288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915 ⌕
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The Zone · The Zone

Tehuantepec Village

A Mexican village of artisans, garden and theater, fronted by painted Aztec gods and the spieler King Karlo, by popular vote the prettiest show on the Zone.

Asked for the best and prettiest show on the Zone, Todd believed eighty-five visitors in a hundred would name the Tehuantepec Village. It was produced by G. M. Anderson, the film cowboy 'Broncho Billy'. Capt. A. W. Lewis, who had staged the 'Boer War' spectacle at St. Louis, gathered its materials, making several trips into remote Mexico and bringing much of it out on pack mules through the lines of warring armies. The Exposition's architect E. J. Symmes designed the building. Its front was a riot of green-eyed Aztec gods and tropical paintings.

Inside, a fountain played in a patio ringed by artisans at work. There were opal polishers from Querétaro, weavers of serapes and Saltillo rugs, drawn-work makers from Guanajuato, feather-card and wax-figure makers, silver-filigree workers, onyx cutters and potters. Behind lay a garden with a model of Lake Xochimilco. A little theater gave generous concerts, and a restaurant served enchiladas and tamales. No one was pressed to buy. The ballyhoo was delivered by King Karlo, a twenty-year veteran spieler whose soft voice charmed the crowds in. For all its popularity the overhead was too heavy, and the village lost money.

If a hundred Exposition visitors were asked to name the best and prettiest show on the Zone, probably eighty-five of them would say at once the Tehuantepec Village.

Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. II (1921), p. 355

At a glance

  • Produced by G. M. ('Broncho Billy') Anderson; assembled by Capt. A. W. Lewis.
  • Building designed by E. J. Symmes of the Division of Works.
  • The 'Maya maidens' from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec arrived January 29, 1915.
  • Had its own Mexican restaurant.

Afterward

Demolished with the Zone in 1916.

Where it stood

Tehuantepec Village stood at about 37.80083 N, 122.43324 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →

Sources