The Dayton Flood restaged the 1913 disaster in Ohio 'before, during and after', as the Official Guide put it. Over the door a plaster giant strained to hold back the waters behind great floodgates. Inside, a lecturer narrated as a current swirled down the main street of a panorama of Dayton, drowning miniature street cars and carrying off Noah's Ark animals. It did not pay. Todd guessed that a flood seemed rather comfortable to a city that had lived through the earthquake and fire. It closed after a few months, and the giant disappeared.
In its place came one of the Zone's most unexpected successes, 'Escorial'. This was a large painting of the church of the Escorial, the palace-monastery built by Philip II near Madrid, 35 feet high and 45 feet wide. Todd credits it to the Spanish painter Lorenzo Blanchard and says it came over on the 'Jason'. The concessionaire, Melville Marx of the Columbia Theater, doubted a painting of a church could survive on the same street that supported Stella. It opened July 24 to 821 curious visitors, had some 200,000 by the close, and drew more than 13,200 on the final day.
At a glance
- The Dayton Flood closed after a few months of slim patronage.
- 'Escorial' hung from July 24, 1915 to Closing Day and showed to about 200,000 people.
- The painting measured 35 by 45 feet.
Afterward
Demolished with the Zone in 1916.
Where it stood
The Dayton Flood (later 'Escorial') stood at about 37.80166 N, 122.43218 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →
Sources
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. II (1921), ch. XXIX, p. 155 (the giant)
- Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. II (1921), ch. LXV, pp. 357-358
- Official Guide of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), p. 69
- Map of the Zone concessions, spring 1915 (reproduced in 'Let Me Get There', USC Scalar), Spring 1915 map of the Zone concessions