The rotunda today
The surviving rotunda and curved colonnades stand over the lagoon today. The record says they were recast in concrete.
The questionWhat was taken away in the recasting, and was any of it kept?
Investigate · San Francisco 1915
Palace of Fine Arts San Francisco January 2014 003
1 clue in this photo
Photo: King of Hearts · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Same kind of clue, elsewhere
Dark streaks on the surviving corniceHow long does weathering like this take, and does any of it predate 1876?
Mature trees on a former swampHow do you get a mature woodland on a swamp in two years?
An established lawn and potted palmsWas the ground freshly made, or already settled?
A weathered grotto overgrown with vinesHow does a grotto look this overgrown at a fair that had just opened?
Young, thin trees: a contrary detailIf the planting was new, was the ground new too, or was an older site cleared and replanted?
Mature trees around the survivorWas the park landscape older than the fair, and was the building too?