Vermont State Building
Architect: Jarvis Hunt, Weathersfield, Vermont
Area: 4,680
Cost: $10,000
Picturesque World’s Fair, An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views—Published with the Endorsement and Approval of George R. Davis, 1894
THE VERMONT BUILDING.—The building of the State of Vermont was quite unlike any other State Building and, for that matter, quite unlike anything else anywhere. It contained no exhibits but was a sufficient exhibit in itself. It was in the style of architecture made familiar by the excavations at Pompeii. Passing beneath a decorated portal, the visitor entered a paved courtyard, in the center of which was a fountain representing Youth renewing the Stream of Life. All the floors of the building and the paving of the courtyard was of marble from Vermont’s famous quarries. Stone lavishly carved was everywhere in the makeup of this structure. It is a queer conceit which made the edifice in the Pompeiian style, and it was in its composition a fitting building for the State of Stone. Great shafts on either side of the entrance supported allegorical figures representing agriculture and quarrying and added to the symmetry of the effect produced. As for the rooms, they were those common to all the State Buildings, and were not particularly notable save for the marble of their floors or of some feature in stone of their decorations. There was no more unique building on the ground than that of Vermont. It was a novelty; it was almost bizarre, in its departure from the conventional form which seemed to have been adopted in the construction of a State Building, but, after all, it was well done and it had the merit that everything was real and solid. The only dramatic effect produced was that of making Vermont in the Pompeiian style. Pompeii and Vermont! It was a masterpiece of contrast.
The Vermont State Building lies just to the west of Maine, facing the east annex of the Art Galleries. It is a unique and attractive little structure, designed by Jarvis Hunt, of Weathersfield. The general idea is that of a Pompeian residence. White marble, which is one of the leading industrial products of Vermont, is applied to the classic forms of architecture. Passing through a vestibule between pillars surmounted by emblematic figures the visitor enters an open court, having in its centre a white marble fountain. This court is flanked by small rooms, while beyond an entrance opens to a semicircular reception hall which occupies the rear of the building. The material of the walls and of most of the ornamentation is staff, but considerable is employed in the internal finish and decoration
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