Research · 110 clues in 92 photos

Clues Others Missed

Possibilities and open questions about what these photos show. Each clue describes only what is visible or what the cited record says, then asks the question.

Top 10 finds

#1Dug out · St. Louis 1904A trench dug beside a finished palaceBest find: a canal trench and masonry wall dug against a St. Louis palace whose colonnade already looks finished (1903).#2Repair scaffold · Chicago 1893Scaffolding on a facade that already looks finishedScaffold on a Chicago facade that already looks complete, with no cranes or camp in sight (1892).#3No work camp · Philadelphia 1876A 'construction' photo of a finished hallPhiladelphia's 'construction' photo shows the hall finished, with only booths being fitted.#4Below-grade windows · Grand Central TerminalGrand Central: arched windows at the debris lineGrand Central arched windows at or below the debris line, 1913.#5Other details · London 1851A full-grown elm inside the glassA mature elm inside the Crystal Palace transept, 1851.#6Demolition core · San Francisco 1915A steel cage under an intact domeThe steel cage under San Francisco City Hall's intact dome, 1906.#7Impossible timeline · Chicago 1893The iron arches, with three people in sightA Chicago "construction photo" dated during the fair, with the iron arches complete.#8Repair scaffold · Vienna 1873An open roof and a bare iron lanternVienna Rotunde with an open roof and a "to the builders" banner.#9Repair scaffold · Paris 1878The Trocadéro wrapped in scaffoldThe Trocadéro works: a damaged-looking colonnade and towers in scaffold.#10Scale · St. Louis 1904Twelve men and a tripod to plant one treeTwelve men and a timber tripod to plant one tree in St. Louis, 1903.

Every clue, by type

All 110Below-grade windows 7Dug out 3Masonry, not plaster 17Impossible timeline 10Weathering 11Repeated motif 9Repair scaffold 3No work camp 5Demolition core 6Scale 18Other details 21

#1Dug out · St. Louis 1904A trench dug beside a finished palaceWhy is the ground still being dug out when the palace is already standing?

Masonry, not plaster · St. Louis 1904Masonry retaining wallWhat does a masonry wall like that say about the building above it?

#2Repair scaffold · Chicago 1893Scaffolding on a facade that already looks finishedIs this scaffold building the facade, or refinishing one that was already there?

No work camp · Chicago 1893No cranes, no campWhere did the thousands of workers live and where were the materials staged for about 200 buildings?

#3No work camp · Philadelphia 1876A 'construction' photo of a finished hallIf this is 'construction,' why is the building already finished and only the displays going in?

Repeated motif · Philadelphia 1876Medallions and arcades repeated down the naveWere these ornaments cast for 1876, or are they a standard pattern found in other halls of the era?

#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?

#5Other details · London 1851A full-grown elm inside the glassWas the transept built around trees that were already standing, and what else on the site was older than the hall?

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?

#6Demolition core · San Francisco 1915A steel cage under an intact domeIf grand civic buildings had steel and brick cores, what did the fair palaces have inside?

#7Impossible timeline · Chicago 1893The iron arches, with three people in sightWhy is a 'construction' photo dated during the fair, and how was a span like this put up in the time recorded?

#8Repair scaffold · Vienna 1873An open roof and a bare iron lanternIs the roof being closed for the first time, or reroofed?

Impossible timeline · Vienna 1873A 108-metre dome in under two yearsHow was a span that size raised that quickly?

Other details · Vienna 1873Burned in 1937Why did two of the greatest exhibition halls burn a year apart, and what did the fires remove?

#9Repair scaffold · Paris 1878The Trocadéro wrapped in scaffoldIs this new construction, or repair and refitting of an existing structure?

Scale · Paris 1878Horse teams and about 30 workersHow did crews of this kind finish a palace this size in time for opening day?

#10Scale · St. Louis 1904Twelve men and a tripod to plant one treeIf one tree took this much effort, what did the palaces take?

Impossible timeline · London 18511,850 feet of iron and glass in about nine monthsHow many men, carts and horses would it take to cast, haul and raise thousands of matching iron parts that quickly, and where are the photos of that work?

No work camp · London 1851A finished interior, statues still shroudedIs this a building being completed, or an existing hall being dressed for opening?

Scale · London 1851Carriages for scale along the north-east frontAt that scale, what did the hauling and erection really require from a horse-powered city?

Other details · London 1851Moved, then burned in 1936Why do so many of these great halls end in fire, and what did the fires remove?

Impossible timeline · Philadelphia 1876The 1,880-foot Main BuildingWith horses and horsecars as the heavy transport, how was this length of iron and glass raised in two years?

Other details · Philadelphia 1876Sold and dismantled by 1881Who bought it, where did the iron go, and why take down a hall this size?

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?

Scale · Philadelphia 1876Crowds give the scaleHow many stone-setters and teams would a hall like this need on the timeline recorded?

Weathering · Philadelphia 1876Dark streaks on the surviving corniceHow long does weathering like this take, and does any of it predate 1876?

No work camp · Paris 1889A bare field under the towerWhere were the material yard and workforce for a tower of this size?

Repeated motif · Paris 1889The Trocadéro already standing through the archHow many of these 'temporary' fair palaces were left standing for the next fair, and what was there before 1878?

Other details · Paris 1889A rail line runs right to the groundsWas the rail serving a new fair, or an older district already laid out around these buildings?

Scale · Paris 1889The Galerie des Machines at true scaleHow was a span that size raised for a single season?

Impossible timeline · Paris 1889A moving gallery over a vast iron spanWhy build a hall this strong only to take it down two decades later?

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?

Below-grade windows · Paris 1889A raised terrace at the baseWas the terrace built up for the fair, or was the surrounding ground lowered?

Weathering · Chicago 1893Mature trees on a former swampHow do you get a mature woodland on a swamp in two years?

Weathering · Chicago 1893An established lawn and potted palmsWas the ground freshly made, or already settled?

Scale · Chicago 1893The Court of Honor with crowdsAt this scale, what were the crew and horse counts needed for about 200 buildings in about two years?

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

Repeated motif · Chicago 1893Erechtheion-style caryatid porchesWhy does the same classical vocabulary turn up fair after fair, city after city?

Other details · Chicago 1893Fires in 1894, a statue burned in 1896Why did fire clear the site so quickly, and what was found in the debris?

Other details · Chicago 1893The building that stayed downtownWhich fair buildings were truly new in 1893, and which were already part of the city?

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

Scale · Atlanta 1895A horse and wagon unloading cratesHow many wagon trips would it take to supply a whole fair this way?

Other details · Atlanta 1895Rail lines running right to the buildingsWas the rail laid for the fair, or was there already an industrial district here?

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?

Impossible timeline · Atlanta 1895A city of palaces in a recovering townWhere are the quarry and mill records for the fair's buildings?

Scale · Atlanta 1895Inside the Fine Arts BuildingWhy was a finished gallery like this not kept by a growing city?

Scale · Nashville 1897A colossal Athena and a woman beside itHow was a figure this size made, moved and raised in time?

Weathering · Nashville 1897A weathered grotto overgrown with vinesHow does a grotto look this overgrown at a fair that had just opened?

Impossible timeline · Nashville 1897A whole classical town in a bird's-eye viewHow was a site this size built, and a full-size Parthenon cast, within about a year?

Repeated motif · Nashville 1897Greece and Egypt on one groundWhy do Greek and Egyptian forms keep turning up together at these fairs?

Other details · Nashville 1897The Negro BuildingWho built and staffed it, and what became of it after the fair?

Impossible timeline · Omaha 1898A Chicago-scale court in a prairie cityHow did a city that size supply the crews, materials and horses for a court like this?

Weathering · Omaha 1898Young, thin trees: a contrary detailIf the planting was new, was the ground new too, or was an older site cleared and replanted?

Masonry, not plaster · Omaha 1898Heavy sculpture on the Administration BuildingWhat was that ornament made of, and where did it go?

Other details · Omaha 1898The night photosWhere did all that power come from in 1898?

No work camp · Omaha 1898A light, plain pavilion: a contrary detailWhy does this pavilion look so different from the sculpted palaces on the Grand Court, and what does the contrast say about how each was made?

Demolition core · Omaha 1898All of it goneAre there foundation remains under Kountze Park, and has anyone dug for them?

Masonry, not plaster · Buffalo 1901Dense ornament on the Temple of MusicHow was ornament this dense modelled, cast and set within the build time?

Weathering · Buffalo 1901Mature trees around the survivorWas the park landscape older than the fair, and was the building too?

Other details · Buffalo 1901Permanent: what was built, or what was kept?Does the 'permanent vs. temporary' line track how things were built, or only what was kept?

Scale · Buffalo 1901Crowds at the Horticulture buildingWhat would it take to build all of this for one season?

Repeated motif · Buffalo 1901A skyline of ornate towersWere towers like these power infrastructure first and decoration second?

Other details · St. Louis 1904Festival Hall over a drained basin in snowWas the basin being built, or cleared out?

Weathering · St. Louis 1904Full canopy along the Grand BasinHow many mature trees were moved, and from where?

Demolition core · St. Louis 19041,500 buildings, almost none leftWhere did all that material go?

Below-grade windows · St. Louis 1904The Fine Arts Palace on a graded bankWhat was under the graded bank, and is there a lower floor?

Below-grade windows · St. Louis 1904The plinth meets the lawnIs the original ground line higher than it was in 1904?

Masonry, not plaster · St. Louis 1904Stone ashlar wallsWhy this one, and were the others really so different?

Other details · San Francisco 1915The Call Building standing among shellsWhat decided which buildings survived?

Scale · San Francisco 1915One man and a 200-foot muralHow was a mural this size painted and hung on the schedule given?

Masonry, not plaster · San Francisco 1915Relief panels on the 1915 rotundaThe record says it was later recast in concrete. Was it copied, or preserved?

Weathering · San Francisco 1915The rotunda todayWhat was taken away in the recasting, and was any of it kept?

Other details · San Francisco 1915The Auditorium that stayedWhich buildings were really meant to be temporary?

Other details · San Francisco 1915A tower of 100,000 glass jewelsWhy build it and then take it down?

Impossible timeline · San Francisco 1915Nine years after the fireWhere did the workers and materials come from?

Masonry, not plaster · Vienna 1873A rusticated machine hallIs that block coursing stone or a plaster imitation?

Masonry, not plaster · Vienna 1873Ashlar and columns at the KunsthalleWhy build so solidly for one season, or was it there before?

Weathering · Vienna 1873The Imperial Pavilion over a pondWere the grounds' trees planted for 1873, or were they already old when the fair arrived?

Repeated motif · Paris 1878The Trocadéro core reusedWhat is inside the Palais de Chaillot today?

Scale · Paris 1878Liberty's head with people for scaleHow was a copper head this size moved through Paris with horse teams?

Repeated motif · Paris 1878The long-hall formula againWhy does the same long-hall plan recur from city to city, and who held the pattern?

Masonry, not plaster · Barcelona 1888Brick and stone on the Arc de TriomfWhy build the fair's gate in permanent brick if the fair was temporary?

Impossible timeline · Barcelona 1888A 2,000-guest hotel in about 53 daysHow was a hotel that size built in 53 days?

Masonry, not plaster · Barcelona 1888Castle of the Three Dragons in brickWhy build a fair restaurant in permanent brick like a fortress?

Other details · Barcelona 1888Built on a demolished citadelWhat was found when the citadel ground was cleared, and did any of it go into the fair?

Repeated motif · Barcelona 1888Ornate lamps under the brick archThe same ornate lamp standards line Pont Alexandre III in Paris. Is this a shared pattern book, or a shared older style?

Masonry, not plaster · Paris 1900A stone colonnade under a glass vaultHow were the stone and iron for a 200 m nave quarried, cast, hauled and set in three years?

Scale · Paris 1900The Palace of Electricity with crowdsHow was ornament at this density made in time, and where did it go?

Masonry, not plaster · Paris 1900Stone-look pavilions on the Rue des NationsWhich were stone and which were plaster, and were any of them already there?

Scale · Paris 1900The Gare d'Orsay hallHow was this hall finished in time for 1900, and why was it the one kept while the fair halls were cleared?

Scale · Paris 1900The grand entranceHow long would a gate like this take to model, cast and raise with the crews of the day?

Repeated motif · Paris 1900Pont Alexandre IIIBridge and palais were both built for 1900 and both survive. What set them apart from the halls that were cleared?

Scale · Portland 1905Logs several feet acrossWhere did trees that size come from, and how were they moved and raised with 1905 equipment?

Other details · Portland 1905The lake at nightWhy fill in the lake the fair was built around, and what lies under the fill?

Other details · Portland 1905Burned in 1964Why do so many of the survivors end in fire?

Other details · Portland 1905A plan printed before the openingDo the plans match what was built, and are the plans for the big palaces as easy to find?

Other details · Portland 1905A balloon at the entranceWhat do the edges of the grounds show, and what was there before 1905?

Scale · Seattle 1909A colonnade of whole trunksHow were whole trunks this size felled, hauled and stood upright in 1909?

Weathering · Seattle 1909Mature conifers by a domed palaceWas the forest there first, and how much of the site was cleared around it?

Weathering · Seattle 1909Very tall firs among pavilionsIf the trees are that old, what else stood in this ground before 1909?

Scale · Seattle 1909A parade on campusWith crowds this big, why was the fair laid out on a university campus, and which campus buildings predate it?

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?

Dug out · Palais de JusticeBrussels Palais de Justice: a deep pit in frontIs this digging down to build, or digging out what was already there?

Below-grade windows · Northern Michigan AsylumTraverse City: basement windows at gradeWere these lower windows always meant to sit at grade?

Other detailsHôtel de Ville ruins: a stair to a lower levelHow deep do these buildings go, and what is down there?

Dug outChicago 1857: Lake Street raisedIf whole blocks were raised in 1857, what lower floors were left below grade?

Demolition coreDanvers 2006: a crane to bring it downIf taking it down needed modern machinery, how was it built with horses?

Demolition coreA Euston Arch column from a canalWhere else did demolished stone end up, and what was taken out of the record?

Demolition coreBoston 1872: shells of stoneWhat did the fires clear, and what was put back?

More clues from the records 16

Record-based clues (not photo markers).

Chelsea, MassachusettsGranite that crumbledA town fire hot enough to crumble granite. What burns that hot?Reports of the 1908 Chelsea fire say buildings of solid granite crumbled and were entirely destroyed.

Sydney, AustraliaThe fair palace that burned the land recordsOf all the papers to lose, the ones about who held the land first.When the 1879 Garden Palace burned in 1882 it was being used by government departments, and records of squatting occupation in New South Wales were lost.

Washington, D.C.The census that's missingThe census for the years of the great fairs is the one that's gone.Most of the 1890 census was destroyed after a basement fire at the Commerce Department on 10 January 1921 and the disposal of damaged records.

SeattleCondemned two years before the fairClose the old level, then hold a world's fair. Same pattern as elsewhere?Seattle condemned the Underground in 1907, two years before the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

Turku, FinlandA burned layer in the groundFires leave layers. How many 'mud' layers are something else?A visible layer of burnt material from the 1827 fire has been photographed in the ground at Turku.

AtlantaFour fires in one hourFour separate fires in an hour on one day. Coincidence?On 21 May 1917 the big fire was the fourth call within about an hour, with fires at the Candler Warehouse and elsewhere.

Saint John, CanadaSuspectedThe fire foretoldSomeone knew, days before. What did he know?A schoolboy known only as 'Harry' recorded that on 16 June 1877 an elderly First Nations chief told boys to warn their parents the city would be destroyed on 19 June. It burned on 20 June.

Bangor, MaineInsurers saw it comingMapped in 1907, burned as mapped in 1911.In 1907 the National Board of Fire Underwriters mapped Bangor and predicted a large fire could spread from the area where the 1911 fire later ran.

Giza, EgyptNo inscription for the SphinxThe world's most famous statue, with no builder's name on it.Selim Hassan wrote in 1949 that not one contemporary inscription connects the Sphinx with Khafre.

Luxor, EgyptA mosque on the columnsThey built at the old ground level, not knowing a temple was below.The working Abu Haggag Mosque stands on the temple's ancient columns, built when three-quarters of the temple was buried.

Manchester, EnglandPlaced fourth, got the jobWho picks the fourth-place design, and why?Waterhouse's design placed fourth of 137 but he was appointed on 1 April 1868.

London, EnglandDesigns under someone else's nameHow many famous buildings carry the wrong architect's name?Pugin had to submit his Gothic designs through, and in the name of, other architects.

Willard, New YorkFour hundred suitcasesFour hundred people who never went home, and no one came for their bags.About 400 patients' suitcases were found in a Willard attic in 1995.

Salem, OregonFive thousand unclaimedFive thousand people and no family to claim them.The hospital held about 5,000 canisters of unclaimed cremated remains.

Washington, D.C.Painted to look like stoneIf the dome is painted iron, what else is dressed up as stone?The Capitol dome is cast iron painted to look like the stone of the building below.

Derinkuyu, TurkeyForgotten underground cityHow do you forget a whole city under your house?An 85-metre-deep underground city was forgotten until 1963, when a resident knocked through a basement wall.

Patterns

The same story turns up in other threads.

Hypotheses20 patterns across all the threadsMud FloodBuried first floors, raised streets and what lies under the citiesAsylumsKirkbride palaces and why admissions soaredOrphan TrainsAbout 200,000 children sent west, 1854–1929Child Labor & RepopulationBreaker boys, mill girls and the 1850–1920 windowBurned and Rebuilt?Ruins, then palaces: swipe between the two photosSame Story, Different CityFire, temporary, rebuilt: the same beats in city after cityArchitects of RecordWho got the credit, how old they were, and how long it tookDoes It Add Up?Buildings set against the towns, workforces and timelines the record gives them, scored from sourced facts only.Catacombs & UndergroundCatacombs, ossuaries, underground cities and forgotten tunnels under the cities

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