1904 World's Fair: Looking Back at Looking Forward February 5, 2011

On April 30, 1904, Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company President David R. Francis officially opened the Louisiana Purchase Exposition -- also known as the 1904 World's Fair -- with the call, "Open ye gates. Swing wide, ye portals." A magnificent spectacle greeted the opening day crowd of 200,000 -- a dazzling city stood on what had been a woodland park. Fair organizers had erected nearly 1,500 buildings -- including several grand "palaces" -- across 1,200 acres of a newly redesigned Forest Park.