Maryland State Building
Architect: Baldwin & Pennington, Baltimore, Maryland
Area: 7,032
Cost: $25,000
Maryland State Building
Next to the east is the building of Maryland. It is seventy-eight feet deep, and one hundred and forty-two feet wide, its architecture being of the free, classic Corinthian order. This is the style from which the colonial work of the last century developed. The building is three stories high. The main entrance is through a Corinthian portico, two stories high, and at each end of the buildings are smaller ones. A spacious piazza extends the full length of the building, its top having a deck roof. A similar roof covers the two wings of the building. The structure is of frame, with iron supports, finished exteriorly with staff work. The interior is finished in wood and plaster. The front entrance leads into a reception hall, 38 by 40 feet, from the centre of which a main stairway, branching from a landing into two lesser stairways, leads to the second floor. To the left of the hall is the principal exhibition hall, 36 by 26 feet, extending upward through two stories, with a gallery at the second floor level. To the right is another exhibition hall, nearly as large, used for the women’s display, and adjoining it is a ladies’ parlor and a toilet room. The second floor contains three parlors on the front, and an office, reading, smoking and toilet rooms. On the third floor are the janitor’s rooms, and those of the commissioners in charge. The building was designed by Baldwin and Pennington, of Baltimore.
Chicago Tribune, May 13, 1893
TWO PICTURES OF CHICAGO IN 1829.
They Were Painted by Frederick Harrison, and Are in the Maryland Building.
It is a little strange that Chicago antiquities should come from the direction of Maryland, but any one who visits the Maryland Building may see these two paintings of Chicago in 1829, which, considering their origin, are somewhat startling.
The history of these paintings is given by Executive Commissioner George L. McGahan, who is in charge of the building. They are the work of Frederick Harrison, who was born in 1804, and appointed a cadet at West Point in 1824, and appointed Assistant Civil Engineer in the United States Army in 1826. In 1828 he was on duty at Charlestown, S. C., and in 1829 he was sent to Fort Dearborn to survey the canal from that point to Peoria. It was during his stay at Fort Dearborn in 1829 that he painted these pictures. He kept them for many years in an album which, at his death, became the property of his son-in-law, Lennox Birckhead, now a prominent real estate dealer in Baltimore, who has loaned them for exhibition here during the summer, and who vouches for their greatness.
These paintings are about six inches square. One, in water colors, represents the Fort Dearborn Building. looking towards the lake. The other, an exquisite piece of oil painting, on canvas, represents the other buildings of the settlement, looking towards the prairie. Around them, on the leaf of the scrapbook, the artist wrote the following explanatory notes, the spelling, abbreviation, and other peculiarities being entirely his own:
- No. 1. Fort Dearborn. 1829—Looking toward the Lake—Buildings in the right—Residence & store-houses of Monr. Boubion—Indian Fur trader—He had an Indian wife & two beautiful and accomplished daughters—Educated in Detroit—and both married Officers of the U.S.A.
No. 2. No. 1 & No. 2 are taken from nearly the same point of view. No. 2 looking out on the prairie directly opposite of No. 1—The large tree in No. 1 is the same overhading the bake-house in the left corner of No. 2—Indian looking in at window.
Under the second picture is written, in the proper places:
- Bake-house, Potowatamie encamptage house, Indn. Agency, Dr. Wolcott, Indn. Agt. There is a value and interest attached to the above sketches as perhaps the only prairie view of the scite of the great city of Chicago.
These paintings, are, in any view of the case, of the greatest interest to the people of Chicago. They much resemble the current pictures of these scenes, but are different in some minor points. They must therefore either confirm the previous representation or form them. In fact, it is possible that these pictures by Mr. Harrison have been the source of all other pictures of these localities and buildings that have been printed. The matter, at least, seems to be worthy of the investigation of the Chicago Historical Society.
The World’s Fair as Seen in One Hundred Days, by H.F. Northrop, 1893 .
Maryland.
A typical building of the old Colonial style was the headquarters of visitors from Maryland. It was a handsome structure, resembling the old manor houses of the Chesapeake Bay regions. No design more appropriate could have been selected ; it was chosen in preference to a reproductio n of the State House at Annapolis, as it was thought suitable to show the quaint style of architecture, of which some rare specimens remain. Maryland has secured as its finest exhibit in the art line the celebrated painting by Hemme, the subject being, “ Every Soul was Saved.” The painting commemorates the rescue of the crew and passengers, seven hundred and thirty -five in number, of the Denmark, by Captain Murrell, of the Missouri, a freight vessel. The painting is the property of David Bloundaur, of Baltimore, who loaned it to the state. The building also contained a bureau of information, a fruit and grass exhibit, and specimens of the oriole, woodcock, and terrapin, which have helped to make the state famous.
A small frame contained a sketch in colors of Chicago in 1829, by Frederick Harrison, who was an assistant government engineer at the time when Chicago was composed principally of Fort Dearborn. This sketch is owned by Lenox Burkhead, of Baltimore.
Maryland Day Programme
September 12, 1893
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