Phantoms of West Fairmount

PHANTOMS OF Fairmount West In 1876, Philadelphia hosted the first major World's Fair in the country. Set on 285 acres in West Fairmount Park, the fairgrounds were host to 37 nations, drawing 10 million visitors in its six month lifespan. FAIRMOUNT PARK AND THE 1876 CENTENNIAL THE NUMBERS $0.50 $4,800,000 158,111 504 499 14 Admission charge Total revenue taken Arrests for Telegrams sent &received Children Children Fornication Arrests Deaths Lost returned pick-pocketing Children returned next day same day "I went there in July, & staid nearly a whole day; then I got discouraged & returned home. I became satisfied that it would Observation Tower take me two, or possibly three days to examine such an array of The larger of two Exhibition towers, this tower boasted a articles with anything like just care & deliberation." - Mark Twain steam-powered elevator and was the tallest Also in 1876 structure in the United States at the time. The first review of The National League of The Adventures of Professional Baseball Clubs, Tom Sawyer is parent of today's National Agricultural Hall Baseball fields now occupy the site of Agricultural Hall, a 9-acre structure whose demolition lumber was later used to build 8 homes, a railroad station, and a 900-foot bridge in Spring Lake, NJ. published. League, was formed. General George Armstrong Custer and all Alexander Graham of his 265 men are killed at the Battle of Little Bell delivers the first Big Horn by Sitting Bull's Sioux Indians in the Montana telephone message. Territory. News reaches Philadelphia 12 days later. Swedish School House This 40 x 50-foot building represented a typical schoolhouse; re-erected after the exhibition in New York's Central Park, it now serves as an indoor puppet theater. FIP Catholic Total Structure Still Exists Abstinence Fountain O Structure No Longer Exists The largest Centennial sculpture, the fountain features a 16-ton Moses surrounded by four Catholic patriots. It still stands in front of the Mann Music Parkside Ave Center. erig Statue of Independence Machinery Hall Fountain of Water & Light Horticultural Hall Main Exhibition Building Memorial Hall Spanning 14 acres, Machinery Hall was the showease for industrial technology of the day The right arm and torch of what would become the Statue of Liberty was a popular fair attraction. For 50 cents, visitors could climb a ladder to the balcony; the fees helped fund construction of the rest of the statue, finally erected in New York in 1886. This 40-ton fountain by Bartholdi stood at the main entrance. In 1877 it was purchased by the government and moved to Washington, DC, where it now stands across from the Botanic Gardens. Intended as a permanent botanical conservatory, the Hall was damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and demolished the following year. A functional Horticultural Center, built in 1973, now occupies the site. Covering over 21 acres, this was the Centennial's largest structure (and the largest building of its time worldwide). The site now serves as a concourse fronting Memorial Hall. After the fair, Memorial Hall became the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts, and then in 1968 the headquarters of the Fairmount Park Commission. In 2008 it reopened as the new home of Philadelphia's Please Touch Muscum. and featured state-of-the-art exhibits using steam and hydraulic power, electricity, and the combustion engine.