New Zealand's pavilion, designed by Lewis P. Hobart of San Francisco, mixed French and Italian Renaissance. It had an ornate facade, Doric columns at the door, a flagstaff on each side of the stairs and a tall cupola with a lantern, all finished in the fair's 'travertine'. The main entrance faced east. Opposite it was a conservatory of rare orchids and ferns.
The building was aimed at tourists and sportsmen. There were big-game heads, a 19-pound brown trout, a cast of a 138-pound tunny, a mountaineering outfit and photographs of geysers, Mount Cook and the fjords. In the afternoons the hall was darkened for Kinemacolor films. At the dedication on March 3, 1915, Maori dancers from the Zone's Australasian Village performed.
At a glance
- About 45 by 110 feet (Todd's OCR prints '45 by no feet', read here as 110).
- The Dominion government provided over $75,000.
- Dedicated March 3, 1915.
Afterward
Exhibits shipped home; the building's fate is not recorded.
Sources
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), ch. XXXV, pp. 197-198
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), ch. XLVI, pp. 253-255
- Official Guide of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), p. 49