The herald., 1896-06-07
WORLDS FAIR BUILDINGS
Are Now Scattered All Over the
World
FIRE HAS DONE ITS WORK
leaving but One Article Of Salvage
the Iron
Some Were Removed Entlre and Some IN
Sections-Their Present Loca.
tious

There are bits of the worlds far at
the present time all over the world-ln
Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in the tWo
Americas, in Australia.
The story of the Where" of the main
buildings is soon told. In the iIlain IL
may be told in one word-ashes; EVeis
body knows the fate of the coiu-stoIaSe
building, and later of the peIlst!ie'
rnusic hall and casino. Everybody, too'
remembers that grand pyrotechmc as
nlay--the great fire of July 3, 1S94-when
the manufactures building, machinery
nall. the agricultural building, mines
and mining building, the electricAi
building, the administration puiiolns,
the terminal station and NUMBER OF
,,,inor structures were consumed. Those
fires left but one article of salVaSe-the
iron.
This material for the most part went
to two places-the rolling mills OF the
Illinois Steel company and the smeit-
ing furnaces at Pittsburg. The Chlcago
House Wrecking company which pald
sSO.OOO for the principal buildings. had
the unsatisfactory task of cutting the
tangled iron into four foot lengths for
shipping After having been melted oy
the purchasers it was again recast. the
Junk iron of the fair and fresh ore were
thrown into the smelling furnaces to-
gether and the recording angel of trans
mutations today couldn't tell which was
which or what ultimately got the iron
that millions of people gazed at in Won
der at Jackson park.
OF the remaining buildings portion
of one was removed to Springfield, Ill.,
two were taken to Kansas City, one
was moved over to Stony Island avenue,
and still another was worked over into
a fat building. These were the only
structures which preserve anything like
their integrity.
j. Westover, a Columbus, O., man.
bought the great dome of the agricul-
tural building and had it taken to
Springfield, where 1t was reconstructed
on the fair grounds with certain wings
and adjuncts. This is the largest por-
ton of any of the main buildings used
as it was on the worlds fair grounds.
The structural iron of the United
States government building was sold to
the Lane Bridge Works. The truSSes
from the boiler house went to Muncie.
Ind. The trusses of the annex to the
transportation building went to Mil
waukee.
j. c. Rogers of Kansas City secured
two of the Worlds fair buildings-the
Wisconsin state building and the Vic
toria building. In addition he bought
portions of other structures. The Wis
consin building has been reconstructed
at Grand avenue and Seventh street.
Kansas City, where it has been opened
as a "gentlemenS club The building
has been christened 1.-The Wisconsin,
Mr.. Rogers also bought the Victoria
building. He is now reconStructing and
fitting up the building in Kansas City
for private residence. Among the
equipments of this house will be the
six oil paintings formerly in the dome
of the United States government build
ing.
A syndicate from Cripple Creek made
a ", off 10 Victoria hY1i1diop II
its best to secure it as an attraction for
the town.
The Idaho building was bought on
speculation, the purchaser expecting to
sell it at good profit to woman living
in New York state. At the last moment
the intended purchaser backed out and
the speculator was left with white ele-
phant on his hands. The building was
taken down and carted over in Fifty
seventh street, where the material still
lies.
Mr.. Meyers bought the Pennsylvania
building, had it torn down carefully, and
used the material in the erection of a
fiat building at Emerald avenue and
Forty-third street.
The Rhode Island building was Sc
cured by DR.. Willoughby and moved to
Stony Island avenue and Seventeenth
street. Ii is said to be the intention of
the doctor To wait till the park commits
ing Stony Iseiand avenue and then fit up
the building as a residence.
Uncle Dick" Oglesby, eX governor of
Illinois. had a special fondness for the
woman's building. and purchased much
of the architectural ornament of the
structure. He secured pediments and re-
liefS and frieZeS and little angels, and
with the material has practically re-
constructed two sides of his home at
Elkhart, ILL., This is partly because the
ex-governor admired that sort of archi-
lecture and partly out of compliment to
the women.
The New York building. one of the
most costly of the state edifices. was al
most complete failure as salvage. The
fine mural paintings by Millet were on
the plaster and had to be sacrificed. The
Iowa and Ohio buildings were annexed
to other buildings and were scarcely
worth tearing down. The Texas build
ing was another failure from the stand
point of the wreckers. Only part of the
Illinois building. it will be remembered
was left by the fire-the rest went up in
smoke one Sunday afternoon. The
Washington building, that excited much
comment by its massive logs, was torn
down and the timbers for the most part
sawed up. A few still remain with a
miscellaneous collection of other relics.
In the yards of the wrecking company.
The movable sidewalk was taken
down for the material by a private in
dividual.
The booths and ticket stands were sold
or given away, and may now be seen all
over the south side-some of them shoe
stores, other candy stands, and still 9TH
ers coal offices. Most of the turnstiles
were sold to country towns to be used
on their fair grounds.
Much of the lumber went into the new
store and fiat buildings erected since the
fair closed. A good deal if the lumber
also went out into the country, where
1t was used in the construction of barns
and sheds.
OF the twenty buildings bought by the
wrecking company the seven largest
were burned. leaving only the iron as
salvage. The other thirteen did not
have as much material together as one
of those burned. The figures of the COM
pany show that the cost of labor in taxi
ing down these thirteen and removing
the debris of the other seven was $780,
000
Over half a million square feet of glass
was sold to cornice men and florists.
The latter used it in building green
houses and the former sold it in their
trade.
All the gutta percha pipe used at the
Worlds fair was sold to the United
States commission of fisheries at Glou-
cester Mass, for $3.50. The underground
pipe on the grounds went to the John
no rie-