were finally closed in 1929.
CHAPTER V
THE FINANCIAL PHASES By Albert M. Greenfield Chairman of the Finance Committee
EARLY APPROPRIATIONS BY CITY COUNCIL — PARTICIPATION CERTIFICATE CAMPAIGN — COMPARISON WITH OTHER EXPOSITIONS— FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GRANT — COSTS IN¬ CREASED BY RAPID CONSTRUCTION — EQUITY RECEIVERSHIP — PAYMENT OF CREDITORS AND CLOSING OF AFFAIRS — STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES.
The history of American expositions has uniformly been one of serious financial difficulties encountered despite every effort in ad¬ vance to avoid them. The Sesqui-Centennial Exposition was no ex¬ ception. We often hear it referred to as a “failure on the financial side” but those who make that statement are apparently under the erroneous impression that other expositions have been able to meet both capital and operating expense out of their profits of operation. Nothing could be further from the truth. No exposition has ever been able to do it. There have always been large public grants and private subscriptions, only a comparatively small proportion of which were ever paid back. I shall show later that the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition compared favorably with other American expositions in this regard.
Viewed from another angle, the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition was a great success. It provided the impetus for the development of the extreme southern end of the city that is bound to be reflected in increased financial return to the city treasury for all time. The money the City of Philadelphia put into the Sesqui-Centennial will be returned many times over and at the same time, the health and en¬ vironment of the many thousands who make their home in South Philadelphia were immeasurably improved. If the Exposition had failed to accomplish another single thing, this great development alone would have more than justified its existence.
Before summarizing results in dollars and cents it will probably be best to give a brief outline of the financing process extending over a number of years by which the opening of the Exposition was event¬ ually made possible.
The first money obtained for expenditure in connection with the Exposition was $50,000 appropriated by City Council on April 19, 1921, at the request of Mayor Moore, who was then in charge of Sesqui-Centennial destinies. This was used in connection with head¬ quarters and promotional work following the organization of the
54
THE FINANCIAL PHASES
55
Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Association, which had applied for a charter on April 8, 1921.
Early in 1923, during the presidency of Mayor Moore, a campaign was undertaken to raise a fund of $50,000 for further promotion work and a participation fund of $5,000,000 was also projected. Something over $100,000 was raised in subscriptions to these two projects but it was evident in connection with them, as with the gen¬ eral affairs of the Exposition, that the public as a whole had not received the impression that affairs were definitely set and the project destined to become a reality.
After the induction of Mayor Kendrick into office and his election to the presidency of the Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Association a more vigorous state of affairs prevailed. Toward the end of 1924, Mayor Kendrick procured an appropriation of $500,000 from the City Council, which in October of the same year had granted $10,000 as a stop-gap. The $500,000 appropriation was thus the third the City Council had made.
In the latter part of 1925 it was decided to seek funds from the public, the project at this time being in a definite state of develop¬ ment. A Participation Certificate campaign was conducted with the writer in charge as chairman of the Finance Committee. It was agreed that all previous unpaid subscriptions should be cancelled and matters started with a clean slate. This campaign resulted in secur¬ ing the most considerable sum of ready money the Exposition had yet received. Subscriptions totalling $2,891,869.55 were secured and the solid basis on which the work was done by my associates is evidenced by the fact that the audit of the Exposition’s finances shows that $2,727,726.21 was actually paid in. At about this time, December 12, 1925, to be exact, City Council made its fourth appro¬ priation, again of $500,000.
Further appropriations by City Council were made early in the Exposition year, 1926, of $1,000,000; on June 28, of $2,000,000; and on December 17, 1926, after the close of the Exposition, of $5,000,000.
As this book goes to press the City Council has arranged to make a final appropriation that will clean up the last indebtedness incurred in connection with the Exposition. The sum of $607,896.83 was found to be the amount necessary to pay all indebtedness.
So far we have dealt with funds coming to the Exposition from the city government and the public, two out of the four sources from which expositions usually secure the needed financing. The two that remain are the state and national governments. The Sesqui-Centen¬ nial Exposition received no appropriation from the Commonwealth
56
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
of Pennsylvania, the amount the state government spent having been confined entirely to constructing its own building and installing its exhibits in that building.
As far as the national government is concerned, the Exposition in Philadelphia did not fare as well as its predecessors, as will be seen by reference to figures that follow embodying a summary of receipts, expenditures and repayments of the San Francisco, the St. Louis and the Chicago expositions as compared with the Sesqui-Centennial.
Donations, Sesqui- Louisiana
Appropriations, Centennial Panama-Pacific Purchase Columbian
Subscriptions Philadelphia San Francisco St. Louis Chicago
and Loans 1926 1915 1904 1893
Federal Government
Grant . . . $1,000,000.00 $5,000,000.00 $2,500,000.00
State Appropriation . . $4,941,556.26
City Appropriation . . . 9,667,896.83 5,000,000.00 5,000,000.00 5,000,000.00
Public Subscriptions
and Donations . 2,951,897.39 5,716,320.00 4,924,313.11 5,617,154.33
Government Loan .... 4,600,000.00
Total . $13,619,794.22 $15,657,876.26 $19,524,313.11 $13,117,154.33
Refunds
To Federal Gov’t . . $4,600,000.00
To State . $558,003.39
To City . $500,000.00
To Subscribers .... 442,803.52 548,985.00
Total . $1,000,806.91 $4,600,000.00 $1,048,958.00
Balance, representing Donations, Appropri¬ ations, and Subscrip¬ tions not repaid ....$13,011,897.39 $14,657,069.35 $14,924,313.11 $12,068,169.33
It will be noted that Congress made grants of $2,500,000 and $5,000,000 respectively to the Chicago and the St. Louis Exposi¬ tions, besides lending $4,600,000 to the St. Louis Exposition. But to the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence it saw fit to grant the sum of only $1,000,000, the purchasing power of which was far less than the same amount would have represented at the time of the other expositions.
The appropriation of $9,667,896.83 by the city of Philadelphia to the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition shows a favorable comparison with the donations of other cities to their expositions. In the case of the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition the amount of public subscription was somewhat lower than in the case of the other expositions.
The Sesqui-Centennial Exposition therefore had less money for its construction and maintenance than any of the other expositions, and it had to meet very greatly increased costs of material, supplies, labor, etc. It also had less time. When other expositions were con-
THE FINANCIAL PHASES
57
fronted with the difficulty of getting ready on time, they postponed their opening. Our Exposition adhered to its original schedule although the task required almost superhuman effort. In spite of all these handicaps, there was finally produced an exposition of sur¬ passing attractiveness, of great educational value, and of wonderful interest in many branches of human endeavor, the memory of which will linger long with those who profited by the opportunity to visit it and to become acquainted with its many beauties.
With the past experience of expositions in mind, the Sesqui-Cen- tennial Exhibition Association determined so to order its affairs as to keep within the limits of its financial resources.
In accordance with this purpose, E. L. Austin as Director-in-Chief inaugurated a system of budgetary control over all appropriations and expenditures, including the requirement that all appropriations and expenditures be approved by the executive committee of the board of directors and by the board itself. The nationally known firm of Lybrand, Ross Bros, and Montgomery was retained as out¬ side independent auditors by agreement between the Director-in- Chief and Drexel & Co., the Treasurer of the Association.
Rapid progress was made in the early months of 1926 in the prep¬ aration of the Exposition grounds and the erection of the main buildings. At this time expenditures could be and were kept within the limits of the finances of the Association. It became apparent early in April, however, that much greater progress would have to be made if the Exposition were to be ready on the opening date, May 31. Accordingly orders were issued to push the work with all possible speed and the number of workers engaged in the various construction activities was greatly augmented.
The result was that while the completion of the Exposition was materially expedited, the costs were likewise very much increased, exceeding all previous estimates. By the end of May the Associa¬ tion found itself in urgent need of additional funds to meet its bills for construction and development work and to pay its current operat¬ ing expenses. After the opening of the Exposition the City of Phila¬ delphia made an appropriation of $2,000,000 by ordinance approved June 28, 1926, in addition to what had already been appropriated. The money was not made available until some time later, however, payments to creditors of the Association being in the meantime de¬ ferred. Although the executives of the Association used every means to curtail expenses and to avoid the incurring of obligations beyond such as were absolutely required, the financial condition grew worse through the remainder of the Exposition period.
After much study as to the best means of meeting this situation
58
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
and paying the creditors, an additional appropriation of $5,000,000 was made by the city of Philadelphia by ordinance approved Decem¬ ber 17, 1926. Question as to the authority of the city to pay out¬ standing obligations from this appropriation resulted in the passing of an enabling act by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania spe¬ cifically granting such authority.
Before there was an opportunity to pay the creditors under the foregoing authority, a taxpayer’s suit was brought to prevent the use of the city’s funds for such a purpose. Shortly afterward, due to the fact that a number of creditors had brought suit, an equity receivership was applied for and granted by the United States Dis¬ trict Court under date of April 27, 1927. Francis Shunk Brown, Esq., and E. L. Austin, Director-in-Chief of the Exposition, were appointed joint receivers, the result being that all creditors were paid in full, the assets of the Exposition salvaged, and its affairs closed the early part of the year 1929, as shown by the statement of income and expenses following herewith — which statement includes the net result of the equity receivership.
Sesqui-Centennial Exhibition Association Statement of Income and Expenses
Income
Donations :
City of Philadelphia . $9,667,896.83
Federal Government . 1,000,000.00
Public . 14,212.84
Subscriptions and Dues . 2,786,234.06
Sale of Exhibit Space . 1,396,049.14
Admissions to Grounds . 2,405,991.85
Concessions . 696,212 .36
Special Events and Operation . • . 288,652.66
Premium on Sale of Coins . 112,419.00
Miscellaneous . 4,537.69
Expense Abatement . 199,695.23
Salvage Sales . 266,538.09
$18,838,439.75
Expenses
Construction and Development . $8,901,801.76
Land Improvement . 1,656,162.98
General Equipment . 405,399.72
Departmental . 5,366,289.23
Other Expenses . 379,758.78
Special Events . 1,815,926.37
Associated Amusements and Enterprises . 6,010.89
Uncollectible Accounts Written Off . 133,028.71
Interest on Loans . 6,725.58
Allowance to Concessionaires . 383.95
Salvage Expense . . 166,951.78
$18,838,439.75
CHAPTER VI
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
COLONIAL STYLE CONSIDERED — CONTEMPORARY “SETBACK.” STYLE ADAPTED — JOHN MOLITOR’S CONCEPTION — GENERAL PLAN — AZTEC AND MAYAN INFLUENCES — IN¬ HERENT PROBLEMS — TYPE OF CONSTRUCTION — DETAILS OF MAIN STRUCTURES — LIGHTING — NEW DEPARTURES — UNUSUAL EFFECTS.
Determination of the architectural scheme of the buildings of the Exposition was a subject of lengthy discussion all through the period previous to the start of actual planning and layout. Due to the fact that the Exposition would commemorate many events that were laid in Colonial settings and in order to have the buildings harmonize with many structures in the city of Philadelphia where the prece¬ dents of what is known as the Colonial style abound, it was thought that this style would be selected.
When, however, the scale of the buildings that were to accommo¬ date the tremendous demands for exhibition space began to be real¬ ized, this thought was abandoned. This was due to the apparent fact that any style depending upon delicate proportions in its windows and doors and upon great refinement in detail would be inadequate. A number of buildings intended to be reproductions of Colonial mansions — notably in High Street — were to be found in the Expo¬ sition grounds, not interfering with the general scheme, each in itself commemorating most appropriately some special aspect of the struggle for Independence.
The style eventually adopted, after a thorough study of what had been done in previous expositions, was based upon a free use of the contrast between great wall spaces and the “spots” of design and color afforded by pavilions, towers and entrance openings. This manner of treatment was selected upon the recommendation of John Molitor, City Architect of Philadelphia, who had been appointed supervising architect of the Exposition. Mr. Molitor’s judgment in his design of the buildings was such that his work as exemplified in the finished structures was considered, in the opinion of experts, as being incomparable in the light of other expositions.
His concept was that the evanescent structures with which he dealt should express strictly contemporary trends in design. He therefore took as an influence the very latest individual development in architectural style, that of “set-back” buildings, now fairly familiar in present-day office buildings in large cities where zoning laws are in force. He used some of its prevailing elements in formulating the
59
60
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
style which was to be the dominant motif in the design. This task was not an easy one, since exposition buildings are comparatively low, and it is in the upper heights of modern skyscraper buildings that there are embodied the most characteristic features of the style.
Another matter that had to be considered by Mr. Molitor and his office force in preparing sketches of buildings that would be possible to erect within the time limit was the element of cost, inasmuch as these buildings were to be temporary in character. Notwithstanding this, when the structures were finally reared several presented such admirable facilities for utilization for other purposes that the ques¬ tion of preserving them was considered at great length. This was particularly true of the Palace of United States Government, Ma¬ chinery and Transportation.
Following the appointment of Mr. Molitor by the Mayor, which action was approved by the executive committee of the Exposition, the personnel of his office was increased and then began the study of the layout, the relation of one building to another, and the effective¬ ness of the various possible locations on the site to secure a maximum advantage of vistas. Because of the shortness of time it was neces¬ sary to determine at once the size and function of every building and to prepare detail drawings and specifications, bearing in mind rapid¬ ity of erection as well as economy in cost.
The site was divided north and south by Broad Street, and cen¬ trally, east and west, by Pattison Avenue. North of Pattison Avenue on both sides of Broad Street the initial group of main buildings was placed. To the west of them was laid out the Gladway, and facing south on Pattison Avenue, the Education Building. South of Pat¬ tison Avenue to the east of Broad Street was the Stadium, and on the west a series of lagoons and shrubbery groups among which were placed the various buildings deserving settings of their own. Here it was decided to situate most of the state buildings and those of foreign governments.
In the course of development of the plot plan, consultations were held with representatives of the governments of Spain, Argentina, Cuba and Persia as to the most effective setting for their respective buildings. At the extreme west of this section the Fine Arts Building was situated, and another portion was allotted to High Street. Out¬ side the Exposition area proper, at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue, the Administration Building was located.
In the first group of main buildings, at the northern end of the Exposition area, two large buildings for general exhibitors were placed on the east side of Broad Street, and on the west side to balance the extreme northern and southern facades of the group,
Front facade of the Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures.
&»' K hi
(At left) — One of the entrances to the Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Ex¬ hibits. (Below) — Tower entrance to the Palace of Tinted States Government, Machinery and Transportation.
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
61
two smaller buildings, the Auditorium at the northern end and the Pennsylvania State Building at the southern.
In the center of these four buildings a court was laid out, to be called the “Forum of the Founders.” The main axis of this court was Broad Street itself. The minor axis terminated on the east of the Tower of Light, just off Broad Street, but extended westerly through a colonnade to the Gladway. On the west of the main axis, north and south of the colonnade, were ranged the thirteen pylons representing the Thirteen Original States. In the very center of the court, at the intersection of the axis, there was set up a large sculp¬ tural group representing the “Spirit of Progressive Philadelphia.”
In a central location near the intersection of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, the Emergency Hospital was placed. It was thus near the police station and not far from the Gladway and the main exhibition buildings. An old building near this point was turned over to the Police and Fire Departments to make it feasible to respond promptly to an alarm from any quarter. The space just behind the Tower of Light and between the two main exhibition buildings was thought a suitable location for the United States Model Post Office, and on one of the lagoons in League Island Park it was decided to situate the United States Coast Guard Station.
Because of the tremendous scale of the Exposition the most im¬ portant consideration was the mass. It was desired to preserve a broad simplicity and to emphasize the large outlines with well chosen embellishments of brightly colored detail. The mass effectiveness of the broad surfaces, it was believed, could be further increased by a bold use of color and surface texture. Accordingly the stucco was roughened by an apparently careless stroking of the trowel and was tinted with variegated hues of pink, yellow and salmon. Forms which could identify style were a minor consideration. No one style, indeed, was adequate for all needs. The greatest effectiveness and the greatest economy together demanded drawing freely from many styles and treating them according to practical, not historical, con¬ siderations. If a symbolical justification should be required, it might be said that many traditions were merged and lost in a new form, just as many social and political traditions have merged and melted into modern democracy. The only historical styles which were imi¬ tated even in part were styles of ornament used by the Aztecs and the Mayas of Mexico. These represent the aboriginal culture of America and the desire for independence from things European.
Three considerations were important in determining the size and the design of the main exhibition buildings located within the main area, Buildings No. 1 and No. 2. It was necessary to provide a vast
62
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
extent of exhibition space for general exhibitors; it was necessary to screen from the view of visitors entering the grounds the marshes and dumping grounds to the east ; and it was necessary to achieve at the main entrance a splendor and dignity befitting the celebration. The northern facade, indeed, included not only the great masses of Building No. 1 on the left and the Auditorium on the right, but be¬ tween them a great gateway with the ticket booths, two great pylons about forty feet high, mounted with winged “Spirits of the New Dawn,” and in the center, but in the background, the central statue in the “Forum of the Founders.”
The Auditorium, designed to seat ten thousand, presented of course the special problem of acoustics. This building was placed at the main entrance for the convenient accommodation of visitors. A small lecture hall and a chapel were placed in the Education Building. These were located in the wings to the right and the left of the main entrance.
Because of the railway lines already in existence at the southern end of the site, it was decided to place there the Palace of United States Government, Machinery and Transportation. This building also had to be of an immense size to accommodate the style and kind of exhibits and its peculiar shape resulted from the closeness of the railway tracks to the Navy Yard. Several entrances for rail¬ way trains and for motor trucks were provided at the extreme western end. The building was designed in the same style as the other main buildings, and since it was remote from them it was made prominent by a great tower at its northeast corner on Broad Street. Three entrances were provided, one at the center of the Broad Street front, one on the southern flank, and a chief entrance through the tower. These entrances were embellished by pylons and wall decorations somewhat in the manner of the Maya architecture. This building was the highest of the general exhibition buildings, built thus to accommodate exhibits of vast size and to achieve a due magnitude of effect.
A number of special problems were encountered in designing the Palace of Fine Arts. Its shape was determined by the demand for a maximum of wall surface and for an easy circulation of visitors from room to room. The exterior was left very plain, except for the entrance, for two reasons: to distinguish the building from all others by its simplicity, and to concentrate upon interior decoration. The entrance was embellished with statuary and a fountain in the foreground and with open grillwork and a large panel of carvings in bas-relief above the door. This last, in the Greek manner, repre¬ sented the development of the fine arts. The interior walls were designed carefully in various textures and tones of gray to produce
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
63
the properly subdued effect for a background for pictures and tapes¬ tries. In the center a cheerful patio with a fountain surrounded by ancient and modern statuary, shrubbery and flowers, permitted visitors to rest from sightseeing.
Important also were the problems of lighting and ventilating. The Palace of Fine Arts was lighted wholly by skylights but all glare was prevented by filtering the light through muslin screens strung on wires in the manner of false ceilings. Electric lights were placed between these screens and the skylights in order to supplement the natural light when necessary.
The other exhibition buildings were illuminated by “Monitor” type skylights. These buildings, except the Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Exhibits, were ventilated wholly through the pivoted steel sash in the sides of the “Monitor” skylights. Since the ceilings of these buildings stood from 25 to 60 feet above the floor, the great air space made the problem of ventilating easy. In the Palace of Agriculture and the Palace of Fine Arts, however, huge rotary ventilators were placed in the roof. These were turned by the wind so that the maximum of fresh air would be blown into the building. In both buildings, but more notably in the Palace of Fine Arts, where the ceiling average was only twenty feet above the floor, these ventilators were very satisfactory.
The methods of the structural design to be adopted received con¬ siderable study. The final decision was given to a type of construc¬ tion employing roof trusses supported on columns with the necessary bracing, all of steel, together with wood studs supported by a rein¬ forced concrete grade beam. The studs were covered on the exterior with wire lath to which a stucco surface was applied, and on the inside the studs were lined with wall board. The color effects were achieved by coloring the stucco where it was applied to large surfaces and by painting where brilliant contrasts were desired.
In the actual work of erection it was first necessary to determine the final level. Convenience made a level of about one foot above that of Broad Street most desirable. Because of the recency of the filling it was necessary to support all buildings on piles. Yellow pine was used chiefly, because of its strength. The piles, 30 to 40 feet long, and tapering from 14 inches diameter at butt to 7 inches at the point, were driven in through the mud and down into hardpan. Six pile-drivers at a time were kept busy. The number of piles driven ran into the thousands. They were grouped under the columns according to the load on the column and where the soil was softer than usual, as indicated by the resistance of the last blow of the hammer, additional piles were driven in until calculations showed a sufficient margin of safety.
64
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
These piles were covered with concrete pile caps two and a half feet thick, one foot overlapping the piles and one and a half feet above them. Upon these pile caps rested the grade beams of rein¬ forced concrete, extending around the base of the walls and across the width of the buildings where ties were needed. When the filling was very soft, steel cables were used also to tie one side of the build¬ ing to the other. Upon the foundation so laid, walls of steel columns and wood studs were erected. The roof construction consisted of two inch planks of yellow pine laid across the steel cross beams and covered with roofing felt and pitch. The roof of the Auditorium, however, was covered with asbestos.
The architectural ornaments had to be modeled in clay as soon as drawn and then cast rapidly in plaster. Careful inspection of the work was necessary every day and sometimes twice a day. A tem¬ porary studio for sculptors and modelers was erected on the grounds in the latter part of January, 1926. Not only here but in all the work of both design and construction, the difficulty was to rush the work without sacrificing a high standard of quality. The actual work of construction was supervised by a corps of inspectors, always busy. Some of these were employed for over a year but a number of additional men were employed during May and June. The great rush of the work made careful checking of all drawings and frequent inspection of all construction especially important.
The architectural force was frequently consulted with regard to the construction of the Municipal Stadium, designed by Simon & Simon, architects. This structure, an immense letter “U,” 710 feet across and 1020 feet in length overall, is of reinforced concrete, stone and brick. Construction was begun on March 30, 1925, and com¬ pleted April 15, 1926.
Of the buildings built especially for the Exposition, the Adminis¬ tration Building was the first to be completed. It was begun early and its construction was rushed so that it could accommodate the various administrative officials and their technical and clerical forces at the earliest moment. The overall dimensions were 200 feet by 40 feet and the floor area, 17,600 square feet. Construction was begun August 7, 1925, and completed October 6, 1925.
Following are details of other Exposition structures which may be said to have formed the basis of the general architectural scheme :
The Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures — Building No. 1 — housed many of the principal industrial exhibits from many locali¬ ties in the United States. The overall dimensions were 970 feet by 392 feet and the floor area 338,000 square feet. Work started Oc¬ tober 7, 1925, and was completed April 2, 1926.
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Immense throng in the Stadium at the celebra¬ tion of a Field Mass by D. Cardinal Dougherty, Archbishop of Philadelphia.
A section of the Stadium at a performance of the festival pageant “America,” under the auspices of the Philadelphia Music League.
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
65
The Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Exhibits — Building No. 2 — the overall dimensions of which were 970 feet by 460 feet, and the floor area, 367,500 square feet. Work was started September 15, 1925, and completed March 6, 1926.
The Auditorium — Building No. 3 — was designed to seat over 10,000 people. The overall dimensions were 274 feet by 450 feet, and the floor area 113,300 square feet. Work was started November 27, 1925, and completed June 1, 1926.
The Palace of United States Government , Machinery, and Trans¬ portation — Building No. 5 — housed valuable exhibits of the United States Government as well as exhibits of various industries and transportation systems. The overall dimensions were 400 feet by 880 feet, and the floor area, 321,800 square feet. Work was started April 15, 1926, and completed July 20, 1926.
The Palace of Education and Social Economy — Building No. 8 — housed many valuable exhibits from universities, colleges, high schools and other educational institutions. The overall dimensions were 526 feet by 210 feet, and the floor area, 101,684 square feet. Construction was started April 9, 1926, and completed July 15, 1926.
The Palace of Fine Arts — Building No. 9 — housed valuable paint¬ ings and sculpture from various countries, including originals of great masters. The overall dimensions were 256 feet by 280 feet. There were two wings, each 120 feet by 68 feet, and the floor area was 68,000 square feet. Work was started March 25, 1926, and completed June 25, 1926.
These main structures by no means represented all the work of the supervising architect. He was also called upon to design others described below.
The United States Model Post Office Building housed a model post office, illustrating all of the details of the Government’s handling of mail. The overall dimensions were 112 feet by 160 feet and the floor area, 17,920 square feet. Work was started April 10, 1926, and completed May 15, 1926.
The Emergency Hospital was placed in a central location for first aid treatment. The overall dimensions were 40 feet by 69 feet, and the floor area, 1,722 square feet. Work started April 12, 1926, and was completed June 20, 1926.
The Fire Station, located on the Gladway convenient to all por¬ tions of the Exposition grounds, housed a complete fire company. The overall dimensions were 40 feet by 80 feet, and the floor area, 3,200 square feet. Work was started on June 1, 1926, and com¬ pleted July 7, 1926.
The thirteen pylons on which were placed the bronze tablets con-
66
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
taining the names of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, were located on the west side of Broad Street from the Pittsburgh Building to the Pennsylvania Building, on either side of the “Forum of the Founders.” The height of the columns was 39 feet. Work was started on May 6, 1926, and completed June 10, 1926.
The Colonnade was in the center of the “Forum of the Founders.” The overall dimensions were 155 feet deep, the height 42 feet, and the floor area, 7,000 square feet. Work was started May 26, 1926, and completed July 3, 1926.
The Band Pavilion was located on the secondary axis leading toward the Gladway. The overall dimensions — octagon — were 32 feet in diameter, 32 feet high; and the floor area, 853 square feet. Work was started May 22, 1926, and completed June 15, 1926.
The Tower of Light, designed to occupy a central point in the main composition of the Exposition, formed the apex at the easterly end of the secondary axis. Decision of the Exposition officials stopped the construction when half completed. But the steel work had been finished and on the top platform was installed a large searchlight, one of the largest in the country. The overall dimen¬ sions were 254 feet by 110 feet, height 150 feet, and the floor area, 12,383 square feet. Work was started June 6, 1926, and stopped on July 8, 1926.
The United States Coast Guard Building housed a special Coast Guard service squad. The overall dimensions were 53 feet by 95 feet, and the floor area, 4,880 square feet. Work was started May 3, 1926, and completed June 3, 1926.
The Entrances were designed to give a holiday character to ap¬ proaches of the Exposition. Work was started April 27, 1926, and completed May 31, 1926.
The main pylons on which were placed winged “Heralds of the New Dawn” were at the main entrance to the Exposition from Broad Street. These pylons were 25 feet in height. Work was started May 13, 1926, and completed May 31, 1926.
While the architectural work was being done for the various buildings, the fact should not be overlooked that many drawings were made for bridges, pedestals and columns, and for many minor details in connection with the main structures which had not been thought of in the beginning by the exhibitors, but which were re¬ quired by them to complete the accommodations that they desired.
Realizing that the beauty, splendor and gorgeousness of the Exposition could best be enhanced by adequate lighting, it was de¬ cided to invite suggestions from illuminating engineers whose prac¬ tical knowledge and experience would supplement the contemplated plans of the electrical department of the Exposition.
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
67
Consequently the Westinghouse Lamp Company was commis¬ sioned to act in collaboration with the Exposition and municipal forces and Samuel G. Hibben of the Westinghouse Company was designated to act in a directing capacity, and plans were prepared by its commercial engineering department which were largely followed in the Exposition’s lighting arrangement. Solomon M. Swaab, con¬ sulting engineer of the city, Frank E. Maize, chief of the electrical bureau, of the Department of Public Safety, R. J. Pearse, S. M. Knight, and L. T. Darrin of the Exposition forces aided in working out of the plans that were conceived for the lighting of the Exposi¬ tion. A Hopkin, Jr., Co., of Philadelphia, also was instrumental in achieving the color lighting effects.
The outstanding lighting effect of the Exposition was the tre¬ mendous illuminated Liberty Bell, suspended over the plaza on South Broad Street, north of the main entrance to the grounds. Tower¬ ing eighty feet above the sidewalk, it was lighted by approximately 26,000 fifteen- watt lamps. The structure contained eighty tons of steel and rested on a foundation thirty feet deep built of wooden piling and concrete capping.
The gigantic lighted bell was suspended from a framework replica of the actual support of the Liberty Bell in Independence Hall and this framework in turn surmounted beautiful and massive columns representing American industry and progress. These were made of plaster and painted a bronze metallic color with ornamentation in gold.
An arch of steel ran through the columns. The bell itself was a framework of steel covered by sheet metal studded with sockets on six-inch centers. When lighted the Luminous Liberty Bell was visible the entire length of Broad Street south of the City Hall and from every vantage point in Philadelphia. The predominating color was amber with ivory lamps serving as high lights. At each side a shadow effect was obtained with lamps of old rose. As a result it appeared at night to be a huge glowing mass of metal which had been heated to incandescence.
Eight 200-watt projectors in the clapper illuminated the blue, star-studded dome ceiling under the bell. Inside the base of each column were the necessary transformers and control apparatus. For maintenance, cleaning and making lamp renewals, a ladder closely fitting the contour of the bell was provided. This rested on wheels running on tracks, one on top of the bell and another concealed just above the circular bands near the bottom rim.
The cost of building this mammoth replica was approximately $100,000. A most unusual feat was performed by the constructors, Frank C. English and Sons, who in forty-seven days from the
68
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
contract date completed the work sufficiently so that the bell was lighted on the evening preceding the formal opening of the Exposi¬ tion.
Since the Chicago World’s Fair lighting had been a most im¬ portant factor in the success of expositions. The artistic and elab¬ orate setting of colorful buildings, beautiful landscape gardening enhanced by waterways and lagoons, presented an unusual oppor¬ tunity for the illuminating engineer at the Sesqui-Centennial. In particular the Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures and the Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Participation presented ideal sur¬ faces for lighting. The elaborate ornamentation and decorated towers gave the buildings a colorful daytime appearance. At night still further colors were added by floodlighting. This method was decided upon after considerable experimentation with various colors, intensities, colored outlining and combinations of outlining and floodlighting.
Heavy foliage and shrubbery permitted considerable latitude in the placing of the necessary floodlight equipment. The general scheme was a deep, rich color in the entrances, with a rather dim cool illumination on the exteriors. The corner towers were brighter and more colorful, each terminating in a brilliant beacon lantern at the top.
Few who saw it will forget the night view in the court of the Pennsylvania Building. The walls were flooded with clear light from reflectors along the bases. These were protected by glass plates and concealed by artistically arranged shrubbery. A red light radi¬ ated through the grillwork over the main entrance. In the arcades, a pale moonlight glow was obtained from pendant lanterns which were equipped with light blue glass panels. The tower was brightly illuminated by intense clear light. It was visible over the entire Ex¬ position area and stood out predominantly in contrast to the colorful exhibition buildings.
The Forum of the Founders, in the center of which stood the statue typifying the progress of the city of Philadelphia, was flood¬ lighted from four points by banks of three 500-watt floodlights with amber color caps. The colonnades were indirectly illuminated by amber light and silhouetted by a moonlight effect in the court be¬ hind.
Another outstanding lighting display of the Exposition was the aurora of fourteen 36-inch Sperry high-intensity searchlights, fur¬ nished by the United States Army as part of its participation. Each of these searchlights had a beam of 450,000,000 candlepower, mak¬ ing the combined total for the aurora 6,300,000,000 candlepower, the maximum intensity ever concentrated in one place.
Gladioli in infinite variety as they bloomed in the terraced Gladway gardens west of the Colonnade.
♦
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
69
The inter-connected waterways flowing from the lakes in League Island Park and terminating in the Gladway lagoons gave oppor¬ tunity for many striking lighting effects. Around the edge of the lagoons was a balustrade where Venetian lanterns were mounted.
The great concrete Stadium where formal ceremonies, spectacular pageants and various athletic events were staged was illuminated without glare to an intensity which turned night into day, permitting the night playing of football, baseball and similar games.
CHAPTER VII
CONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS
PROBLEMS PRESENTED BY SITE SELECTED — DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS OF PHILADEL¬ PHIA CALLED UPON FOR AID — DIRECTOR GEORGE H. BILES IN CHARGE — ACTIVITIES OF VARIOUS CITY BUREAUS — BUILDING PLAN PROJECTED IN 1925 — CONDITION OF GROUNDS IN JULY, 1925 — FIRST EXHIBITION PALACE STARTED — CHANGES IN BUILD¬ ING PLANS — PROGRESS IN WINTER OF 1925~26 — SCULPTURAL AND COLOR DIVISIONS — LANDSCAPE DIVISION — DIVERSITY OF CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS — AMAZING SPEED — COOPERATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES — COST OF CONSTRUCTION — SUMMARY OF UNDERTAKINGS OF EXPOSITION DEPARTMENT OF WORKS.
As the physical scope of the Exposition was largely dependent upon the selection of a definite site, no comprehensive plan was adopted until early in 1925, when the site was finally chosen.
On March 3, 1925, City Council of Philadelphia had authorized, through an ordinance, the building of a municipal stadium on city- owned property located between Broad Street, Eleventh Street, Pat- tison Avenue and Terminal Avenue in the southeastern section of the city. This action by the City Council was a determining factor in locating the Exposition in an area contiguous to this stadium, to¬ gether with the fact that there was available much adjacent territory under the control of the city.
The Exposition site chosen included the area from Eleventh Street on the east to Twentieth Street on the west and from Government Avenue, immediately outside of the League Island Navy Yard, on the south to Packer Avenue on the north. This ground together with the Navy Yard afforded approximately 1000 acres for the develop¬ ment of the Exposition.
The determination of the site offered a major problem to the Exposition officials because of. the character of the terrain. The terri¬ tory on the east side of Broad Street, dividing the Exposition site throughout its entire length north and south, was for a distance of approximately three city blocks of the same swampy nature as the site chosen for the stadium, and this ground would have to be filled in for a depth at many places of as much as twenty feet. In the opinion of competent engineers the task presented was almost her¬ culean, as it was the plan to rear in this section huge exhibits palaces that would cover an area of more than 800,000 square feet.
The Exposition management was virtually without funds to cover the initiatory cost of the filling material necessary for such an under¬ taking, much less in a position to pay for the labor required. Fortu¬ nately, at the time, excavations for the North Broad Street subway
were in process and the earth removed from Broad Street was di-
70
CONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS
71
verted to this section. The aid of the Department of Public Works of Philadelphia was solicited through City Council, with the result that the forces attached to the bureaus of the department were assigned to the task and all through the spring and summer of 1925 a veritable army of workmen was engaged in the preliminary work of rendering the site available for construction purposes.
Authorization for this work came through an enabling ordinance by City Council providing sufficient funds for the purpose, and George H. Biles, Director of the Department of Public Works, was placed in charge of all operations. Mr. Biles personally supervised all of the work and was aided in this connection by the following bureau chiefs: John H. Neeson, highways; John A. Vogelson, engineering; J. Harvey Gillingham, surveys, Alexander Murdoch, water; Frank E. Maize, electrical ; Morris Brooks, building inspection ; Archer M. Soby, street cleaning; John Molitor, city architect, and S. M. Swaab, consulting engineer to the Mayor.
The facilities of the bureaus were utilized in the preparatory work of engineering and survey, drainage, filling in of land, sewers, water supply, electrical feed lines, building of new streets and re-surfacing of those already existing. Immediately upon the approval of the ordinance, surveys were begun and topographic plans prepared for the use of architects. A field survey corps from the bureaus of engi¬ neering and surveys began work of bringing to grade streets neces¬ sary for transportation to the Exposition grounds — Packer, Pattison and Terminal Avenues, for east and west traffic; Seventh, Tenth, Eleventh and Twentieth Streets for north and south traffic — to widths varying from 108 to 148 feet, and a total length of 20,576 feet.
Grading alone required the placing of 1,662,269 cubic yards of fill material at a cost of $1,700,611.14. The ground upon which this material was deposited was virgin soil that had been in the condition in which it was found for nearly two hundred and fifty years. It was marshland covered with bullrushes and vegetation peculiar to this type of soil and it was cut up and interlaced with canals and trib¬ utary ditches, a relic of the days when all this territory was im¬ pounded by the first Dutch settlers in 1682 and thereafter.
Because of the shortness of the time before the contemplated opening of the Exposition on June 1, 1926, the preparation of the site presented engineering problems that called for emergency solu¬ tions. In the construction of sewers it was necessary to use what is known as a floating section of concrete to withstand the settlement due to consolidation and earth pressure.
So rapidly were the operations completed that frequently within
72
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
a hundred yards behind the sewer contractor the placing of founda¬ tion for the surface paving was going on. This latter work was fur¬ ther complicated by the fact that on some of the streets were the main trunk lines for trolley traffic. Special preparation of sub-base for the tracks was provided and more than 190,000 square yards of paving was laid at a cost of $676,506.31. These major highway operations were virtually finished in nine months and by force of circumstances rather than choice seemed to have disregarded the theory of good practice that would require work of this kind to extend over a period of at least two years. Subsequent development, however, revealed the fact that the work was satisfactory.
Employees of the Highway Bureau reconstructed and resurfaced all main drives and driveways within the Exposition area, including those of League Island Park, located on the west side of Broad Street, between Pattison and Government avenues. These operations involved the elimination of trolley tracks on both sides of Broad Street and resurfacing it to the extent of 41,634 square yards at a cost of $42,384.76.
The bureau forces attached to the meadowbanks and entomology divisions also undertook the work of mosquito elimination during the period of the Exposition. Owing to the fact that the construc¬ tion of new streets had completely eliminated a number of drainage ditches and interfered with the flow of others, drainage courses had to be rerouted, pools and lagoons treated with oil and other preven¬ tive methods introduced.
The Electrical Bureau in conjunction with the Exposition pro¬ vided extensive facilities for the installation of high tension service feeder connections between the electric sub-station at Oregon Ave¬ nue, near the entrance to the Exposition grounds, and the various transformer banks for lighting and power. Illumination of the City Hall and the Independence Square buildings on special occasions was also arranged by this bureau. Among its other activities was the installation of the necessary equipment in police boxes, and service for alarms in the fire stations.
The Water Bureau laid mains consisting of 16,720 feet of 12-inch pipe, 900 feet of 8-inch pipe, 10,000 feet of 6-inch pipe and 2800 feet of 4-inch pipe for low presure service and a total of 19,387 feet of pipe of the same respective sizes in the high pressure service was laid under direction of the Exposition’s Department of Works. The Street Cleaning Bureau employed a force of men commensurate with 5507 man-days and the Bureau of Building Inspection issued per¬ mits to the value of $8,031,455 during the period from immediately preceding the Exposition until its closing.
CONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS
73
As the historical buildings of Independence Square constituted an integral part of the Exposition from the standpoint of interest to the visitor, although removed from the confines of the Exposition area, the Bureau of City Property, under whose jurisdiction these buildings are, rendered considerable service in connection with them. Independence Hall, in which the Liberty Bell is enshrined, was the scene of a number of episodes in connection with the Exposition. Among the more prominent features were the opening of the Sesqui- Centennial year on New Year’s Eve, 1925 — when Mrs. W. Freeland Kendrick, wife of the Mayor of Philadelphia and the President of the Exposition, tapped on the bell the numbers 1-9-2-6, the sound being broadcast by radio throughout the United States — the re¬ ception to the President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, and the assembling on December 3, 1926, of the neighboring town liberty bells to honor the original Liberty Bell. Members of the bureau forces were instrumental in arranging the decorative features of these and other events which were accompanied by the presenta¬ tion of costumed tableaux when participants were garbed in the dress of Colonial and Revolutionary periods. In preparation for the construction work at the Exposition grounds, the bureau rendered aid in the clearance of the ground and during the landscaping opera¬ tions placed at the disposition of Exposition officials men trained in gardening work.
The City Solicitor’s office, under the direction of City Solicitor Joseph P. Gaffney, rendered considerable service to the Department of Works of the Exposition in condemnation of land within the Exposition area. Two assistant city solicitors, Glenn C. Meade and A. E. Gratz, were engaged in this work.
The problem of designing the Exposition was solved by the desig¬ nation of City Architect John Molitor to this duty. All the detail plans were made by Mr. Molitor and a corps of assistants from his office who established headquarters in the Administration Building after it was completed toward the end of 1925.
In the spring of 1925 Colonel Collier, then Director General, pre¬ sented to the officials of the Exposition a projected outline of the building program as follows :
Building No. 1, Palace of Liberal Arts Building No. 2, Palace of Agriculture and Food Products Building No. 3, Palace of Manufactures and Allied Industries Building No. 4, Palace of Machinery, Engineering, Mines and
Metallurgy
Building No. 5, Palace of Transportation Building No. 6, Live Stock Group
74
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
Building No. 7, Automobiles and Convention Hall Building
Building No. 8, Municipal Stadium
These buildings were to cover an area of approximately sixty acres without considering the area of the Live Stock Group or the Munici¬ pal Stadium. League Island Park was to be used for the location of state and foreign buildings and smaller Exposition units.
The intended site of the Gladway, or amusement section, was to be all the territory between Packer and Pattison Avenues and between Broad and Twentieth Streets, with the exception of the space occu¬ pied by the two large exhibit buildings, Number 3 and Number 4.
The location of the League Island Navy Yard at the southern termination of Broad Street and in proximity to the Exposition was expected to draw a considerable number of visitors to inspect this branch of the Navy Department. In this connection arose the prob¬ lem of relocating the existing bus and trolley service on Broad Street within the Exposition area for Navy Yard traffic. The requirement as set forth by Rear-Admiral A. H. Scales, Commandant of the Navy Yard, before he would agree to the closing of Broad Street, was that a hard-surfaced road must be finished between the Navy Yard gate and Oregon Avenue, which would take care of automobile and trolley transportation. It was late in the winter of 1925—26 be¬ fore it was definitely decided that it was possible to provide before June 1 the necessary facilities required by Admiral Scales.
The grounds of the Exposition on July 1, 1925, were in the fol¬ lowing condition: The area west of Broad Street, which was later occupied by the Gladway, and the area east of Broad Street, south of Packer Avenue, later occupied by two main exhibition palaces, had not been touched. League Island Park was in the form of an existing park, as it had been for several years. Foundations were being laid for the new municipal stadium and the filling for the several new streets was proceeding. Plans had been drawn for the construction of the Administration Building at the corner of Broad Street and Oregon Avenue and a contract for the construction of this building was let on August 7, 1925, to David Lutz and Company. Work was started immediately and it was completed on October 6, 1925.
The contract for Building No. 2, the first of the large exhibition palaces, had been let to the Austin Company on September 15. Work was started at once on this building and it was completed on March 6, 1926. On October 7, 1925, the erection of Building Number 1 was begun by Michael Melody and Sons, Inc. These buildings were virtually the same in size and were of standard steel construction but slightly different in design. Building Number 1 was completed April 2, 1926.
CONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS
/D
In November, 1925, there was a change in the personnel of the administrative staff of the Exposition, Colonel Collier having re¬ signed as Director General on October 28. New plans were suggested for the scope and program of the Exposition. No new building projects were undertaken until these new plans were definitely formu¬ lated. The general building plans as conceived by Colonel Collier were changed in order that only that should be attempted which might be completed by June 1, 1926. A modified scheme was formed and later placed in operation. A contract was let for the erection of the New Jersey State Building on November 25, 1925, by the New Jersey State Commission. A few days later work was started on the Auditorium, the contract having been let to the Turner Construc¬ tion Company.
The preparatory work which was done by the municipal bureaus of the City of Philadelphia under Director Biles, the departmental and bureau chiefs during the year 1925, together with the start of the construction work of the tw^o main exhibit buildings and the Auditorium comprise, outside of the Stadium, the progress made up to the beginning of the year 1926. From then on revised general plans for the grounds and buildings called for more but smaller buildings. The location of the buildings to be erected was planned under the direction of the Director of Works of the Exposition, R. J. Pearse, working in conjunction with Director Biles. The gen¬ eral scheme was as follows :
Building Number 1 was to be known as the Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures. Building Number 2 was to be called the Palace of Agriculture and Food Products, with areas to be used for foreign government and state participation wdiere there were no state or foreign separate buildings. The Auditorium was located at the cor¬ ner of Broad Street and Packer Avenue. The Palace of Education and Social Economy was projected in League Island Park, where a structure known as the India Building finally stood. The Palace of Education and Social Economy was later reared on Pattison Avenue near Broad Street. Owing to the fact that the Palace of Fine Arts required a large level area it was located in a section of League Island Park that had originally been reserved for the reproduction of King Solomon’s Temple, a concession project which was later abandoned.
Due to varying conditions and the necessity for rapidity in con¬ struction no definite location for buildings could be given until their erection was about to begin. New buildings, foreign, state and com¬ mercial, were projected almost daily, with the general scheme being carried out of placing the state buildings in the southeast corner of League Island Park near Broad Street and grouping the foreign
76
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
buildings around Edgewater Lake. Numerous small buildings, as restaurants, a bank, the Welfare Building, a broadcasting station, the Aerocrete Building, Girl Scouts’ Building, John Morton Me¬ morial Building, Sulgrave Manor, Photography Building and the Home Electric were located one at a time as their sites were chosen.
A working staff to have supervision over the different units of the Exposition construction was assembled. The various divisions or¬ ganized were : electrical, drafting and designing, sanitary, sculptural, color, landscape, labor, supervisory and construction. W. P. Wetzel was appointed assistant to Director Pearse and later became As¬ sistant Director of Works.
The activity on the part of the Exposition forces was paralleled by that of other interests employed by private contractors constructing exhibit displays and the incidental detail necessary in connection with participation by exhibitors, with the result that each succeeding day showed the accomplishment of a vast amount of operations in the building of the Exposition.
Early in the formative period of the Exposition the decision was reached to name the amusement section the Gladway. The Exposi¬ tion officials had determined to permit none other than the higher types of entertaining features in this section. Waterways were a necessary part of the area, which called for the construction of canals and lagoons. Water from Edgewater and Centennial lakes in League Island Park was to be diverted to these courses.
Excavations for these canals and lagoons were made, after which they were bulkheaded, the lakes dredged to permit the operation of gondolas and electrical launches, bridges were constructed and emer¬ gency pumping units were installed.
The volume of work incidental to the electrical installation and equipment of the Exposition made it imperative that a competent electrical engineer be placed in charge and L. T. Darrin was selected to act in this capacity.
In the initial stages Mr. Darrin was in consultation with engineers of the municipal Electrical Bureau and the Philadelphia Electric Company regarding the layout for the installation of transformers, cables and lighting equipment for the Exposition. Again, the element of insufficient time for the preparatory work necessitated the greatest rapidity in order that the necessary current facilities be provided.
The necessity of the establishment of a separate division to work out plans for the plumbing, water, gas and sanitary sewers immedi¬ ately connected with the projected and actual buildings was recog¬ nized when the construction of Buildings Numbers 1 and 2 had progressed to a point where these facilities were needed. W. J. Sut-
Edgewater Lake near the Japanese Pa¬ vilion with the Stadium in the distance.
Treasure Island, a fairyland amusement center for children.
The bathing beach in the League Island Park section.
CONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS
//
phen, who had been working in the office of the City Architect, was appointed as head of the division and organized a corps of assistants to aid in the work.
The winter of 1925-1926 was mild to a degree, making it possible to carry on work in the open and this fact permitted the early con¬ struction operations to proceed to a point where early in the spring the buildings of the Exposition were rising with great rapidity. In order to expedite the work a standard type of construction was adopted, namely the use of standard structural steel erected on con¬ crete foundations with the walls of a stucco plaster laid on metal lathing.
Assuming definite form was a colonnade consisting of thirteen pylons flanking the west side of Broad Street and upon each of which was placed a bronze tablet containing the names of the Sign¬ ers of the Declaration of Independence from each of the Thirteen Original States in whose honor the column was dedicated.
Late in 1925 C. E. Tefft was appointed chief of the sculptural division and began with a corps of artists to model the statuary groups and sculptural details which later ornamented the Exposition. The three main pieces, “Philadelphia Progressive, ” and the two fig¬ ures “Heralds of the New Dawn” outside the gates were made in record time and placed before the Exposition opened.
As it was the intention of the Exposition authorities to introduce a pleasing color scheme in the decorative effect rather than adhere to the standardized colors of other Expositions, the services of William de Leftwich Dodge were secured for this phase of the work.
The activities of the color division were one of the most interest¬ ing developments of the Works Department. Mr. Dodge, with his assistant, Bartolomeo Bellissio, personally supervised the coloring on all the Exposition buildings and features, including entrances, pylons, colonnade, bandstand and concession buildings.
In working out the color scheme of the Exposition a variety of hues were blended, being chosen to harmonize with the settings and conditions, with the result that a “Rainbow City” effect was pro¬ duced.
During March the establishment of a landscape division was effected, with F. A. Robinson as chief, and during the period of con¬ struction work in April and May he organized the landscape main¬ tenance work which continued during the period of the Exposition.
After the work of building the Exposition had passed from the preparatory stage to an era of completion of most of the major buildings, operations were of such a diversified nature that a condi¬ tion outwardly chaotic prevailed, with a small army of workmen
78
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
swarming over the premises. The simplicity of the design of the structures that were intended to house exhibits was in direct contrast in many instances to other buildings built in reproduction of houses of historic import that existed during the Colonial and Revolutionary period. Skilled workmen employing tools of the most modern equip¬ ment were engaged in building houses and structures of a type that originally had been fashioned by the almost primitive implements used in the early American days.
The basic systems of construction entailing slow, laborious effort were relegated to the background and supplanted by every labor- saving device that could be utilized to produce the ultimate in speedy construction. It seemed at times as if some fabled genie with a me¬ chanical bent had overnight waved a magic wand and produced prac¬ tical buildings where only desolate marshland had existed before.
Director Biles and Director Pearse personally devoted their ener¬ gies to expediting the work in every conceivable manner, Clarence E. Myers being Mr. Biles’ representative on the field during a large portion of the work. On April 1, 1926, S. H. Knight was em¬ ployed by the Exposition to have charge of building inspectors and inspection of engineering work. He was appointed supervising en¬ gineer of the Exposition May 15 and continued in that capacity for the duration of the Exposition. Walter Steinbruch and David A.. Kline served as assistant supervising engineers.
As the Exposition grew apace demands were made upon the con¬ tractors to build structures of such a variety of designs as to tax the limits of their ingenuity. , The firm which constructed the exhibits palace known as Building Number 1 immediately upon its comple¬ tion was engaged in building the India Building along the lines of the Taj Mahal, considered to be one of the most beautiful edifices in the world. This latter building was equipped with minarets and of a style of Asiatic construction that was in wide variance with the design of other types of building. Notwithstanding this fact, the building when erected was considered one of the noteworthy sights of the Exposition.
Other demands made upon Exposition and city forces that entailed diverse methods embraced the construction of lagoons and canals similar to those of Venice, animal pits and cages to house the in¬ mates of a section of a zoological garden, theatres, wire barricades encircling the area, laying out of athletic fields, dredging bathing beaches and a host of other operations similarly divergent in char¬ acter.
All of this was accomplished in the shortest space of time that any other venture of a similar nature ever consumed. With the pos-
CONSTRUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS
79
sible exception of the building of streets, sewers and the approaches to the municipal stadium, none of the work completed by these agen¬ cies was accomplished with any idea of permanency, but rather it was projected with the thought of having the Exposition ready for the opening ceremonies.
One of the greatest factors that served to make the duties of the Department of Works more arduous and tended to delay the work of construction was the frequent changes in the locating of conces¬ sion booths in the Gladway area due to the contingencies that arose during the progress of construction.
Splendid cooperation was received from the various public utili¬ ties of Philadelphia, including the Philadelphia Electric Company, the United Gas Improvement Company, the Bell Telephone Com¬ pany of Pennsylvania, and the Keystone Telephone Company, all of whom were called upon to meet frequent emergency demands involv¬ ing more than routine performance.
The cost of construction and development of projects under the supervision of the Exposition Department of Works was nearly $9,000,000. The following is a list of the undertakings :
Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufactures Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Participation Palace of United States Government, Machinery and Transporta¬ tion (also known as the Government Building)
Palace of Education and Social Economy
Palace of Fine Arts
Auditorium
Administration Building
Stadium, Completion of, including lighting, plumbing, grading walks and drives
Electrical installation, primary and secondary, including substa¬ tions
Gladway development, including plumbing and water supply, light¬ ing, electrical equipment, etc.
High pressure pumping stations and system Canals, lagoons and bridges
Entrance and change booths, turnstiles, fences and gates Pylons and Gladway Colonnades, statuary of Court of Nations, “Philadelphia Progressive” group, Tower of Light, and Grand Court lighting
Stage and dressing rooms in Stadium Luminous Liberty Bell Comfort stations
City Hall lighting, and lighting at Independence Square
80
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
Concession booths in Stadium and grounds Extension of gas mains
Aviation Field grading, development and buildings
Post Office
Fire houses
Domestic water supply
Welfare Building
Electric Fountain
Ackley Maynes Rides
Coast Guard Building
Warehouse
Flood lighting of exhibition buildings Admissions and Concessions Building
Police and firemen’s headquarters and improvements to old Span¬ ish Building (Police Barracks)
Band Stands
Military barracks and camp Boat landings and booths on lagoons Bath House, beach and pool Emergency Hospital
Miscellaneous construction and development projects : Personnel Building, Aerator (Edgewater Lake), Canoe House, Entrance to Fireworks Spectacle, Footway over railroad, Garage and Repair Shop, Indian Village, Outdoor Amusement Company’s Building, Press Club, Stock Room and Tool Shed, Temporary Stands and equipment in City Hall Court Yard, Pump House Number 1, Pump House Number 2, Pump House Number 3, Administration Building Storehouse and Forty-one small struc¬ tures.
The above list is exclusive of foreign, state and special buildings, together with those of High Street, which are noted in other chap¬ ters. It represents only the work of the Exposition department in charge of construction.
Daytime view of the mammoth illuminated Liberty Bell, north of the Main Entrance, which was eighty feet high, contained 26,000 electric lamps, and was visible for many miles at night.
Night view of Sculp¬ tural Group repre¬ senting “ Philadelphia Progressive,” wh i c h occupied center of the main plaza.
Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and Princess Louise take part in the laying of the cornerstone of the John Morton Memorial Building, one of the earliest important cere¬ monies of the Exposition.
CHAPTER VIII
PARTICIPATION OF FOREIGN NATIONS
NATIONS OFFICIALLY REPRESENTED — COUNTRIES UNOFFICIALLY PARTICIPATING — LIST OF COMMISSIONERS AND DELEGATES — ARGENTINE BUILDING — BELGIAN TAPESTRIES — CHINA’S INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL EXHIBITS — CUBAN PAVILION — CZECHO- SLOVAC BUILDING — VISIT OF FRENCH GUNBOAT “VILLE d’ys” — BRITISH SECTION — $10,000,000 IN JEWELS — TITANIA’S PALACE — VISIT OF BRITISH CRUISERS — INDIAN building — Italy’s gift — japan’s notable part — Persian building — Spanish
BUILDING — VISIT OF CROWN PRINCE AND CROWN PRINCESS OF SWEDEN — TUNISIAN PAVILION.
Forty-two nations participated in the official opening exercises of the Exposition. Fourteen foreign countries officially appointed com¬ missions or delegates to the Exposition, seven erected government pavilions and ten participated unofficially with exhibits. Those which appointed commissions or delegations were Argentina, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Haiti, Italy, Japan, Persia, Roumania, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia and Venezuela. Those which erected government buildings in the grounds of the Exposition were Argentina, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Persia, Spain and Tunisia. Sweden was represented by a Memorial House to John Morton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, through the Scandinavian societies in the United States, and also by the Wicaco Block House, erected by the Swedish Colonial Society. Both of these buildings were officially dedicated by His Royal Highness, Gustaf Adolf, Crown Prince of Sweden, and the Crown Princess.
Four of the countries which erected government pavilions also had official exhibits in the Palace of Agriculture and Foreign Participa¬ tion: Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Japan and Spain.
Three of the countries officially represented at the Exposition which did not erect government pavilions had official exhibits in the main exhibits palaces : China, Haiti and Venezuela.
Italy and Peru, though both were officially represented at the Ex¬ position, had no exhibit. Notification came, however, through His Excellency, the Italian Ambassador, that Italy’s contribution would come later in the gift from Italy to Philadelphia of the “Fountain of the Sea Horses,” which gift was subsequently made and is now one of the adornments of Philadelphia’s beautiful Parkway.
Hungary was semi-officially represented through the government Department of Commerce and had an exhibit in the Palace of Agri¬ culture and Foreign Participation.
The Roumanian government appropriated 20,000,000 lei for offi-
81
82
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
cial participation in the Exposition and appointed a commission. The erection of a pavilion was commenced but later abandoned on account of an unexpected depreciation in Roumanian currency.
Ten countries were unofficially represented by exhibits at the Ex¬ position, viz., Austria; Algeria; Denmark; Egypt; Germany; Great Britain, including India, which erected a beautiful building re¬ sembling the Taj Mahal; France; Holland; Palestine, and Sweden, so that the total number of foreign countries officially and unofficially represented by commission, delegation or exhibits at the Exposition was twenty- four.
Forty-three foreign nations officially participated in events of the Exposition through their ambassadors, ministers and charges d’af¬ faires, viz., Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Esthonia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Irish Free State, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Persia, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden, the Queen of Rou¬ mania, the President of the Republic of Haiti and Prince Conti of Italy, the latter two unofficially, were at the head of the list of dis¬ tinguished foreign visitors, which included many delegations from foreign chambers of commerce, the Pan-American Newspapermen’s Association and other organizations which will be specifically re¬ ferred to later.
Great Britain was officially represented by two cruisers, the “Cal¬ cutta” and the “Capetown,” under Vice-Admiral Sir Walter H. Cowan, B.T., K.C.B., D.S.O., M.V.O., commander-in-chief of the North American and West Indian Squadron. France was repre¬ sented by the gunboat “Ville d’Ys,” under the command of Captain L. A. Perrier. Portugal sent the cruiser “Adamastor,” under Com¬ mander Jorge Parry Pereira. Brazil was represented by the cruiser “Bahia,” under the command of Captain Dario Paes Leme de Gastro. Peru was represented by the Peruvian submarine R-2, under Lieu¬ tenant Commander Jose R. Alzamora.
Thirty-two foreign nations participated in special days at the Ex¬ position dedicated to their respective countries, and twenty of the nations of South America participated in the ceremonies at the Expo¬ sition on Pan-American Day.
The list of commissioners and delegates from the respective coun¬ tries follows in alphabetical order :
PARTICIPATION OF FOREIGN NATIONS
83
Argentina: Dr. Tristan Achaval Rodriguez, President of the Argentine Delegation to the Sesqui-Centennial International Expo¬ sition; Dr. Carlos Acuna, General Secretary; Senor Don Ignacio Unanue, Secretary; Senor Don Fernando Saguier, Mayor Official; Senor Don Pascual Escennarro, General Commissar; Senor Don Carlos Schlieper, First Official; Senor Don Carlos C. Reissig de Albornoz, Attache; Senor Don Alfredo Mulcahy, Attache; Senor Don Marcelo de Elia Bonnemaison, Attache; Senor Don Alejandro Moreno Vivot, Argentine Engineer in charge of Building.
China: Honorable Ziang-ling Chang, Commissioner General of China; Tinsin C. Chow, Gabriel Chen Yun, Chi Bao, Delegates on the part of China.
Cuba : Senor Don Rafael Martinez Ybor, Commissioner General of Cuba; Lieut. Ramon de Vails, Attache, Cuban Commission; J. Narvaez, Engineer- Architect ; J. M. Castells, Cuban Section.
Czechoslovakia : Dr. Jaroslav Novak, President, Czechoslovak Commission; Dr. Pavel Stransky, 1st Vice President; Dr. Jaroslav Smetanka, 2nd Vice President; Dr. Karel Neubert, General Secre¬ tary; A. Broz, Director of Publicity; Oscar Moser, Director, Indus¬ trial Section; Ing. Stan. Spacek, Supervision of the erection of the Czechoslovak pavilion.
Denmark: William Arup, Unofficial Representative of Denmark.
Great Britain: J. Vandersteen, Unofficial Representative of Great Britain.
Haiti : Elmer O. Fippin, Commissioner of Haiti.
Hungary: Professor Edmund Farago, Unofficial Representative of Hungary.
India : F. A. M. Vincent, Administrator, India Section.
Italy: Count Vittore Siciliani, President; Signor Romolo An- gelone, Comdr. Marcel A. Viti, Royal Italian Commissioners.
Japan: Hon. Iwao Nishi, Commissioner General of Japan; Jiro Hitomi, Secretary General of Japan; Nobusuke Kishi, Commissioner for Japan.
Liberia : Ernest Lyons, Delegate for Liberia.
Panama: Senor Don Juan E. Chevalier, Delegate for Panama.
Persia : His Excellency S. H. Taqizadeh, Commissioner General for Persia; Ali Akbar Kiachif, Honorary Commercial Attache; Prof. Arthur Upham Pope, Special Commissioner; Sultan M. Amerie, Secretary General.
Peru: Senor Don Manuel G. Fuentes, Delegate for Peru.
Roumania : Hon. Agripa Popescu, Commissioner General ; Hon. Dimitri Dem. Dimancesco, Second Commissioner; Dr. D. Andro- nescu, Commissioner.
84
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
Spain: Senor Don Cesar de Madariaga, Commissioner of the Spanish Delegation to the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposi¬ tion; Major Alfonso de Los Reyes, Vice Commissioner; Captain Carlos Sartorius, Military Attache to the Spanish Commissioner; Senor Don Cesar de la Torre de Trassierra, Spanish Architect; Senor Don Gabino Stuyck, Curator Royal Tapestries.
Sweden: Dr. Amandus Johnson, Representative of Sweden.
Tunisia: Mohamed Djamal, Commissioner for Tunisia.
Venezuela: Dr. Francisco Gerardo Yanes, Dr. Ovidio Perez, Senor Don Alirio Parra Marquez, Commissioners for Venezuela.
Mrs. J. Willis Martin, chairman of the Women’s Committee of the Exposition, and Mrs. Stanley G. Flagg, Jr., acting chairman of the Foreign Committee of the Women’s Committee, were instru¬ mental in arranging luncheons, dinners, receptions, opera parties, teas and dances whenever occasion called for the entertainment of distinguished representatives of foreign governments visiting the Exposition. Private homes were thrown open and hospitality was dispensed by the members of this committee, so that memories of Philadelphia’s hospitality were undoubtedly carried away, not to be forgotten.