St. Louis Historic Preservation

Event:  Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Year:  1904
Decade:  1900 - 1909
Event Description:   The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also called the World’s Fair) was awarded to the City of St. Louis and was attended by people from all over the world. It was held in Forest Park. The Exposition covered 1,272 acres in the western half of Forest Park and adjoining areas. It was carried out under the leadership of former St. Louis Mayor and Missouri Governor David R. Francis. The fair celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase and transformed Forest Park into a veritable fairyland of white palaces, lagoons, and landscaping, attracting 20 million visitors to the City. The fair focused worldwide attention on St. Louis and led to the construction of many new hotels, office buildings and homes, a boom that continued until World War I.

The Art Museum, the "Bird Cage" at the Zoo, and the concrete fence running along Forest Park Boulevard are the only remaining structures from the Fair.

People
Barnett, Thomas P.
Francis, David R.
Haynes, John Ignatius
Kessler, George
LaBeaume, Louis
Taylor, Isaac S.
Widmann, Frederick

Reference
Physical Growth of the City of St. Louis
Images of America-Central West End St. Louis

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This site was made possible by: the City of St. Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency and
the City of St. Louis Community Information Network.

This site was funded in part by Federal funds administered by the Missouri State Historical Preservation Office, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, The National Park Service, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

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