PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 81 – THE MICHIGAN BUILDING
THE MICHIGAN BUILDING.—Of all the State buildings on the Fair grounds none was more popular than the Michigan Building. Standing near the Fifty-seventh street entrance, its handsome front catching the eye of visitors, its doors always hospitably open, not to Michigan people alone but to the multitude, and its spacious rooms and luxurious appointments inviting all to their enjoyment, it was generally the resting place of an appreciative throng. The structure was one hundred by one hundred and forty-four feet in ground dimensions, was three stories high, and partly surrounded by broad balconies to the first and second stories. In the center of the west front rose a tower, pierced with windows, one hundred and thirty feet in height. The grand tiled reception hall was sixty-two feet wide and the entire depth of the building. There were the usual offices for officials and a series of finely furnished rooms for visitors, beautifully finished in Michigan woods and having great fire-places with carved oak mantels. Though not intended as formal exhibits, there were some fine displays in the reception room, such as mineral specimens and curiosities, among other things a pair of wolverines, the wolverine being the typical animal of the State. On the second floor was the assembly room, equipped with a pipe organ, and, to the south of this, a splendid display of the fauna of the State, that former paradise of game, from the moose and bear down to the quail and woodcock. The general outside color of the building was gray, and its effect, both as to exterior and interior, was handsome and homelike on a large scale.
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