The Court of Flowers mirrored the Court of Palms on the east side of the Tower of Jewels, cut into the south front between Manufactures and Varied Industries, across the Avenue of Palms from Festival Hall. Todd's first impression was one of strangeness: 'an open space between two buildings so complete in itself as to be a separate architectonic phase.' It was entered between two 204-ft Italian towers diapered in pink and blue, past Solon Borglum's Pioneer on his high pedestal.
Its ambulatories were colonnades of paired Corinthian columns in a pale gray-green, carrying an open attic where Calder's Flower Girl stood in niches, light and delicate. Barry found its ornament richer than the Court of Palms. At the far end Edgar Walter's fountain of Beauty and the Beast stood in the apse, and under the lantern-hung vault on the north side Laessle's 'friendly-looking lions' guarded the opening into the Court of Abundance. Orange trees in green boxes and acacias trained flat like green tables stood among the beds.
True to its name, the court was planted with 50,000 yellow pansies, 50,000 red anemones and 50,000 red tulips, followed by 50,000 red begonias.
Beyond this palace, westward, one reached the Court of Flowers, a fairy place, like some incredible dream.
Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2 (1921), ch. LI
At a glance
- Cost: $126,957 (Todd vol. 2, ch. LXII).
- Builders: Strehlow, Freese & Petersen (Todd vol. 2).
- Todd says the towers' flanking columns represented Numidian marble, with blind doors and balustrades above.
- Towers felled in April 1916 (Todd vol. 5).
Afterward
Towers felled April 1916; court demolished (Todd vol. 5).
Where it stood
Court of Flowers stood at about 37.80282 N, 122.43860 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →
Sources
- Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, ch. LI, chs. LXI–LXII
- Condensed Facts concerning the PPIE (1915), The Court of Flowers
- Barry, The City of Domes (1915), ch. XII; Court of Flowers notes
- Official Guide of the PPIE (1915), sculpture list