Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-11-18

A correzrondent of the Buffalo CONNER
e,nI 1dper.tser, who went on the Centen-
NAL excursion. giyes The following descrip-
ton of the buildings erected for the Expo
sition:
At first sight il Is difficult to realize the
amazing extent of the premises. The
Main Building" as it is called, is In
the form OF a parallelogram, 1,s11 feet
long by 4S4 feet wide, and II incloses a
snaSe equivalent to more than twenty
acres. The long lines are broken at the
center by projections 4i6 feet in length at
the end of the building. Now to say
that a building Is 1876 feet long and 4Sa
feet wide Ia 70 convey TO the majority oil
readers but Q faint idea OF its size. But II
may help readers to form an adequate con-
ception Of its immensely If they take into
mind any well shaped twenty lot or
field that they happen TO remember, and
fancy IL all inclosed under one roof. ana
then they will begin 10 understand the
size of the wonderful building about
which they are now reading. And won.
derful building it truly Is, IN magnitude,
airy-like appearance and rapidIty OF con-
struction. like a creation of the Genie OF
the Wonderful Lamp. A printed descrip-
ton furnished to each guest states that the
towers which rise mt each corner OF the
building are 20 feet In height. In order
to obtain a central feature. tie ROOF Tor
1874 square feet at the center has been
raised above the surrounding portion, and
four towers ~ feet square, rising to l20
feet high, arc introduced into the corners
of this elevated roof. This gives ventila-
ton as well as ornament. The main build
ing has 936 ,OOS square feet of surface, or
nearly 2lI5 acres The ground plan shows
a central avenue 100 feet in width and ,S32
feet in length, the longest avenue OF that
width ever introduced into an ex-
hibition building. On either side Of this
Is another avenue Of equal length and 100
feet wide. Between the central and side
avenues are aisles forty-eight feet wide,
and on the outer sides of the building
smaller aisles twenty. four feet wide. To
break the great length OF the roof-lines
three TRANSCRIPTS have been introduced or
the same widths and In the same relative
positions TO each other as the longitudinal
avenues These cross the building, and
are 416 feet In length. The intersections
OF these various avenues make at the cen
ter of the building nine spaces, tree from
supports, which are from 100 To 40 feet
square, and aggregate 4l6 feet square.
The general elevation OF the roofs oil all
these avenues varies from forty-five to
seventy feet.
Now, when the visitors had been taken
through the length Of the main building
they were next escorted right straight
along in the same line 500 feet west TO the
machinery building, which is structure
OF much the same character and appear
ancc, and may in fact be regarded as but
an extension OF the main building. 1t is, or
is To be, very nearly as large as the other.
For although originally designed TO have
length of only 400 feet, and width
of about 800 feet, with an insignificant
extension of 20S by go feet, the whole to
cover paltry area of about thirteen acres,
such has been the unexpected demand for
exhibition space that the Centennial Off
GERS are seriously considering the feast
bility and propriety of so adding 10 the
dimensions of the machinery building
as 10 make il almost equal in extent to the
main building. As they now stand, how
ever these two structures together present
a frontage of 1898 feet from end TO end
upon the principal avenue Of the Exhibi.
ton grounds Ii the reader will think OF
this length a. making distance OF three
ffths OF mile, he will not be very far out
| of the way.