Identifier: popularhistoryof00ridpaj (find matches)
Title: A popular history of the United States of America, from the aboriginal times to the present day
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: Cincinnati, Philadelphia (etc.) Jones brothers & company San Francisco, A. L. Bancroft & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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Schuylkill.As to materials,—iron, glass, and wood. As to dimensions,—threehundred and eighty-three feet long, one hundred and ninety-threefeet broad, and sixty-nine feet to the top of the lantern. As tocost,—three hundred thousand dollars. As to purpose,—a temple offlowers. As to destiny,—a permanent ornament of Fairmount Park.For the city of Philadelphia contributed the funds for the building,and decided that it should stand in spite of the general demolitionand temple-crushing which prevailed at the close of the Exposition. Next among the notable structures of the Exhibition groundswas that building provided for by the Congressional act of March 3d,1875, and called the United States Government Building. It stoodon Belmont Avenue, northward from Machinery Hall. The ground-plan was a cross, with the main stem four hundred and eighty feet,and the transept three hundred and forty feet, in length. In the cen-tral part, the building was two stories in height. Over the bisection
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(585) 586 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. of the nave and transept rose an octagonal dome, surmounted by. aflag-staff. The edifice was elegantly painted, the prevailing color beingbrown. The roof was black, the dome in imitation of wood, and allthe ceilings blue. The walls within were divided into panels, in eachof which was laid off a diamond-shaped space containing in its centeran emblem representing some department or function of the Govern-ment. The general effect of the building was that of airiness andease—hardly to have beeen expected in an edifice so strongly andheavily built. The Womans Pavilion, already mentioned, was located at thewestern end of the Horticultural section of the grounds, and was oneof the most beautiful of the Centennial buildings. The structure wasof wood and glass. Here again the ground-plan was a cross, each ofthe arms being a hundred and ninety-two feet long, and sixty-fourfeet in width. The end of each transept was adorned with an elegantporch; and the

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