Texas State Building
Architect: James Riley Gordon, San Antonio, Texas
Area: 6,756
Cost: $30,000
Picturesque World’s Fair, An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views—Published with the Endorsement and Approval of George R. Davis, 1894
THE TEXAS BUILDING.—The Texas Building, a fine structure, was a credit to the patriotism and energy of the ladies of that state and equally a rebuke to the legislature of the great commonwealth which failed to make the needed appropriation in time. It was to the women alone that praise for Texas’ representation at the Fair was due. The building occupied a fine site near the northern extremity of the grounds, not far from the Fifty-seventh Street entrance. The architecture was somewhat in the Spanish style, the early history of Texas being borne in mind by the architect. The dimensions of the structure were eighty-five by two hundred and fifty feet, with a height of seventy feet, and its cost was between $40,000 and $50,000. The interior was beautifully finished in Texas woods and the various apartments, necessary in a state building, were all commodious and finely appointed. There was an assembly room, fifty-six feet square and twenty feet high, having an art glass skylight with the lone star of the state in mosaic work for a center. There was a bureau of information and there were apartments for the various officials and the uses of visitors, as well as a large auditorium The historical museum, library and rooms for exhibits were well filled with most interesting objects. What attracted a great deal of attention among those was a fine portrait of Gen. Sam Houston, recalling the days when Texas was struggling for liberty. The second floor of the building was devoted to a gallery surrounded by arches from which entrance was had to verandas.
The Texas State Building is next in order as one passes northeast along the circle. It was provided entirely by the women of that State. It is constructed after the style of the old Spanish Mission, and is a good example of Spanish renaissance architecture. It was designed by J. Riley Gordon, of San Antonio. The building contains assembly rooms, 56 feet square and 20 feet high, provided with a large art glass skylight in the ceiling, with a Mosaic Texas star in its centre. The rostrum, ante-rooms, etc., are finished in the natural woods of Texas. The administration wing contains a register, a bureau of information, and rooms for offices and public comfort. There are also toilet rooms, rooms for county collective exhibits, a historical museum and a library. The main entrances are through vestibules, flanked on either side by niches and colonnades. The main vestibule terminates in a larcre
auditorium, from which entrance is afforded to the various working departments above mentioned.
The building presents a Spanish vista, a bower of beautiful Texas foliage, comprising the banana, palm, magnolia, pomegranate, Spanish dagger, orange, lemon, and other tropical plants. Either corner is flanked by a square tower, the intervening curtains consisting of two stories of open arcaded loggias. The towers also have loggias in their top stories. Both the main building and the towers are covered with a low, pitched roof of brown-red Spanish tile. The building cost $40,000, and is one of the most attractive at the Fair.
- Texas State Building
- Lewis Magnue Melander visited the grounds of the Columbia Exposition shortly after it closed and photographed the emptiness.
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