| | THE BRAZILIAN BUILDING -
Rising out of the
foliage of the old park, more ornate and by general opinion more beautiful
than any of its fellows, stood the Brazilian Building, a fine example of
the French Renaissance architecture which took America by storm between
1850 and 1880, and perished with the introduction of steel construction
and "Philadelphia pressed brick." One reason for the abandonment of these
beautiful forms was the smoke and dust of manufacturing cities, which not
only gathered rapidly in the thousand interstices of these facades, but
served to keep out some of the meagre portion of sunlight that was let
through the smoke-laden air. But there was not smoke in Jackson Park; its
engines ran with kerosene, its lights were electric; here the Brazilian
Building was perfect - the expression of the generosity, pride, and
spirituality of a people worthy of a better fortune than to be torn with
civil war and harassed with news of siege, battle, and revolution. This
two-story palace was built with four wings extending from a central dome.
The dome was forty-three feet in diameter and forty-three feet high, its
crest being one hundred and twenty feet from the floor of the rotunda.
The halls of the building were one hundred and forty-eight feet long. On
the four pavilions were as many campaniles, seventy feet high, with
observatories, which were often sought by visitors, and presented a very
attractive appearance on the broad avenue near by. The lower floor was
filled with a great display of Brazilian coffee, and the upper floor was
furnished with luxury, taste, and splendor excelling the interior of any
other structure. Cost, $90,000.
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