Yesterday, April 30th, was the 113th anniversary of the St. Louis World's Fair's opening day. I have been mesmerized by the fair, and that era, since I was young. First introduced to me during a family outing to the MO History Museum, I found the World's Fair fascinating and ended up researching it for my senior year term paper. I can only imagine how magical that event must have been for the people in the early 1900s!
The St. Louis World's Fair was an exposition of grand scale! It opened on April 30, 1904 and closed on December 1 of that same year. Intended to celebrate the centennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, it was postponed a year because the construction and exhibits could not be completed on time. The fair offered national and international exhibits including technology, education, science, fine arts, manufacturing, civics and entertainment. One of the popular rides at the fair was the observation wheel.
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| The Fair covered 1,272 acres and welcomed a total of 20 million guests. |
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The giant Ferris Wheel was 264 feet high and had 36 wooden cars.
Each car held 60 people! It was destroyed after the fair.
Learning about the fair was very interesting to me and I even had the opportunity to interview a gentleman who had attended the fair as a child. He was so young that he remembered very little about it, did recall some of the attractions along "The Pike". That was the fair's entertainment strip and it offered more than 50 attractions including rides, restaurants, museums, animal exhibits etc. St. Louis still loves learning about this special time in the city's history and has a group committed to educating people about this jewel. The World's Fair Society has been promoting the fair for 30 years and, in fact, I just renewed our membership in December.
I have a little World's Fair display, which houses pictures and books I have acquired. I could go on and on about the time in history when St. Louis said,
"Meet me in St. Louis; meet me at the fair!"
and that's exactly what people began doing 113 years ago.
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