Washington State Building
Architect: Warren P. Skillings, Seattle, Washington
Area: 24,544
Cost: $60,000
Picturesque World’s Fair, An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views—Published with the Endorsement and Approval of George R. Davis, 1894
THE WASHINGTON BUILDING.—With the exception, possibly, of California, Pennsylvania and New York, none of the State Buildings at the Columbian Exposition attracted more attention than that of Washington. The great new state illustrated in the magnificent structure it erected its resources and its prospects. It was a vast building of vast timbers, situate near the Fifty-seventh street entrance to the Fair Grounds, and formed the most conspicuous object in that locality. This prominence was accentuated by an enormous flagstaff erected in front of the building, the staff formed of the trunk of one great tree, five or six feet in diameter at the base and rising to a height of one hundred and seventy-five feet. The timber in the building consisted of half-hewn logs, all giants of their kind, those in the lower tier being one hundred and twenty feet long and four feet thick. In a general way the building may be described as a monster triple chalet, though its great size rather precluded the chalet idea. It was very much like building a cottage the size of a palace. Inside the building were exhibits also indicative of the state’s resources and productions. There was a single bock of coal weighing over fifty thousand pounds, and there was a skeleton of a mammoth, the largest ever found. The State of Washington was very much in evidence at the Fair. Its legislature appropriated one hundred thousand dollars, and the cost of the building was fifty thousand dollars.
Washington State Building
Many visitors name the Washington State Building, which lies next to the south, as the most unique and pleasing of all the State Buildings, and as exhibiting in the best degree the resources of that State. The foundation is of timber brought from that State, the largest logs being fifty-two inches in diameter and one hundred and twenty feet long of perfectly clear and sound timber. Much larger ones could have been obtained, but the railroads were unable to transport them. The dimensions of the building are 140 by 220 feet. The exterior is covered with Puget Sound lumber, and it is roofed with the famous Washington cedar shingles. The building consists of a central structure with a wing at each end joined to it by a closed colonnade. The exhibits include examples of the resources of the State in coal, gold, and other minerals ; in timber, grain and fruit, and in all sorts of manufactured wares. The shipping and fishing industries are also exploited, and no visitor can enter the building without being impressed by the magnitude and variety of the resources of our most northwestern States.
Jennifer Olson, Ph.D. says
I have been researching the art that was sent for display in the building for a couple of years.