World's Columbian Exposition Site

World's Columbian Exposition

The World's Columbian Exhibition Site

Jackson Park in Chicago was selected as the site for the historic exposition. Smaller buildings and concessions were located on a small strip of land connecting Jackson Park to Washinton Park. This 80 acre strip became known as the Midway Plaisance. Jackson Park covered 533 acres and had two miles of frontage on Lake Michigan. Nearby Washington Park covered 371 acres. The amount of space the fair actually covered was 633 acres.

A photograph of the site under construction.

The site also had two water treatment plants, with a combined capacity of 64 million gallons per day. The pumping stations were available for visitors to see as a sort of 'working' exhibit that handled the drainage requirements of the site and the sewer needs of the more than 6,500 lavatories and toilets. A steam plant, costing over $1 million, generated 24,000 horsepower , of which 17,000 hp are used for electricity, which was three times the electrical consumption of the city of Chicago and ten times the electrical consumption of the 1889 Paris Exposition. 9,000 horsepower was for incandescent lighting (for 93,000 incandescent lights), 5,000 hp for arc lighting (for 5,000 arc lights), and 3,000 hp for machinery. The buildings with electricity were: Mines, Electricity (obviously!), Agriculture, Transportation, and Manufactures. The fate of the site was sealed. Even before the fair ended, the first major fire hit, July 10, 1893. The Cold Storage Building burned, killing 17 people. A fire on January 8, 1894 burned the Casino, Peristyle, Music Hall, and Manufactures Building. A fire the following month burned the Colonnade. A massive fire on July 5, 1894 burned the Court of Honor, Machinery Hall, Electricity Building, Administration Building, Mining Building, and the Manufactures Building.

Midway Plaisance

An 80 acres strip of land connecting Washington Park with the main exhibition site at Jackson Park. The Midway was the first separate entertainment area deliberately made as a self-contained entertainment district. The popular, profitable Midway kept the fair solvent, as the admission revenues were not sufficient to offset the incredible expenses of building the fair. The Street in Cairo attraction gave the world the "Snake Charmer" tune (you know it... hum along with me: "There's a place in France,..... "). The Midway was so successful that it defined the entertainment district. To this day, entertainment areas at fairs are known as "Midways".

Can you hear the "Snake Charmer" song?

World's Columbian Exhibition Innovations and Legacy

• • Intramural Railway- The first elevated electric railway ever built. An exhibit in itself. Power house contained a 2000 horsepower Allis engine with a shaft of 60 tons, 25 feet in width, and 24 inch diameter.

    • Moveable Sidewalk-A continuous double platform, half moving passengers at 3 miles per hour, the other half at 6 miles per hour.

    • Ferris Wheel The Ferris Wheel was invented for the 1893 fair,

    • Gray's Teleautograph-A device that electrically reproduced handwriting at a distance.

    • Kinetograph-Thomas Edison's kinetograph was a precursor to the movie projector.

    • Famous Firsts from the fair...

  • George Ferris built the first Ferris Wheel.

  • The United States produced it's first commemorative stamp set.

• • The US Postal Service produced it's first picture postcards.

  • Cracker Jacks were introduced.

  • Aunt Jemima Syrup was introduced.

  • US Mint offers first commemorative coins: a quarter, half dollar, and dollar.

  • Cream of Wheat was introduced.

  • Shredded Wheat was introduced.

  • Pabst Beer was introduced.

  • Juicy Fruit gum was introduced.

  • Diet carbonated soda was introduced.

  • The hamburger was introduced to the United States.

  • The carnival concept was born.

    • Legacy of the Fair

  • In addition to the innovations listed above, the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 made permanent impressions on American architecture and urban design, art, and even the concept of what expositions and world's fairs should be. The 2nd Vice President of the fair, M. H. de Young, was one of the organizers of the major Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Karl Bitter was the director os sculpture at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo (New York), the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis (Missouri), and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.

Bruce R. Schulman

1893 Exposition Main Page