288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915 ⌕
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Foreign pavilion · States & Nations

Pavilion of Siam

A royal residence built in Bangkok, shipped across the Pacific in pieces and reassembled, tiered, lacquered and walled in translucent glass.

Color autochrome of the Siamese Pavilion
Color autochrome of the Siamese Pavilion1915, National Museum of American History, public domain

Siam's pavilion was a copy, at twice the size, of a small royal residence in the Chakri Palace at Bangkok. It had tiered, sharp-peaked roofs with decorated gables, Buddhist angels, serpent ornament running up the roof edges, finials and a royal parasol on top. The walls were translucent glass in square panes fixed with a special lacquer. It was built of Siamese materials in Bangkok, approved by the King, taken apart and shipped on the steamer 'Mongolia', which arrived in mid-March 1915. A. B. Spigno of the Royal Public Works Department supervised its reassembly. Todd thought a passing breeze might lift it and float it back to the Malay sea.

Inside, beneath a portrait of the King, were red-lacquer columns, silver and ivory work, gongs, fans and weapons, rice varieties, silk and ores. The pavilion was dedicated May 6, 1915.

...you felt that some passing breeze might lift it and float it away through the air with all its Buddhist angels and sacred serpents and give it back to the warm Malay sea whence it had come.

Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), p. 270

At a glance

  • Built in Bangkok, shipped knocked down, and re-erected by Siamese workmen.
  • Twice the scale of the original royal residence.
  • Dedicated May 6, 1915.
The Siamese Pavilion
The Siamese PavilionMilton McFarland Painter Sr., 1915 (Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History), no known restrictions

Afterward

Offered to the City of San Francisco after the fair; as of 1921 the city had not taken it (Todd V, p. 246). Later fate unverified.

Where it stood

Pavilion of Siam stood at about 37.80321 N, 122.45108 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →

Sources