Buffalo’s 1901 Pan-American Exposition was large.
Stadium (seating 12,000), exhibits, restaurants, canals and midway covered more than 80 square kilometres (about two hundred acres) with another 50 square kilometres of recreational parkland (Toronto’s Exhibition Place is 78 square kilometres). At the end, nearly every building - they’d been constructed to be temporary - was torn down.
However, well over a century later, and after economics brutally toppled Buffalo from its perch as one of America’s important cities, there’s still local pride in what was staged - and that despite a president being killed.
Lunching downtown, I find myself looking at new mural roughly resembling the imagery on my old exposition paperweight.
At first glance, out where the event took place, little obvious evidence remains.
Signs rust in well-tended neighbourhoods, which sprang up shortly after the fair ended. But, for the exposition searcher, all is not lost.
What was the New York State Building had been intended to remain and is now Buffalo’s museum.
You can stand on the steps …
… and look where gondolas offered rides on the lake and, in the evening, an ‘electric fountain’ delighted fair-goers with, a press report stated, ‘a dazzling spectacle’.
On the lake’s far side, the superb Albright-Knox Gallery was planned to be the exposition’s Fine Arts Pavilion, but didn’t open until 1905.
As you can see, both buildings are in the classical style. But the overall design theme was Spanish Renaissance to recognize Central and South American countries exhibiting at the fair.
Here's the Ethnology Building with the shrunken heads that's over my hotel bed.
The ornamentation was overblown, but were the tastes of a different era.
Also of the era was Canada’s pavilion (and its contents), just off Delaware Avenue, next to the Standard Paint Company and dairy display. As a northern nation, Canada was allowed to avoid the ghastly Iberian facades, flourishes and ‘decorative’ motifs.
Inside, ‘An oil painting that attracts considerable attention is by Paul Wickson, noted Canadian painter, called 'The Story of the Great North West.' It illustrates the retreat of the Red Man with his pony, his gun, and his teepee, before the sturdy Scotch settler with his agricultural implements and his plow horses’.
To my mind and, indeed, for many of the patrons, night was when the exposition was at its best. Using power from nearby Niagara and making the most of electricity’s relative novelty, the fair was lit with some two hundred thousand bulbs. Even by today’s standards, it must have been wonderful.
In the left background, you can see the 123 metres (405 feet) Electric Tower. For comparison, Toronto City Hall is only 74 metres (242 feet). In the dark, the tower could be seen from twenty miles away.
And so I hike some more to see one last current link with the exposition.
In downtown Buffalo is the Electric Tower. Not the Electric Tower, but one opened a decade after the exposition and patterned after its predecessor. As did the city, the new tower eventually went into decline. However, I'm happy to report that it’s been renovated and is illuminated at night. I can see it from my hotel window, but not a great picture at a distance.
What, other than the lights, would I like to have seen?
On the midway, I would have definitely booked A Trip to the Moon. Above you can see the departure over Niagara Falls with the exposition in the distance. ‘After landing on the mountains of the Moon, the tourist disembarks and pays a visit to the marvelous (sic) underground City of the Moon, inhabited by a race of wonderful pigmies and then on to the gorgeous palace of the Man in the Moon where is presented a magnificent ballet by the maidens of his court’.
During the ‘trip’, tourists were offered samples of green cheese. Admission was 50 cents, double the price of other Midway rides.
As have many expositions, the 1901 effort lost money, but Buffalo revelled in international attention, at least until Mr. McKinley met his unfortunate end.
No more walking. Since I can’t go to the moon, time for the Toronto Blue Jays farm team, the Buffalo Bisons, or as we with the secret handshake and team password call it, ‘the herd’ .
$12! Only twelve dollars for behind the plate! Okay, so $12 US equals approximately $15.75 CAD. When I went to the Jays in June, I paid $81. And certainly wasn't behind the plate.
I enjoyably brood while opening my bag of fresh roasted peanuts. The Bisons' purchase was made in thirty seconds. Jays' food lineups are guaranteed to get you back to your seat in time to avoid the cleanup crew at work in the stands.
But, enough. Baseball’s not only the game of impoverished retirees, it’s the game of presidents, which nicely matches the reason for my Buffalo visit.
Some cherished American pastimes cannot be halted - endless presidential campaigns and baseball. Here’s President Woodrow Wilson throwing out the first pitch of the 1916 season.
Most presidents of the 20th and 21st centuries have thrown out the first pitch. Some have proved better than others. In 1988, Ronald Reagan, the Chicago Cubs former radio announcer, threw two after the first went somewhat astray.
I settle comfortably into my chair as do others. It’s a wonderful game and very relaxing with a beer and peanuts on a sultry afternoon. Very relaxing with the occasional crack of a bat and hum of the crowd …
… very, very relaxing. I do like Buffalo.
