Mines and Metallurgy held the northeast corner of the main group, facing the bay to the north and the Palace of Machinery across the Avenue of Progress to the east. The policy of its department, Todd wrote, was 'to bring out the dependence of civilization upon the mining industry,' and roughly three-quarters of the space went to domestic exhibitors.
Below the main floor, the exhibit known simply as 'the Mine' filled 10,000 sq ft of basement. Upstairs the federal government had much of the space. The U.S. Steel Corporation covered nearly an acre, following coal and iron from the mine to finished products and showing a fireproof movie theater and the welfare work it did for its employees. The W. P. Fuller paint company's booth was a replica of the Taj Mahal. So many social-economy exhibits overflowed from the Palace of Education that some were shown here, and the Post Office ran a branch in this palace.
Between Mines and Varied Industries lay the Court of Mines, the passage east from the Court of Abundance to the Avenue of Progress. From it, visitors met Daniel Chester French's Genius of Creation standing in front of the Machinery Palace.
At a glance
- Cost: $359,445 (Official Guide); $359,455 (Condensed Facts); $338,549 (Todd vol. 4).
- Exhibit blocks ranged from 1,000 to 7,500 sq ft; roughly 75 percent went to domestic and 25 percent to foreign exhibits (Todd vol. 4).
- General contractor: Strehlow, Freese & Petersen (Todd vol. 2).
- Declared ready for exhibits May 22, 1914 (Todd vol. 2).
- Monterey cypress about 35 ft high when planted was banked against its Avenue of Progress front (Todd vol. 2, ch. LXII).
Afterward
Wrecked in 1916 (Todd vol. 5); now Marina District.
Sources
- Official Guide of the PPIE (1915), Mines and Metallurgy
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 4, chs. XXXIII–XXXIX
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, chs. LIII, LXIX (post office branch)
- Condensed Facts concerning the PPIE (1915), Area and cost table