PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 78 – VICTORIA HOUSE
VICTORIA HOUSE.—Great Britain’s Building, known as Victoria House, was hardly what might have been expected from the Mother Country. It cost $80,000, was not a particularly imposing structure, though by no means ungraceful, and was closed to the public most of the time. It occupied a charming position on the lake front, being the only structure east of the Lake Promenade. It was a Gothic, half timber house, in the style of Henry VIII., with overhanging gables and a tiled roof. Terra cotta was much used in the first story, and the red brick facings and mullioned windows combined to give a very pretty effect. There was a fine library on the first floor, and some interesting exhibits, while the second floor was largely devoted to offices. The ceilings were in some instances reproductions of those of famous halls, and the embossed leather on the dining room walls was first executed for a new ball room at Sandringham Hall. Victoria House might have been made one of the most attractive and homelike to Americans of all the foreign buildings. In front of the Victoria House stood the group of statuary, ” America,” one of the four typifying the four quarters of the earth which stand at the corners of the Albert Memorial in London. Liberty, or Civilization, stands, her breast emblazoned with the stars of our States, extending her domain over the wild Indian and the buffalo. This piece of statuary has become famous, and its exhibition where it was located was a graceful and appropriate thing. It is understood that the group becomes the permanent property of the City of Chicago.