PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 51 – THE AGRICULTURE BUILDING
THE AGRICULTURE BUILDING.—Viewed from the northwest, different facades of the great Agriculture Building can be seen and a fair idea obtained of its magnitude and beauty. Though but a single story in height, most imposing effects were sought in the design of the structure and were fully realized. Its dimensions were, for the main building, eight hundred by five hundred feet, and for the annex five hundred and fifty by three hundred feet, with a combined floor area of about nineteen acres. The cost was $620,000. In connection with the building was an Assembly Hall costing $100,000. The general cornice line of the Agriculture Building corresponded with that of the other main edifices, and was composed of a main part connected by curtains with great corner pavilions, these, like the central body, bearing imposing statuary. It was, in fact, its wealth of thoroughly artistic ornamentation which contributed much to give the Agriculture Building its remarkable effect; for, fine as was its architecture, it was in the feature named that it specially surpassed the other great structures. Magnificent groups garnished the cornice over sculptured pediments and the series of sixty Zodiac bearers and other statuary are supplemented in effect by lavish interior mural painting of a high order. The view here afforded gives, in addition to the general aspect of the building, an idea of one of its approaches, with an electric fountain in repose, the Neptune statue and the so-called “Farmer’s Bridge” as objects in the foreground.