World’s FairsFound, not built?
St. Louis 1904Investigate

Investigate · St. Louis 1904

View of the completed Palace of Fine Arts at the 1904 World's Fair

View of the completed Palace of Fine Arts at the 1904 World's Fair
1 clue in this photo

1Below-grade windows

The Fine Arts Palace on a graded bank

The Palace of Fine Arts sits on a graded earthen bank with a balustrade at its base, and the Ferris wheel stands in the background for scale.

The questionWhat was under the graded bank, and is there a lower floor?

Photo: Official Photographic Company · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

St. Louis 1904Case file

Same kind of clue, elsewhere

#4Below-grade windows · Grand Central TerminalGrand Central: arched windows at the debris lineWhy does a brand-new terminal have arched openings at or below the working grade?Below-grade windows · Paris 1889A raised terrace at the baseWas the terrace built up for the fair, or was the surrounding ground lowered?Below-grade windows · St. Louis 1904The plinth meets the lawnIs the original ground line higher than it was in 1904?Below-grade windows · Seattle 1909Brick arches from rubble, 1889Twenty years before the fair, did Seattle's streets bury lower floors, and what is under the raised streets?Below-grade windows · Grand Central TerminalGrand Central corner: same buried archesWas the street level raised around an older lower storey?Below-grade windows · Northern Michigan AsylumTraverse City: basement windows at gradeWere these lower windows always meant to sit at grade?

All clues others missed →