The World’s Fair of 1904 was hosted in Saint Louis, Missouri from April 30th to December 1st. The Fair attracted 20 million people from over fifty countries and most of the states. The World’s Fair was convened to celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, which had extended the United States’ borders west of the Mississippi River by 800,000 square miles.
The Fair covered an area of 1,272 acres, stretching over much of Forest Park and Washington University’s campus. With five million dollars put towards The Fair, more than 1,500 buildings were constructed including a center piece of eight grand palaces surrounded by lagoons and a festival hall with a dome larger than that of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Fair’s palaces provided foreign tourists with the opportunity to observe the United States educational system at the Palace of Education, and taste testings of imported fruits and nuts were held at the Palace of Horticulture.
Additionally, over 1,000 sculptures were designed of prominent figures including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The fairyland-like buildings and expansive amusement parks in Forest Park created a utopian environment for visitors. The large influx of people from a variety of backgrounds provided the opportunity for the blending of cultures. This was apparent in the creation and popularization of new foods, including the hamburger, the hot dog, iced tea, and the ice cream cone.
In the years preceding the fair, religious buildings started to be constructed in residential neighborhoods, becoming a new establishment for many congregations to have a permanent home in a church or synagogue. In 1903, the style of Beaux-Arts, which is an art that is based upon the classical forms of art of the Greek and Roman cultures. Many columns and pillars are used in this style, which ties in the Roman Baroque style of art. This style was used for the First Church of Christ Scientist. This ecclesiastical architecture was recognized by many tall columns, tall windows with round arches, three-entry doors with a projecting central section. This was one of the first Christian Science buildings to be constructed as well as to still be occupied by its original congregation. Today, there are still Church services held here. There is also a reading room where people may go and reflect in and is used for both spiritual study and prayer. The lectures that held here tend to be about the healing truths of Christian Science, while relating it back to the story of Jesus.
St. Rose of Lima dates back to the 1870s when a small, wooden chapel was built to serve a small number of Catholics. The church grew steadily over the years, constantly being relocated into bigger spaces to make room for more families as well as more pupils that attended the parochial school. The parish’s greatest growth was due to the World’s Fair of 1904. As the St. Louis population increased, the church grew. This resulted in new plans to construct a new church, architecturally reminiscent of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Frankfurt, Germany. A ceremony was held in May of 1906 and it was blessed July 4, 1907. Throughout the twentieth century, the church added a school, the Sister’s convent, and a choir. The first wing of the school was built in 1908 and the entire school was completed in 1912. The Sisters’ convent was built in 1917. Growth continued into the 1920s with the addition of the church choir. Finally, 41 years after its construction, the school building opened to the community.
One exhibit in the World’s Fair was designed to preserve a religious worldview within the hustle and bustle of modernity. The Jerusalem exhibit's main goal was pilgrimage and it was one of the most expensive and breathtaking attractions because of how enormous the replica was. The model of Old Jerusalem stretched over ten acres and was built on a 1:1 scale of the sacred city. Inside the replica there were around three hundred structures including the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Tower of David. Natives were imported, tours of holy sites, camel and donkey rides, and oriental bazaars that created an attraction within an attraction of the Fair roping in over fifteen thousand visitors. The exhibit was centralized to the Fair, being one of the most unique features, as well as having all other attractions lead to Jerusalem, symbolizing transcendence. This helped the Fair establish that America did not abandon religion, and represent the moral and spiritual heart of the fair. The exhibit therefore proved that although the nation was advancing towards modernity, there was still a gradual movement of religion. The central location of the Exhibit portrayed the ideological focus of the World’s Fair as a whole. According to Milette Shamir, the exhibit was placed at the heart of the Fair to demonstrate the "inherent role that symbolism and religious sentimentality played within the structuring narratives of modernization."
Content researched and written by Moira Abdailan, Madison Keller, Tara Luhning, Violeta Tallat-Kelpsa, and Michael Vogel.
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