Palace of Horticulture

Standing apart from the walled city at the west end of the South Gardens, the Horticulture palace was free to be festive, and it was. The Official Guide called it the most ornate of the palaces and compared its outline to the Mosque of Ahmed I in Constantinople: a great glass dome surrounded by smaller domes, half-domes and 'innumerable little latticed domes.' Todd found it 'Oriental and French' at once, Byzantine in composition but Parisian in its green lattice, pergolas, spires and 'Parisian-coiffured caryatides.' The lattice was painted Jules Guérin's hard 'lattice green.'

The dome was a serious piece of engineering. It rose from a steel drum 24 ft high and 152 ft across, framed by 24 steel ribs tied by 11 rings, glazed with about 47,000 sq ft of glass, and crowned by a fruit-and-flower basket. Todd proudly compared it with the domes of the Florence cathedral, St. Peter's, the Pantheon and the U.S. Capitol, noting that all were smaller in interior span. The dome and its supports used 500 tons of steel, one of the few steel frames on the grounds.

Under the dome, a circular conservatory held palms, tropical fruit and flowers; the Cuban palms and fruit trees were singled out. Aquatic plants filled pools in the triangular corners, and the rectangular wing to the west held 'economical horticulture' exhibits such as canning, packing and olive presses. Outside, about nine acres of horticultural gardens stretched south, where a competition for the best new unnamed rose carried a $1,000 prize.

At night the palace was one of only two exhibit buildings lit from inside. A battery of searchlights beneath the dome shone up through revolving lenses and colored screens, throwing kaleidoscopic bands of color across the glass. The Guide promised 'Processions of the Constellation of the Universe' and 'the Evolution of the Nebula Hypothesis.'

Its dominant glass dome that seemed always floating like a bubble about to burst, and a lot of little domes and half-domes gathered about it.

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

At a glance

• Cost: $341,000 (Official Guide; Condensed Facts).
• The dome held 200 tons of steel and its sub-structure another 300; the erected steel cost about $55,000 (Todd vol. 2, ch. V).
• Todd's comparison of domes: Horticulture 152 ft interior; Florence Duomo 138.5 ft; St. Peter's 139 ft; the Pantheon 142 ft; the U.S. Capitol 135.5 ft.
• Construction contracts were let in October and November 1913 (Todd vol. 2, ch. IV); John Monk was the contractor and Dyer Brothers erected the steel.
• South of it stood the lumber buildings: the White and Sugar Pine Building, the Redwood Building, and Maybeck's House of Hoo Hoo (Todd vol. 2, ch. LVI).
• The outdoor Horticultural Gardens covered about nine acres (Official Guide; Todd gives about 9½).
• It sold for $5,000 in 1916. The dome glass had to be recut before resale because each pane was shaped to fit the converging ribs (Todd vol. 5).

Afterward

Sold for $5,000 and wrecked in 1916 (Todd vol. 5). The Marina District's streets and houses now cover the site.

Sources

• Official Guide of the PPIE (1915), The Palace of Horticulture; Illumination
• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, ch. V (dome structure), ch. LVI, ch. LXIII (lighting)
• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 4, ch. LVII (Department of Horticulture)
• Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 5, ch. XXXVII (sale price)
• Condensed Facts concerning the PPIE (1915), Palace of Horticulture
• Barry, The City of Domes (1915), Features that Ought to be Noted by Day