PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 31 – DOME of AGRICULTURE BUILDING
DOME OF AGRICULTURE BUILDING.—The agriculture department of the World’s Columbian Exposition was housed in a palace, for the great building devoted to the purpose was a magnificent structure, both as to dimensions and architectural character. The main building stood beside Lake Michigan its principal facade facing the grand basin in the Court of Honor, full opportunity being thus afforded for the display of its imposing features. The view above given is that of the principal entrance, with the landing for gondolas and electric launches in the immediate foreground. The style is the classic renaissance with Corinthian pillars fifty feet high and five feet in diameter. This entrance led through an opening sixty-four feet wide into a vestibule terminating in the rotunda one hundred feet in diameter, and surmounted by a mammoth glass dome one hundred and thirty feet high. Above the main entrance, as well as in the vestibule and on the domes of the corner pavilions, were groups of statuary illustrative of the building’s uses. Surmounting the main dome, as will be seen in the illustration, is the beautiful Diana statue by St. Gaudens, which adorned the tower of Madison Square Garden in New York and was brought to Chicago for its greater purpose. The pediment, which represented Ceres, was work of almost equal beauty.