Agriculture was the biggest of the eight palaces in the main block. It stood second from the west in the north row, between the Court of Ceres (Food Products beyond) and the Court of the Universe's northern forecourt (Transportation beyond). Todd notes that because of where it sat among the courts, less of it was cut away than of the other palaces. About half of it stood on the filled cove.
Inside, each state showed what it relied on to attract back-to-the-land settlers. Relief maps, model farms, vineyards and grain fields served as working exhibits, and there was a large group of farm implements and machinery. The Guide singled out Argentina, second among the world's wheat countries, which described its practice of hosting would-be settlers at government expense, and China's intensive hand cultivation.
Its north front, like its three neighbors', carried one of Faville's four identical plateresque Spanish portals. Allen Newman's 13-ft Conquistador stood under the central canopy, with a noose-carrying pirate on either side, all glowering out at the bay from 50 ft up.
At a glance
- Cost: $425,610 (Official Guide; Condensed Facts); $386,350 (Todd vol. 4).
- General contractor: Lange & Bergstrom (Todd vol. 2).
- Declared ready for exhibits May 22, 1914 (Todd vol. 2).
- Condensed Facts says the Department of Agriculture's section as a whole covered more than forty acres.
- After closing day the first two shafts of the Court of Ceres colonnade were torn out to open railway portals into Agriculture and Food Products (Todd vol. 2, ch. LVII).
Afterward
Wrecked in 1916 (Todd vol. 5); now Marina District.
Sources
- Official Guide of the PPIE (1915), The Palace of Agriculture
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 4, chs. XLVII–LI
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, chs. LIII (north portals), LVII
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 1, ch. XXXII (filled cove)
- Condensed Facts concerning the PPIE (1915), Palace of Agriculture; area table