The Crystal Palace was not a financial success. Nearly a million dollars were lost in the enterprise. Finally, on the evening of Tuesday, October 5th, 1858, the edifice was destroyed by fire, with most of its contents. It was really not a very great conflagration, measured by others that have occurred. Yet it meant the destruction of an entire World’s Fair establishment, and was, in those times, something more than a nine day’s wonder. “About five o’clock last evening,” said a next morning’s paper, “smoke was seen issuing from a large room in the north nave, and in front of the entrance on Forty-second Street, and in less than half an hour thereafter, the Palace was a total wreck, and nothing now remains of this edifice but a heap of unsightly ruins. The octagonal turrets at each corner still remain standing, while here and there on every side may be seen stacks of iron, the remains of staircases, and portions of the framework composing the galleries.
“From the room above mentioned flames soon made their appearance, and spread with incredible rapidity in every direction. There were about 2,000 persons scattered about the edifice at the time, all of whom, the moment the alarm of ‘fire’ was raised, made a rush for the Sixth Avenue entrance, the doors of which were thrown open. The entrance on Fortieth Street was closed, there being no other means of ingress or egress except on Sixth Avenue. Under the direction of ex-Captain Maynard and several of the Directors of the Institute, the crowd of visitors were conducted safely to the street, and no one that we have heard of was in anywise injured. Some of the exhibitors endeavored to save their property, but were forced to turn toward the door, and were soon compelled to flee to the street. The amount of property saved is comparatively trifling. Mr. Smith, an employee of the Institute, behaved nobly. He was in charge of the jewelry department, and was engaged repairing a case when the alarm was given. He finished the case and closed the door and then went toward where the fire was. The smoke was so dense that he almost suffocated. He saw the fire at the Forty-second Street entrance and then ran back to the property that had been placed in his charge, which property consisted of a quantity of watches valued at several thousand dollars. Seizing the case, he dragged it from its fastening along the gallery, down a flight of stairs, and thence out into the street, the entrance at this point having at this time been broken open. While on his way out, the dome was all in flames. The smoke was so dense that he could see but a few feet either side of him, and he is under the impression that he was the last man in the Palace before the dome fell. A young man named Wallis, also in the employ of the Institute, heard the alarm, and ran toward Smith, whom he desired to break open the case with an axe, in order that the jewelry and watches could be more readily got at, but Smith told him he would not do so. Wallis was obliged to run to the street, the smoke nearly suffocating him. The view from the street and neighboring buildings was very grand, and thousands of persons thronged to the scene of conflagration.”
The Institute mentioned was the well-known American Institute, of New York, which, after the close of the World’s Fair proper, had occupied the Palace with its annual fair. It was reckoned that the total loss by the fire was a million dollars, but the list of the chief exhibitors and their individual losses, published next day, now looks absurdly meagre. And thus passed out of existence the first Universal Exhibition of Art and Industry ever held on the American Continent. When the next was held, this was practically a new nation. The greatest war of modern times had been fought and the National Constitution amended in many important respects. Political and social changes of startling character were visible on every hand. Material growth and development had been achieved on a stupendous scale. Great inventions had been made. Every circumstance, indeed, rendered it fitting and necessary that the second World’s Fair should immeasurably exceed in all respects that which we have just described.
When the World’s Fair of 1853 was opened in New York it was evident that the American nation was nearing some great and important changes. When the Crystal Palace was burned in 1858, the nation was on the very verge of the “impending conflict” which had been long foreseen. The war came. At its close America was a new nation. Its political, social, and industrial systems were transformed. Its growth and expansion received an enormous impetus. The influx of population and of ideas and arts from other countries was many-fold greater than ever before. And thus it approached the one-hundredth anniversary of its independence, and preparations were made to commemorate the time with a second Universal Exhibition.
The Centennial Exhibition, which was held in Philadelphia in 1876, was the greatest fair the world had then seen. None of its predecessors had equalled it in extent, or surpassed it in variety or general interest. Paris, in 1867, had given a more compact and systematic display, and at Vienna, in 1873, Oriental nations were more fully represented. But the American Exhibition had many points of superiority over those. It showed the natural products, industries, inventions, and arts of the Western Hemisphere as they had never been shown before, and brought them for the first time, in their fullness and perfection, in contrast with those of the Old World. In the department of machinery it was incomparably superior to all its predecessors, and also in that of farm implements and products. In fine arts it did not contain as many really great masterpieces as had been seen at Paris and Vienna, but it embraced a wider representation of contemporary art from all parts of the world. In general manufactures the display was much greater in quantity than had ever before been attempted. And it greatly exceeded all other fairs as a really international exhibition, for every civilized state on the globe, excepting Greece and a few minor republics in Central and South America, was represented.
About 236 acres of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia were occupied by the Exhibition. The ground was admirably adapted for the purposes of the Fair. It was an elevated plateau, with three spurs jutting out toward the Schuylkill River. One of the three spurs was occupied by Memorial Hall, containing the art exhibition, another by Horticultural Hall, and the third by Agricultural Hall, while the broad plain where they joined contained the Main Building, Machinery Hall, United States Government Building, and about a hundred smaller structures. The grounds were traversed by five main avenues, a belt-line railroad, and many miles of minor walks. There was an extensive lake, and a splendid wealth of lawns, flower beds, and groves.
The Main Building was the largest edifice in the world. It was 1,876 feet long and 464 feet wide, covering 21½ acres of ground. In the centre were four square towers, 120 feet high. The facades at the end were 90 feet high, and the corner towers 75 feet. The central aisle was 1,832 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 70 feet high. The framework was of iron, filled in with wood and glass. Nearly one-third of the space was occupied by American exhibitors. Great Britain and her colonies occupied the next largest area, with a display of enormous proportions and dazzling brilliancy. A single firm of silversmiths sent half a million dollars’ worth of wares. France and her colonies and the German Empire were also splendidly represented. Other conspicuous exhibitors were Holland, Belgium, Austria, Russia, Spain, Japan, Sweden and Norway, Italy, and China. Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, Portugal, Egypt, Turkey, Denmark, Tunis, Chile, the Argentine Republic, Peru, the Orange Free State, the Sandwich Islands, and Venezuela were also represented. Never before had there been gathered together in one place such a comprehensive display of the arts and industries of so many of the peoples of the world.
Machinery Hall, which was especially devoted to machinery in motion, was 1,402 feet long and 360 feet wide, with an annex 208 by 210 feet for hydraulic machinery. There were more than 10,000 feet of shafting for conveying to the various machines the motive power generated by the huge Corliss engine. This enormous machine had cylinders of 44 inches diameter, and ten feet stroke, a fly-wheel 30 feet in diameter, and 56 tons in weight, making 36 revolutions per minute. There were 20 tubular boilers of 70 horse-power each, and at 60 pounds pressure the work of the engine was about 1,400 horse-power. This building contained by far the largest and most varied display of working machinery that had at that time ever been seen in the world.
Horticultural Hall was a graceful Moorish palace, largely built of glass, and contained a magnificent exhibit of trees, shrubs, and flowers from all parts of the world. Agricultural Hall consisted of a nave 826 feet long and 100 wide, crossed by three transepts, each 465 feet long, and from 80 to 100 feet wide. The inclosed space was about 12 acres in extent, and it contained a marvellous display of agricultural implements and products from all parts of the world. Memorial Hall was intended as a permanent building, and was constructed in substantial manner of granite, glass, and iron. It is 365 feet long and 210 feet wide, with a square tower at each corner, and a four-sided dome at the centre. Besides these buildings the United States Government erected a vast structure, 360 by 300 feet, for the display of the operations of its various departments; many foreign governments had buildings of their own; so had more than a score of the States; and there were also buildings for the Judges, and for a great number of special industries.
The technical history of the enterprise may be briefly recounted as follows: The Exhibition was really a natural outgrowth of the Universal Exposition held at Paris in 1867. That affair was much the most extensive international exhibition ever held up to that time, and its brilliant success produced a marked impression throughout the civilized world. Austria took immediate measures to rival it, and carried out her ambitious plans six years later at Vienna. Among the many Americans who saw the wonderful show on the banks of the Seine there were many who expressed a desire to see an enterprise of the kind attempted in their own country. It is believed that Gen. C. B. Norton, of New York, one of the Commissioners to the Paris Exposition, was the first who suggested the idea of a World’s Fair to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of American Independence. This he did while viewing the preparations for the exposition in the Champs de Mars in company with Mr. Dudley S. Gregory, of New York, in the summer of 1866. His plan was to hold the exhibition in Central Park. Mr. Gregory returned in the fall and laid the matter before the American Institute, but it does not appear that any action was taken. The next agitation of the question was in June, 1868, when at a meeting of the Massachusetts exhibitors at Paris, held in the Music Hall, Boston, for the distribution of the awards forwarded by the French Government to this country, Dr. C. J. Jackson offered a resolution in favor of an international exhibition in Washington, to open July 4th, 1876. After some speech-making the resolution was adopted. In the fall of the same year a meeting to forward the project was held in New York under the chairmanship of Dr. G. B. Loring. A committee of nine was appointed, but there the matter ended. New York had failed to appreciate the grandeur and importance of the project. Washington had a livelier comprehension, but was too poor to do anything that involved expenditure.