288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915 ⌕
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North Dakota Building

A triangular two-story building shaped to its triangular lot, where the state's grain, coal and potatoes were piled 'in heaps and pyramids.'

North Dakota's two-story building took the shape of its triangular lot. Two wings reached toward the front with a pavilion between them, the walls were 'travertine' and the roof red tile. The Official Guide gives it as 65 by 85 feet, set among Italian cypress and lawns. All the state's exhibits were here: grain, corn, lignite coal, clays and potatoes. Todd felt he was in 'some fairy palace of abundance, where no one could ever be hungry again, or cold for lack of fuel.'

Its site was dedicated September 16, 1913. Will E. Holbein was the state's resident representative. On North Dakota Day, June 25, an ash was planted on the lawn. Its ceremonial tree was one of 33 planted at State and foreign buildings during the fair and moved to Golden Gate Park early in 1916 as the Exposition Grove (Todd III, ch. LXXXVI).

...you felt in some fairy palace of abundance, where no one could ever be hungry again, or cold for lack of fuel.

Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. III (1921), p. 396

At a glance

  • About 65 by 85 feet on a triangular lot (Official Guide).
  • Appropriation $35,000.
  • Dedicated March 16, 1915.

Afterward

Not recorded; presumably auctioned and wrecked.

Where it stood

North Dakota Building stood at about 37.80501 N, 122.45920 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →

Sources