PART IX.

AMONG THE STATE BUILDINGS.

ILLINOIS BUILDING FIRST AND FOREMOST.

It Cost $230,000 and is the Largest State Structure on the Grounds— Its Admirable and Commanding
Site— Its Exhibits Tell the Story of the History of Illinois in a Pictorial Way— All the Depart-
ments of the State Repres.atjd— Recepti n and Office Rooms for the Governor— Work Rooms of
the Agricultural and Ho.tirulturJ Departments— Functions of State Government Admirably
Shown— Kindergarten Interests Liberally Provided For— Bureau of Information— Two Large
Exhibition Rooms — Archasol ~:gy 'and Geographical Survey — Grain Commission, Forestry and
Fish Commission — Laboratory of Natural History — One-Tenth of the Building Occupied by "the
Illinois Woman's Exposition Board.

ROUPED at the northern end of the grounds are the State
Buildings, a number of which are pretentious and all in-
viting. First and foremost among the State Buildings is that
of Illinois; which is very proper in more ways than one — Illi-
nois being in a sense, the host of our own nation and of all
other countries. It was largely on this account that the Illi-
nois Legislature, out of its appropriation of $800,000, directed
that $230,000 should be expended on its State Building. The
site chosen could not possibly have been improved upon as
the view is unquestionably the finest in the Park, not excepting
that from the eastern windows of the Administration Build-
ing. It stands up majestically on the northern side of the
north pond, and is seen from more distinguishable points than any other structure.
It is built of wood and staff, in the style of the Italian renaissance and cost $230,000.
It has the form of a Greek cross, the main axis being 4^0 by 160 feet in size, and
running east and west. The transverse axis is 175 feet wide, the southern end of it
forming the main entrance. At the juncture of the two axes is a dome 72 feet in
diameter and 235 feet in height. The walls are from 47 to 72 feet in height. The
building is embellished with carving and statuary, and in front of its various en.
trances are terraces, balustrades, fountains, and flowers. The architects were W.
W. Boyington & Co. The south projection is on the inside, three stories high, and
is for the administration. Here are the offices and meeting rooms of the Illinois
Commission and of the Illinois Woman's Exposition Board, and the offices and re-
ception-rooms of the Governor and other State officials. The corresponding pro-
jection on the north side is thrown into one story, with galleries, and is occupied as

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457

a memorial hall of the soldiers and sailors of Illinois. This exhibit consists largely
of relics of the War of the Rebellion, such as arms, accoutrements, flags, and like-
nesses pertaining to the Illinois troops. The center of the building, between these
projections, is inclosed by walls and arches, and forms a rotunda and promenade,
with a magnificient fountain built right under the central dome. It is a massive
construction of grotesque rock-work, and it is forty feet high. This fountain glows
with electric lights, and moreover its water is good to drink.

The last thirty feet at the east and west ends of the main building, bein^
somewhat higher and broader than the rest of it and separated from it by walls and
arches, may be called pavilions, and are, in the interior, three stories high. In the
west pavilion the third floor is devoted to dormitories, the second floor to offices
including that of a bureau of information, and the first to the offices and work-
rooms of the Horticultural Department, the offices and work-rooms of the Agri-
cultural Department, and the headquarters of the soldiers and sailors of Illinois.

In the east pavilion is installed a number of
interesting exhibits. The third floor is de-
voted to dormitories, like the west pavilion.
On the second floor are the exhibits of the
deaf and dumb institutions, the institutions
for the feeble-minded, and the institutions
for the blind. On the first floor at the south
end is a model kindergarten, and at the north
end a model common school. These two
rooms are probably the most beautiful in
the building. Between the rotunda in the
center and the pavilions at each end there
are two large exhibition halls, each of which
is about 1 60 feet square and magnificently
lighted, both from the roof and the sides. They are one-storied, but are traversed
by two gallery aisles sixteen feet wide running east and west at a distance from the
walls and connecting with the second story of the pavilions. They are devoted to
maps, charts, drawings and pictures. The main floors of the great halls are bisected
by a broad aisle connecting the east and west entrances. The contents of both of
them are of the most interesting description.

The north half of the west hall is equally divided between State Grain In-
spection, Forestry and the Fish Commission; and the south half between Horti-
culture and Floriculture, Archaeology, and the Geographical Survey. The aisle is
enlarged about midway to receive the great relic map of the State, on which four-
teen engineers have been engaged for the last year. It is made on a scale of two
miles to the horizontal inch and 500 feet to the vertical inch, which gives it a
length of seventeen feet and a breadth of nine feet. In preparing it no less than
1,382 important errors in the current maps of Illinois were discovered. In one case
it was discovered that a man had been paying the State taxes for twenty years on
land that was over the Wisconsin border.

STATUARY IN FRONT OF ILLINOIS BUILDING.

458 HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

The north half of the east hall is devoted to the common school exhibit, the
University of Illinois, and the State Laboratory of Natural History. The south half
is divided by an aisle running east and west, and the southern half of it, on the
front of the building, is given up to the Illinois Woman's Exposition Board, which,
therefore, enjoys one-tenth of the space, the commission having allowed them
one-tenth of the appropriation.

Their ladies' reception room is in itself an exhibit of a remarkable nature.
The crowds that pass through it as soon as its existence and location is known
almost preclude the possibility of using it for its proper functions. A moulded and
decorated ceiling, a frieze instinct with life and color, hangings of silk, a richly
carpeted floor, carved wood transoms, and chairs and lounges upholstered in gold,
are included in the furnishings of the room.

Then hanging on the south wall are one hundred and twenty-five canvases
representing the women artists of the Chicago Palette Club. Rare laces, embroider-
ies, photographic work, women's inventions, carvings, inlaid articles and an inter-
esting collection ji relics of the Bonapartes, and scores of little treasures which alJ
women love to see.

On the other side of the aisle are the exhibits of the State Experiment
Station in Rural Husbandry, the Agricultural Department of the University of Illi-
nois, and the two Normal Universities.

Secretary Reynolds of the State Commission is very proud of the character
of the Illinois exhibit and the principles on which it is made up. The object which
the commission kept constantly in view, he says, was to furnish a "collective de-
partmental exhibit for the State, which should illustrate its natural resources, to-
gether with the methods employed and results accomplished by the State, through
its several departments, boards, commissions, and other agencies in the work of
promoting the moral, educational, and material welfare of its inhabitants, so far as
such methods and results are susceptible of exhibition."

5-S-f-..-~ —

-^S*t="-'—

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459