Randy recently posted about a book he was reading and mentioned the White City built to be Chicago's 1893 World's Fair (the Columbian Exposition). What was a beautiful tribute to architecture and art and what constituted, to my mind, a fairyland, generated opposition from blacks who thought its whiteness was an insult. Even blacks get it wrong sometimes. Anyway, I looked up these photos. They take my breath away. Shortly after the fair closed in October 1893, a fire destroyed most of the buildings. They had a picture of the ruins that I couldn't bear to include.

An excerpt from one of the websites.

... architecture and sculpture would be to the Chicago fair what engineering had been to the Paris exposition. With the help of his partner, John W. Root, who died suddenly in 1891, Burnham assembled a stunning array of artistic and architectural talent to design the fair's main, palatial exhibition buildings on grounds that landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned becoming a public park that would rival Central Park in New York City.

And here are two photos of that exquisite monument to talent and engineering that is lost forever. What a bleeping shame.

THE WHITE CITY





A COLOR VIEW




XX, TEAL