The Long Journey of the Norway Building

Tucked among some willow trees in the foreign building section in the northeast corner of the World’s Columbian Exposition grounds stood a striking structure made of massive pine beams. Built in the style of a medieval stave church, its gabled roof with carved dragons evoke the prow of a Viking ship. One of only a few surviving structures from the 1893 World’s Fair, the Norway Building has journeyed some 10,000 miles over the past 125 years.

The building was constructed by M. Thams & Company (in less than 90 days!) during the winter of 1892-93 near Trondheim, Norway. After a public display there, the building was disassembled and shipped across the Atlantic, departing on March 15, 1893 and not arriving in Chicago until mid-April—well behind schedule. The building officially opened on May 17 (Norwegian Constitution Day, “Syttende Mai”), but construction continued through June. During the Fair, the building served as an office and headquarters for the Norwegian Commission and offered only a few displays for visitors.

After the close of the Fair, the building was purchased Norwegian-American Cornelius Kinsland Billings, president of the People’s Gas Light and Coke Company of Chicago and a member of the World’s Columbian Exposition Board of Directors. He had the building taken apart, moved, and reconstructed on his lakeside estate “Green Gables” on the north shore Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. (Another building from the Columbian Exposition, the Ceylon Building, also had found a new home, just down the shore.) By 1910, the summer retreat was in the hands of chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., who repurposed the old Norway Building as the family’s private movie theater (quite a novelty in the 1910s!). The former World’s Fair building also acquired a coat of bright yellow paint during its years on Lake Geneva.

In 1935, a Chicago businessman and Norwegian-American Isak Dahle bought the building from Wrigley’s widow. He had it once-again dismantled and moved to his summer home in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, about 30 miles west of Madison, where he had established a Norwegian heritage museum campus. Four generations of his family served as caretakers as they operated the “Little Norway” homestead In 1992, the Norway Building was restored in time for its centennial. When the quaint roadside attraction closed its doors in late 2012, the Norway Building faced an uncertain future.

Decedents of the Norwegian workers who originally constructed the building brought a team of skilled craftsmen to Wisconsin in 2015 to disassemble the structure once again for a trip back to Norway. With $600,000 in funds and more than 10,000 hours of labor by a team of volunteers, the structure was restored and reassembled. A dedication ceremony on September 9, 2017, welcomed the structure, now called the Thams Pavillion, to its new home in Orkdal, Norway.

Though it is sad for this remarkable vestige of the Columbian Exposition to have left the region, the former Norway Building now serves as an international ambassador of the 1893 World’s Fair.

Back in Chicago, a ceremony is been planned for August 25, 2018, to dedicate an Illinois State Historical Plaque in Jackson Park near where the building originally stood in 1893. A Norwegian delegation will attend. In the meantime, a humble memorial has been posted on a lamppost near the site, on the north side of Science Drive, just off S. Lake Shore Drive.

[UPDATE: The dedication ceremony was held on August 25, 2018, and a new historic marker now stands on the site.]

REFERENCES
Adams, Barry “The Journey for the Norway Building Comes Full Circle” Wisconsin State Journal, Sept. 11, 2017.

Bigler, Brian J.; Mudrey, Lynn Martinson The Norway Building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. A building’s journey from Norway to America. An architectural legacy. Little Norway, 1992.

Mastony, Colleen “Norway Building from 1893 Chicago World’s Fair Heads Home” Chicago Tribune Sept. 4, 2015.