288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915
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Foreign pavilion · States & Nations

Pavilion of Bolivia

A Spanish-colonial house with the portal of Potosí's San Lorenzo church and a patio copied from the old Potosí mint, flanked by Tiahuanaco pylons.

A group in front of the Bolivian Pavilion
A group in front of the Bolivian Pavilionc. 1915, Rijksmuseum · CC0

Bolivia's pavilion, designed by Albert Farr of San Francisco, adapted a Spanish colonial home. Its churrigueresque doorway reproduced the portal of the church of San Lorenzo in Potosí. The brick-paved patio, with galleries and a fountain, closely copied the patio of the old Potosí mint. Before the entrance stood two square pylons carved with motifs from the Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco, 'as undecipherable as an Etruscan love letter,' Todd wrote.

The building, 100 by 125 feet, held rest rooms and offices and exhibits of more than 900 kinds of timber, freeze-dried chuño potatoes, giant corn, Indian carpets, cinchona, coca, rubber, vicuña robes and Potosí silver. Palms and tropical plants surrounded it.

...two pylons before the entrance, square-sectioned monoliths, covered with a picture-writing as undecipherable as an Etruscan love letter.

Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), p. 297

At a glance

  • About 100 by 125 feet.
  • Dedicated April 5, 1915; site dedicated June 12, 1913.
  • Designed by Albert Farr of San Francisco.
  • Doorway after the church of San Lorenzo, Potosí; patio after the old Potosí mint.

Afterward

Not recorded; presumably auctioned and wrecked.

Sources