Very Old News
The Greenville Advocate, our local 162 year old newspaper, had a story about the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair in its most recent edition. It seemed fitting that a newspaper that is one of the oldest businesses in Bond County and one of the oldest newspapers in Illinois publishing under its original name, should be interested in reporting historical news as well as the current.
According to the paper, Professor Karl Kindt, who was an expert on the St. Louis Fair, spoke at the most recent Bond County Historical Meeting. He reported that the fair ran from April 30 until December 1, 1904 and was so successful it actually made a profit. It took 4.5 years to build but only 2.5 to tear the fair down. Attendees of the lecture learned that...
1. The items that supposedly originated at the fair were hamburgers, ice tea, ice cream cones and hot dogs.
2. Two of the 1500 structures built for the expo remain today. One is the Bird Cage at the St. Louis Zoo and the other is the Art Museum in Forest Park.
3. Many trees were removed and transplanted during the event. Afterwards though they were conscientiously replanted in their original spots.
4. The expo grounds were lighted by DC current. Thomas Edison wanted to show how his DC system was superior to the AC systems used by Westinghouse and Tesla to light the Chicago World's Fair eight years before.
5. The Ferris wheel came from Chicago but after the fair instead of returning it, they actually buried the 90 ton axle ferris on site. (I already knew this from the signage around the Ferris Wheel at Union Station in St. Louis. However, what I did not know, was that the axle was later shipped back to Chicago to be made into tanks for WWI.)
6. Bill Key, the spelling horse, was one of the expo's biggest attractions. His owner made $1 million on him that year.
7. An estimated 20 million people visited the fair.
8. It would have taken one week to walk the whole fair and see all the exhibits.
9. The profits from the fair were used to build the Jefferson Memorial Building section of the Missouri History Building in Forest Park. It was built on the site of the main entrance to the fair.
I am sorry I missed hearing the Professor speak about the 1904 World's Fair. All the signs around Union Station had piqued my interest on this topic and I would have welcomed the chance to learn some more. Maybe I will get the opportunity to hear him at some later time. In the meantime, I can always watch the movie, 'Meet Me in St. Louis.'
No comments:
Post a Comment