Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

The maintenance of the staff looking after exhibits was about $30,000. The expense connected with the repacking and return of freight and unsold exhibits was about $15,000.

CUBA.

On July 20, 1903, the Cuban Congress passed the following resolutions authorizing the participation of that country at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition:

The Executive is hereby authorized to dispose of $80,000 from the public treasury to meet the expenses which the representation of the Republic of Cuba will incur at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition which will take place at St. Louis, Mo., in the year 1904.

Of this amount $30,000 shall be set aside to meet the expenses of a special commission whose object is to study the advancement which may have been realized in agriculture, chemistry, and mechanical industries applicable to the industries of Cuba, also public instruction in hygiene.

The commission will report the results of their investigation to the Executive, which reports will be duly published.

The expenses incurred in the publication of the reports will be met by the public treasury and will not be included in the above allowed sum.

On the 15th of July, 1904, the Congress voted $50,000 as an additional sum for the same purpose.

The Cuban Pavilion at the exposition was constructed on a lot 140 by 170 feet. The building was 100 feet by 80 feet surrounded by a garden containing more than five hundred native plants. It was one story high. At its front was a beautiful terrace, and there were extensive porticoes on the sides. Access to the building was gained by a 32-foot stair on the front, and by lateral stairs of smaller size.

Five rooms surrounding a central court. Access to the roof was obtained by a winding stair placed on a tower. The style of architecture on the building in its exterior court and entrances was Florentine-Renaissance, from the last half of the fourteenth century. The other salons were decorated in the modern style, called "New Art." The building was lighted by more than four hundred incandescent lamps, arranged in such a manner that they formed part of the decorations. The cost of erecting the building was $31,050.