Building History

In 1908, the US Congress passed legislation appropriating a total $250,000 for the construction of several buildings at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE), including pavilions for the US Government, Hawaii, Alaska and the Philippines. Additionally, these funds were to cover the costs of a "life-saving station," a building highlighting the benefits of irrigation and an aquarium for a fisheries exhibit. The Congressional report stated: "Section 14: "That the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause suitable buildings to be erected on the site of said Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition for said Government exhibit, including an irrigation and biograph building; also a fisheries building complete, with mechanical apparatus; also buildings for the exhibits of the the district of Alaska, the Territory of Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands; also building for such purposes in connection with the exhibits herein authorized as in the judgement of the Secretary of the Treasury may be necessary. Said building shall be erected from plans prepared by the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to contract for said buildings in the same manner and under the same regulaitons as for
other public buildings of the United States, but the contract for said buildings, including the preparation of ground therefor and the approaches thereto, and the interior
and exterior decorative wiring and lighting thereof shall not exceed the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which sum or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and required to dispose of said buildings, or the materials composing the smae, at the close of the exposition, giving preference to the State of Washington or to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition corporation or to the city of Seattle to purchase the same at an appraised value to be ascertained in such manner as the Secretary of the Treasury may determine. (See Statutes of the United States of America Passed at the First Session of the Sixtieth Congress, 1907-1908 and Concurrent Resolutions of the Two Houses of Congress, RecentTreaties and Executive Proclamations, [Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office], Session I, Ch. 200, 1908, p.390.)

Building Notes

A short notice published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel said of the US Government Building at the AYPE: "In the government building at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition will be an extensive panorama of the Grand Valley in Colorado showing the vast irrigation projects now inder construction." (See untitled item, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 01/14/1909, p. 8.)

PCAD id: 19696