The Column of Progress balanced the Fountain of Energy at the far north end of the fair's main axis, standing on the Esplanade at the entrance to the Forecourt of Stars. A. Stirling Calder proposed it, and William Symmes Richardson of McKim, Mead & White designed it as the bay-side approach to their Court of the Universe. According to Barry, the firm declared it an 'ideal feature' of that approach. The critic Eugen Neuhaus, quoted by Todd, believed it was the first column anywhere 'whose design was inspired by a purely imaginative motive,' and the first sculptured column at any exposition.
Konti's pedestal reliefs showed the labors and aspirations of men. A helical band of ships in low relief wound up the shaft like Trajan's column in Rome, and at the top a ring of straining toilers held up MacNeil's Adventurous Bowman, who had just loosed his arrow toward the bay. Barry's architect-companion suggested that it would not exist 'if Trajan had not built his column in Rome nearly two thousand years ago.'
Each evening the illumination began at 7:30 with a single beam on the Bowman. On July 13, 1915, at a special day devoted to aviation, tablets were unveiled on the cornice above the pedestal frieze. The one on the north face read 'to the flying men of all nations, who have made real the dream of the ages.'
The gulls wheel and scream about the Column of Progress.
Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2 (1921), ch. L, written about 1920 when it still stood
At a glance
- Built of travertine staff hung on a steel frame; Dyer Brothers supplied the steel and Strehlow, Freese & Petersen held the contract (Todd vol. 2).
- Its cost is included in the $492,304 spent on the Court of the Universe and its approaches (Todd vol. 2).
- It was one of four features, along with the Palace of Fine Arts, the California Building and the Marina, singled out for preservation after the fair (Todd vol. 5).
- The exposition's removal rules noted that it 'rests on the intersection of two dedicated city streets' and should remain until the city decided to make it permanent or remove it (Todd vol. 5).
- It was also called the 'Tower of Progress' on at least one period postcard.
Afterward
Kept after the fair. By the early 1920s it stood in the middle of what became the intersection of Marina Boulevard and Cervantes Boulevard, where it was struck by several motorists and judged a traffic hazard. It was badly deteriorated in March 1924 and was demolished soon after (OpenSFHistory).
The site today
Present-day photographs and video of this spot are being made for the film; each frame below is a slot for one of them.
Marina Blvd at Cervantes Blvd, stand on the Marina Green side, looking south across Marina Blvd up the Scott St line
Have a photo of this spot? Email it to hello@288days.com with code S15 and up to 50 characters of credit. It appears here and in the film.
Sources
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, ch. LIII (description, dimensions), chs. L, LXI, LXIII
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 5, chs. XXXVI–XXXVIII, appendix (removal rules)
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 3, ch. XIII (Man-Flight): tablets unveiled July 13, 1915
- Barry, The City of Domes (1915), chs. VI (On the Marina), Introduction
- OpenSFHistory, 'Streetwise: Looking Back 100 Years in San Francisco' (2024), 1924 photograph and demolition