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Overview

Planning for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE) began in earnest in 1906, with the bulk of construction happening in 1908 and 1909. The San Francisco architectural firm of Howard and Galloway, Architects and Engineers, worked in tandem with the landscape architectural firm, The Olmted Brothers, of Brookline, MA. Both primary designers worked with a large cast of subsidiary architects, engineers, artisans and building contractors to complete the AYPE that ran officially between 06/01/1909 and 10/16/1909.

Building History

Following the success of Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, many cities across the US, seeking good publicity and commercial growth, staged large-scale fairs: California Midwinter International Exposition, San Francisco, CA, 1894; Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta, GA, 1895; Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, Nashville, TN, 1897; Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, NB, 1898; Greater America Exposition, Omaha, NB, 1899; Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY, 1901; Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis, MO, 1904; Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, OR, 1905. Seattle's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition fell into this category, memorializing the prosperity brought into the city following the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.

The architecture and engineering firm, Howard and Galloway, Architects and Engineers, of San Francisco, CA, and the landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, MA, laid out this exposition, considered one of the most beautiful of its day, that ran between 06/01/1909-10/16/1909. A local newspaper, The Interlaken, announced the hiring of Howard and Galloway in mid-02/1907: "Howard & Galloway, architects, of San Francisco, have been engaged by the management of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition as chief architects for the exposition. Prof. John Galen Howard...is to come to Seattle in the near future to confer with the fair management regarding his work. Negotiations were opened with these architects several weeks ago, when they were here and took a look over the grounds. Mr. Galloway has charge of the engineering end of the work, and Mr. Howard, the designing." (See "Architects Selected for A.Y.P. Building," The Interlaken, old number 7, new number 46, 02/16/1907, p. 1.)

A groundbreaking ceremony attended by 15,000 people occurred on 06/01/1907, in a natural ampitheatre on the campus's northeastern edge. (See Archives West Orbis-Cascade Alliance.org, "Frank H. Nowell Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition photographs, 1907-1909," accessed 05/22/2024.)

PCAD id: 1608