You’ve just taken the thrill ride of your life—ascending 264 feet into the air on a giant rotating wheel of iron, viewing the expansive fairgrounds of the Columbian Exposition from a perspective intended only for birds, and gently returning to terra firma in a car filled with scores of other passengers. You need a drink.

Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair walking along the Midway may have spotted a little beverage stand tucked underneath the east side of the Ferris Wheel. From this small structure, P. G. Mattox offered “Florida Orange Cider” for 5 cents a glass.

A photograph of an Orange Cider stand underneath the Ferris Wheel (from Glimpses of the World’s Fair Laird & Lee, 1893)

One fairgoer wrote in his diary of enjoying “excellent orange cider” on the grounds, and the beverage reportedly won an honor at the fair, according to The Report on Committee of Awards.

The awards committee report, however, was careful to describe the beverage as “so-called orange cider from Florida and California,” noting that it was “mainly manufactured in Chicago.” What the report’s author meant by “so-called” is not entirely clear. Was a manufactured orange flavoring used for the cider? Artificial flavors got their start at the World’s Fair of 1851, where fruit-flavored candies using synthetic chemicals were offered to visitors to the Crystal Palace exhibition in London.

Or was the report simply calling into question the origin of the natural oranges used in the cider? Trainloads of oranges arrived at the Exposition regularly to replenish the fruit in such imaginative displays as a Liberty Bell made out of oranges, pyramids made out of oranges, a 30-foot-tall monumental tower made out of oranges, and even a “Great Orange” made out of (wait for it …) oranges. Between these displays and the actual orange grove growing fresh fruit in the Horticulture Building, there must have been plenty of fresh citrus around for the making of authentic orange cider.

A photograph of the Ferris Wheel by C. E. Waterman (Chicago History Museum)

Interestingly, a detail in a photograph of the Ferris Wheel by C. E. Waterman in the collection of the Chicago History Museum shows another orange cider stand operating just a few feet away from the one underneath the Ferris Wheel. The small, circular structure (formerly occupied by the “Tree of Wonder” camera obscura attraction) with a striped awning offered “Ice Cold Orange Cider” according to its sign.

This small patch on the Midway provided ample orange cider to fortify visitors for another go-round on the wheel.

A photograph of the Ferris Wheel by Keystone-Mast Collection, UCR/California Museum of Photography, University of California at Riverside.  

SOURCES
Lewis, Russell L. “A Wheel with a View” online exhibition.

Online Archive of California – “The Wonder of the Age”- Online Exhibit

“Oranges on the Trees” World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated Vol. 3, No, 6, August 1893, p. 140.

Glimpses of the World’s Fair: A selection of gems of the White City seen through a camera. 1893, Chicago: Laird & Lee.

Three-Week Travel Diary Detailing a Visit to the Columbian Exposition kept by Errett McLeod Graham. Newberry Library.

The World’s Columbian Exposition Report on Committee of Awards Vol 2. 1901, Washington: Government Printing Office, p. 1011.