The Netherlands pavilion, designed by W. Kromhout of Rotterdam, was festive and a little exotic. It had a rose-tinted dome, clock dials more than six feet across, outside stairways, 44 flagpoles and a tower 128 feet high. The walls were travertine banded with encaustic tile. The south side showed tile allegories of the East and West Indian colonies, the north side the industries of the mother country. Todd called the style Byzantine or even Romanesque. The Official Guide, written earlier, described an old Dutch manor-house, which does not match the building as built.
Visitors came in past a fountain of rose-tinted Dutch tiles into a lobby with a portrait of Queen Wilhelmina. There were a tea room, a reading room and upstairs a reception room. The largest hall was given to the East Indies, with a batik kiosk, Java dioramas and colonial products. Other halls covered the West Indies and the homeland, with dioramas of a 1670 West India Company fleet and of Amsterdam. Holland also planted a bulb garden of about three acres near the Baker Street entrance, tended by a government horticulturist, A. van Vliet.
At a glance
- About 25,000 sq ft of ground; tower 128 feet; clock dials over six feet across; 44 flagpoles.
- Participation about $400,000 in all ($300,000 before the war, $100,000 after).
- Dedicated March 11, 1915.
- Separate bulb garden of about three acres near the Baker Street entrance.
Afterward
Not recorded; presumably auctioned and wrecked.
The site today
Present-day photographs and video of this spot are being made for the film. You can stand there yourself: it is a stop on the self-guided walk.
On the walk: S24 The Avenue of Nations · Yacht Rd and Old Mason St
Yacht Rd at Old Mason St, east end of Crissy Field
Have a photo of this spot? Email it to hello@288days.com with code S24 and up to 50 characters of credit. It appears here and in the film.
Where it stood
Netherlands Pavilion stood at about 37.80394 N, 122.45001 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →
Sources
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), ch. XXXV, pp. 199-200
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), ch. LII, pp. 275-282
- Official Guide of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), pp. 47-48