World’s FairsFound, not built?
FairsSeattle 1909
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: China-day-parade-chinese-village-at-the-alaska-yukon-pacific-exposition-seattle-september-13-1909
1 Clue

Photo: Could not be extracted automatically; most are anonymous or pseudonymous. Scanned by the Seattle Public Library. · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

1909 · Seattle, United States

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition

On the globe
See full fair gallery (5)
Investigate this fair · 5 cluesSeattle's fair was laid out on a campus among very old trees, twenty years after a fire and street raising that buried lower floors, so some halls may have been older than 1909.Open the case file →
Dates
1 Jun – 16 Oct 1909
Site
University of Washington campus
Declared purpose
A fair promoting Seattle and the trade of Alaska, the Yukon and the Pacific Rim.
Fate
A few buildings became part of the University of Washington; most were demolished. The Rainier Vista axis remains.
Architect of record
John Charles Olmsted, landscape architect (grounds plan): about 54 when credited (1906, born 1852). Build time on record: about 2 years (1907–09).All architects of record →

Hidden history

Found, Not Built

A domed white city on a university campus, aimed straight at Mount Rainier. What the photos show is a classical skyline that the campus later absorbed.

  1. Built on a campus

    The fair was laid out on university land, and the university kept a few halls. Researchers ask which buildings were truly new in 1909.

  2. The vista

    The grand axis toward Mount Rainier survives as Rainier Vista. The question: was the layout designed around older features?

  3. Seattle's pattern

    Twenty years after the 1889 fire and the raised streets, the city builds a white city of its own.

Questions worth asking

  • Which campus buildings are older than the fair?
  • Why demolish the domed government hall?
  • What did the grounds look like just before 1909?

Possible original uses

  • A university quadrangle
  • A civic centre on an axis
  • A gallery and assembly district

What the photos show

Clues in the photos

ScaleA colonnade of whole trunksHow were whole trunks this size felled, hauled and stood upright in 1909?WeatheringMature conifers by a domed palaceWas the forest there first, and how much of the site was cleared around it?WeatheringVery tall firs among pavilionsIf the trees are that old, what else stood in this ground before 1909?ScaleA parade on campusWith crowds this big, why was the fair laid out on a university campus, and which campus buildings predate it?Below-grade windowsBrick arches from rubble, 1889Twenty years before the fair, did Seattle's streets bury lower floors, and what is under the raised streets?

The buildings

Tap a building for its photos and credits.

  • No open-licence photo foundFine Arts Palace (now Architecture Hall)Art gallery for the fairStill a university building.
  • No open-licence photo foundWomen's Building (now Cunningham Hall)Exhibit hall run by women's clubsStill on campus.
  • Lost building page ›
  • Lost building page ›

Further viewing

Episodes from My Lunch Break (Michael Kruse), the main lens for this app. They open on YouTube.