288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915
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Court of Abundance (Court of Ages) and the Tower of Ages

Mullgardt's dark, dramatic east court, a Spanish-Gothic fantasy on the ascent of man, crowned by the 219-foot Tower of Ages and lit at night by gas-breathing serpents and red fire.

Mullgardt's Tower of Ages by night
Mullgardt's Tower of Ages by nightPostcard, 1915, public domain

Where the Four Seasons was calm, the east court was dramatic. Louis Christian Mullgardt took it on as the 'Court of Ages,' and his theme was nothing less than the history of the earth and man. It was officially renamed the Court of Abundance, a name Barry's architect-companion thought would have suited the Court of the Four Seasons better. It filled the square formed by the corners of the Palaces of Mines, Transportation, Manufactures and Varied Industries. Its surfaces were covered in an 'efflorescence of undercut embellishment' in the spirit of Spanish Gothic, and Todd called it 'extravagant and restive, as Exposition architecture ought to be.'

On its north side rose the Tower of Ages, or Altar Tower, 219 ft high, its successive altars carrying Chester Beach's groups of the ascent of man from savage to modern spirit. Todd ranked it, after the Fine Arts rotunda, 'probably the most beautiful single architectural feature of the Exposition.' Mullgardt's own program ran in strata: the fountain for the nebulous world and its passions, water-bubble ornament for the crustacean period, Weinert's primitives on the arcade finials for the Stone Age, crowing cocks for the Christian era, and at the tower's top a figure of Intelligence.

The barrel-vaulted ambulatory around all four sides was painted slate blue. In its corners hung Frank Brangwyn's eight huge murals, 'violent, riotous, livid' (Todd), painted in London by the one non-American among the exposition's muralists. In the central pool, Robert Aitken's Fountain of the Earth showed a half-emerged globe deluged by sprays from prehistoric reptiles, ringed by a pierced frieze of human passions. The Architectural League gave it a gold medal in 1915.

At night the court became a 'grotto of wizardry.' Travertine serpents crawling up the basin stems breathed gas flares, steam rose from cauldrons, red fire burned in salvers beside the entrance ramps and near the tower's upper sculptures, and rose-colored vapor rolled around the fountain. Bands played here by day, and it was one of the fair's most popular gathering places.

It was extravagant and restive, as Exposition architecture ought to be.

Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2 (1921), ch. LII

At a glance

  • Cost of the court: $216,142 (Todd vol. 2, ch. LXII).
  • Its construction contract was the last of the courts to be filed, on June 12, 1914 (Todd vol. 2); Strehlow, Freese & Petersen built it.
  • Planting: 120 Italian cypresses 20 ft high inside the cloister parapet, some 240 Irish yews, and 60 orange trees 12 to 14 ft high bearing flower and fruit (Todd vol. 2, ch. LXII); a hundred orange trees were brought living from Cloverdale (Todd vol. 1).
  • Brangwyn's pairs: Air ('The Hunters,' 'The Windmill'), Earth ('Dancing the Grapes,' 'The Fruit Pickers'), Fire ('Primitive Fire,' 'Industrial Fire'), Water ('The Net,' 'The Fountain') (Todd vol. 2).
  • The San Francisco War Memorial gives the Brangwyn panels as 18 by 25 ft with arched tops.
  • Condensed Facts described the court as 'dedicated to music, dancing, acting, and pageantry'; the Pageant of Peace, the public opening of the Women's Congress of Missions, was staged here on June 5, 1915 by over 500 participants (Todd vol. 5, ch. IV).
  • The north passage toward the Esplanade repeated the tower's facade, with Fry's 'Aquatic Life' on a high pedestal (Todd vol. 2, ch. LIII).
The Court of Abundance and the Fountain of the Earth
The Court of Abundance and the Fountain of the EarthMilton McFarland Painter Sr., 1915; Mississippi Department of Archives and History, no known restrictions
Panels of Robert Aitken's Fountain of the Earth
Panels of Robert Aitken's Fountain of the EarthCardinell-Vincent Co., 1915, public domain
Cloister piers, Court of Abundance
Cloister piers, Court of AbundanceCardinell-Vincent Co. photograph in Todd, 1921 (Internet Archive Book Images), no known restrictions

Afterward

Demolished in 1916 (Todd vol. 5). Brangwyn's murals were saved, went first to the Palace of Fine Arts, and were later handed to the War Memorial trustees. They have hung in the Veterans Building auditorium, now the Herbst Theatre, since it opened in 1932 (San Francisco War Memorial; Wikipedia).

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.

Today · photograph to comeBrangwyn's murals · Herbst Theatre

War Memorial Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness, inside the Herbst Theatre

Have a photo of this spot? Email it to hello@288days.com with code S45 and up to 50 characters of credit. It appears here and in the film.

Sources