View of construction work in the canal on the west side of the Palace of Electricity at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 27 September 1903

2 clues in this photo

1Dug out

A trench dug beside a finished palace

The 1903 photo shows a raw trench with spoil heaps and a brick or masonry retaining wall right against a palace whose colonnade already looks finished. A wooden footbridge crosses the cut, and derrick poles stand on a far building.

The questionWhy is the ground still being dug out when the palace is already standing?

2Masonry, not plaster

Masonry retaining wall

The canal wall is laid in brick or stone courses, not timber.

The questionWhat does a masonry wall like that say about the building above it?

Photo: Unknown photographer · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

St. Louis 1904 Case file

Same kind of clue, elsewhere

Masonry, not plaster · London 1851Solid wall at the lower levelWhat is that masonry base, when was it laid, and did it carry an earlier structure?

Masonry, not plaster · Philadelphia 1876Memorial Hall: stone at the openingMemorial Hall was always meant to stay, but what does that say about the 'temporary' halls standing beside it?

Masonry, not plaster · Paris 1889Tile and stone on the Beaux-Arts palaceWhich of these surfaces are plaster and which are fired tile or stone, and has anyone ever tested a fragment?

Masonry, not plaster · Chicago 1893Caryatids on the Palace of Fine ArtsIf this palace had a brick core, how many of the others did too?

Masonry, not plaster · Atlanta 1895Rough-faced stone at the New York BuildingWhy put a heavy stone base under a building said to be temporary?

Masonry, not plaster · Atlanta 1895The Woman's Building on a stone-look baseWhat was this base made of, and what happened to it after the fair?

All clues others missed →