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| HORTICULTURAL HALL - This building has been called
"a
capitol at Washington, for the government of roses and sweet violets - a
splendid flowery fane." The building and the Wooded
Island were to be observed at one and
the
same time. The island spread before the gorgeous hot-house, as the
grounds of Versailles before her Trianons, or the trees of Schonbrun
before the palaces of the Austrian Kaiser. The architect was W. L. B.
Jenney, of Chicago, and he covered a site nine hundred and ninety-eight
feet long by two hundred and fifty feet wide. In the center he built a
large dome, one hundred and eighty feet high, which dominated the northern
grounds until the domes of the Government
and Illinois
Buildings so far o'-ertopped it. Supporting the central
pavilion, at a distance, on each side, was a rectangular pavilion of good
size, and these structures were connected by curtains or galleries, in
front and rear, which left two large open inner courts. In the southern of
these was a building called "The Kaiser's Wine Cellar," where the
wine-growers of Germany, by beautiful panoramic scenes, portrayed the
wine-growing regions and cities of the Fatherland. The style of
Horticultural Hall was called Venetian Renaissance, and the meaning of
that description may best be noted in the facades and roofs of the
terminal pavilions, where the hip-roof is observed. The building was
decorated with a sculptural frieze and six single figures, all by Loredo
Taft, of Chicago, a gentleman who, as a public lecturer and demonstrator,
has become widely know for his eloquence, learning and wit. The total
cost was $300,000. The sculptors also used this building in 1892. |
