Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 37, Number 171, 23 May 1912 — Page 8

J TffflL OPENING OF '

fflE PANANA. CANAL.

Ttie Nation's Noted Architects Planning Wonder City For Magnificent Eighty Million Dollar Exposition at San Francisco THE 4- ORIENT'S 4. REMARKABLE 4- DISPLAY

T

. : " irgsygag.1: ign ... - -'as.. jJ.i t!Pf) W -ll-- bpXj VIEW SITE OF THE EXFQSmoM '

BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF PANAMA -PACIFIC EXPOSITION SITE-.

By

HAMILTON M. WRIGHT.

IHE United States will celebrate

the opening of the Panama

canal with the greatest expo

sition in history the Panama-

Pacific International exposition in San Francisco in 1915. The nations of the world will join . with America in the celebration. Every civilized nation on earth and every country within the sweep of both shores of the Pacific ocean will be represented at the Panama-Pacific International exposition by the finest assemblage of displays that the world has seen. Plans for the exposition are already matured, and for the next year the exposition authorities will be occupied in building rather than planning. After that will come the arrangements for exhibits and the final touches on a program of events of world importance and interest. A notable commission of architects of national reputation Is engaged upon the plans, and within a few weeks first construction work will bepin, when grading of the site and the building of a sea wall which will serve, In part, as the basis of a magnificent esplanade along San Francisco harbor commence. Strang Tribes and Peoples. The opening of the Panama canal will be not only the most important commercial event in the history of the world, but it will mark a supreme epoch in the lives of the nations borflering upon the Pacific, and appropriately the visitor will see at the exposition the greatest assemblage of strange tribes and peoples of Pacific ocean countries ever brought together. Down Market street, San Francisco's main thoroughfare, will pass in exposition days such oriental pageants as the world has never seen. The nations of the orient, stirring from the sleep of centuries to the call of progress, will startle the occidental mind with the most bizarre and novel effects ever witnessed even in the far east itself. The proclamation of the president, issued by authority of congress, has been delivered through the instrumentality of the department of state to every quarter of the globe. Inquiries is to the exposition are pouring in upon

the exposition management from all

Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, the Straits Settlements the countries of Central and South America, and the United States' possessions Alaska, the Philippines, Hawaii and Guam will assemble displays which have never before been equaled and could scarcely have been brought together at any former world's exposition. The oriental displays, as indeed those from most parts of the world, will be shipped by steamer and landed directly upon the exposition grounds. In anticipation of an early start the Philippine assembly has already appropriated $250,000 in gold for a government display at the exposition. The people of the Philippines intend to illustrate the progress of the islands under American rule and will emphasize the fact that conditions and opportunities in the islands today are far different from the way they were pictured in wartimes. Private displays and concessions from the Philippines will augment the showing from the islands. In line with their policy to take every advantage of the new era opening upon the Pacific the commercial bodies of the Philippines are opening headquarters in New York. The two principal locations of the Panama-Pacific International exposition will be at Harbor View and in Golden Gate park. Harbor View lies as a crescent on San Francisco bay, midway between the ferry building and the Golden Gate. The west end of Golden Gate park, which will be used for exposition purposes, faces the Pacific ocean below the famous Cliff House. Adjoining the Harbor View site of the exposition the government will expend $1,800,000 upon the improvement of the Presidio military reservation, which will be really a part of the exposition and will be the scene of the greatest government service display ever made. The government fisheries, lighthouse, life saving, transport, as well as all phases of military life, will be portrayed. Transport docks will be built upon San Francisco bay at an expenditure of millions. The state of California will expend $9,000,000, for which a bond issue has been authorized, in the improvement of the San Francisco water front along San Fran

cisco harbor, and when the exposition

parts of the world. The nations of the J opens a wonderful marine boulevard

world, in recognition of America's great achievement at Panama, are preparing

Tor participation in the exposition upon a more comprehensive scale than at any of the greatest of former world's expositions. Exhibits From the Philippines. From every quarter of the globe come assurances of enthusiasm and Interest In America's great Panama celebration. England, It is known, will be represented by her greatest Dreadnoughts when an International fleet of battleships assembles in the harbor of San

Francisco upon the opening of the ex- j composite fleet of the battleships of the

position. Every state in the Union will ) world will gather in San Francisco har-

connecting the principal sites of the

fair and following the shores of San Francisco bay along the commercial water front of the city, through the exposition grounds and through the hilly slopes of the Presidio out to and beyond the Golden Gate, will afford visitors a marvelous panorama not only of the exposition itself, but of the great hills that surround San Francisco bay, and tower up hundreds and even into the thousands of feet. Vast Fleet of Battleships.

Shortly after the exposition opens a

be represented at the exposition, and the government of the United States is lending every effort to attain in the exposition a celebration that will meet the highest standards of national pride. The people of California have raised more than $20,000,000 as their contribution. This sura will be less than onefourth the amount expended on the great fair. . The Pacific ocean countries China.

bor. From assurances now received it is anticipated that between eighty and a hundred foreign warships, in addition to those of the United States navy, will participate in the demonstration, and the sight of this vast international fleet anchored in the harbor and in full view of the thousands at Harbor View or upon the various vantage points of the marine boulevard will be one of the splendid spectacles of history. This

FREDERICK

J V. SKIFF,,

fleet will first assemble at Hampton Roads by invitation of the president and proceed through the Panama canal to the Golden Gate. In harmony with the plans of the exposition authorities to place every possible resource which California and the west possess at the disposal of the nation in providing the local setting for what will undoubtedly prove the greatest world's fair in history, the municipality of San Francisco will expend many millions of dollars in decorating and adorning the city in preparation for 1915, so that it will really be an exposition all in itself. The two main

streets. Market street and A an Ness

avenue, will be decorated with classic columns and crossed at convenient Intervals by arcades that will permit the visitor to pass above the street. The columns will be decorated with bunting and the flags of every nation in the world and at night will be the scene of dazzling electrical displays. The ferry building on the water front at the foot of Market street and the principal entrance to the city will be adorned with a grand court of honor. From this point the visitor will be enabled to go either out Market street to the civic center or else proceed along the water front directly to the Harbor View site, a distance of about two miles. The civic center, near the junction of Market and Van Ness, will consist of a grouping of classic buildings representing an estimated investment of approximately $8,000,000. The central structure will probably be a new city hall to take the place of the one almost completely destroyed in 1906. The exposition authorities have voted the sum of $1,000,000 for the construction of an auditorium in which conventions will be held during the exposition. Private capital will engage In the construction of a great opera house, and the songbirds of the world will be heard in San Francisco in exposition days. The entire civic center will be adorned with parking, palms and statuary. From the

LtD STAND.'GOLDEN GATE PARK, WHERE PERriANFli--BlposrnoN features will be. located. Nr

civic center the visitor may proceed along Van Ness avenue to the Harbor View site of the exposition. Great Wall of China. The concession and amusement features at the exposition will be among the most striking and original ever displayed. The "Midway" will be located at the Harbor View site of the exposition, the location of the night life of the exposition, and every possible feature almost that can be conceived as appropriate to an exposition will be shown. The Chinese residents of San Francisco have under way a project for a great Chinese concession which will be surrounded by a replica of the great wall of China, inclosing within its environs a series of Chinese communities and embracing every possible feature of interest in Chinese life from the manufacture of silks and ivory and wood carving to sampans and junks floating on miniature waterways and portraying the life of the river dwellers around Canton. The concession will cost $1.000.000, and influential Chinese with American attorneys and engineers will shortly leave for the orient. From Nevada concessionaires will establish a riproaring mining camp, picturing the days of '49 and the bonanza era of the Comstock lode. Bret Harte's heroes, old "Wells Fargo stage drivers, gamblers, bad men, prospectors, shootings, holdups and gambling, ail imitation, will lend a realistic touch to the camp. But the chief charm of Harbor View for most people will lie In its setting on San Francisco bay. As the crow flies the site extends along the water front for about a mile, but following the irregular contours of the shore the distance is more than that. Along the entire water's edge at Harbor View will be built an esplanade or bund, along which visitors may walk, and an existing lagoon will be made the basis of a superb yacht harbor. Classic columns will rise from the water's edge, and farther will be the great exposition

structures the Palace of Liberal Arts, the Educational building, the Manufactures building and other edifices that house the more serious phases of the exposition as distinguished from the amusement features. Harbor Viewlies as an amphitheater, with its sides the wooded slopes of the Presidio and the tenanted hills of San Francisco. It is near the most populous part of the city and is not more than twenty minutes' walk from Nob hill, where lived the multimillionaires of California's early mining days. Looking down from the hills, one can see all over the Harbor View site, while from Harbor View itself one may look out over the bay through the Golden Gate to the Pacific ocean. Wonderful Illumination Scheme. At night Harbor View will be brilliantly illuminated with incandescents. Finsen lights, waterfall illuminations. A chain of lights will stretch across the Golden Gate, the International fleet of battleships in the harbor will te illuminated, a huge commemorative structure towering 1,300 feet above the Golden Gate will be surmounted by a searchlight, and its outlines will be limned with incandescents. In fact, the contours of the exposition site will be visible for miles away. The marine boulevard will also be illuminated. A trackless trolley will take visitors along the boulevard through the Presidio to Lincoln park, which overlooks the Golden Gate and towers above the famous Cliff House. From Lincoln park the boulevard turns south and parallels the Pacific ocean to Golden Gate park, where will be located the permanent features of the exposition. Lincoln park may be termed an intermediate Rite In the exposition, though Indeed there Is really but one site. Harbor View, Lincoln park and Golden Gate park all being units In a single comprehensive location that follows the shores of San Francisco bay out to the Golden Gate and then turns

south, paralleling the broad Pacific ocean beach to Golden Gate park. Aside from the huge tower, 850 feet high, at Lincoln park, the park, which comprises an area of 150 acres, will be terraced and adorned with statuary and palms, while Swiss chalets and an observation cafe of several stories and glass inclosed will afford sightseers a sweeping panorama of the exposition grounds, the Presidio, the Golden Gate and the Pacific ocean. Lincoln park rises more than 300 feet above the Golden Gate. Plans for the commemorative statue which welcomes ships from afar, as does the statue of Liberty in New York harbor, have been passed upon by the exposition directors. Beautiful Golden Gate Park. Golden Gate park is eight blocks In width. It faces upon the Pacific ocean and runs back into the heart of San Francisco. Five hundred and forty acres In the west end of the park will be utilized for exposition purposes. The park today presents one of the most notable achievements in landscape gardening in the world. Hoses bloom 'the year round, and palms and pines, exotic plants, lakes and little lagoons present an ideal setting for the permanent structures of the exposition which will be located here. Among the buildings now planned ere a great concrete coliseum, which will be built around an existing stadium and will have a seating capacity of 75,000. A huge marble art gallery, a museum and an aquarium will be among other features. A working model of the Panama canal will connect chains of lakes that are at different levels. Hawaiian water gardens. Chinese. Japanese and Philippine gardens portraying mary features of plant cultivation which have been known in the orient for thousands of years, particularly In China, but which are strange Indeed to occidentals, will permit the visitor to gain, probably for the first time, a conception of one of

PRESIDENT'

CrlAS.Cr100REV

the most fascinating and pictures! pursuits that have ever come out of Che far east to the self sufficient and Industrial Occident. - The Olympic Games. But the most marvelous feature off all tbe exposition has not been recount ed yet. During the entire progress of the exposition an international progrmnt of events in which the nations of the world will take part will be as much a feature of the great fair as are the displays or building or the adornment of San Francisco. The program will consist of major events in cycles of two months apart, with minor events interspersed in between. Among the major events will be Olympic games, international automobile meets, international live stock shows, aviation meets, competitive drill between the crack cavalry ar.d infantry of tho United States and other natins. military maneuvers, motorboat racing and yacht races. A fiesta of the nations of the orient, la which the most marvelous parades that the world has -ver seen will pass down the streets of San Francisco, will be one of the spectacular features of the exposition. The days of '4 and the mission days of California will also be recalled In another festival. Among the minor but no less important events will be conventions, operatic and song festivals, educational and other assemblages. Rejoice With America. And so the exposition will close, having offered a meeting place at whlen the peoples of the world may rejoic with America at the completion of the stupendous task involved in the construction of the Panama canal and at the same lime may come together td take advantage of the greater commercial era to spread throughout the world through the opening of the canal and the c elopment of the west of tne United States ar.d the Pacific ocean countries.