The Spring Palace

Back in 1967, I had a front row seat while the city of San Antonio built itself a world’s fair, called Hemisfair ’68.  I remember being told that the event “would put the city on the map” and that it would “allow Texas to showcase its products and services”.  Basically, it was going to bring jobs and money to San Antonio.

In the decades since, I have learned that when a politician talks to me about ‘putting a place on the map’, the flagpole is about to be shoved through my wallet.  Whether it’s about building a Spaceport, a sports complex, or 750-foot tower in the middle of a fair, the politicians promise jobs and wealth that never really appear and the whole shooting match costs a bundle, raising property (and other) taxes for decades to come.

Back when I ran a hotel on Galveston Island, the city spent a fortune on a study of tourism.  Conducted by a high-priced consultant (a consultant is someone with an advanced degree who lives out of town) to see if the city could increase our revenue from tourism.  I’ll skip all the details, but it turned out that the residents of the city lost money on tourism since demand for city services went up while the meager trickle of increased revenue went to hotels and restaurants with out-of-state ownership.  While the tourist business brought new jobs, it also brought more low-income people looking for jobs.

In the words of one of the more astute city fathers, “The average tourist comes to the island with a five-dollar bill and a screaming kid with a dirty diaper.  By the time they leave, neither has been changed.”

By the time Hemisfair ’68 was over, the town had a few new buildings, the hotels and restaurants had made a small fortune, and the taxpayers were left to pay off millions of dollars.  The real winners were the various construction companies and banks that had financed the affair.  

The problem, of course, is than the novelty of such fairs and exhibitions has long since worn off.  The most famous of the world’s fairs, at least in the United States, was the 1964 fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.  As big as that fair was, the bondholders received less than $0.20 on the dollar for their investments.

The first truly “world’s fair” was the event organized by Prince Albert in 1851.  Called the Great Exhibition, it was showcased in The Crystal Palace, attracting six million visitors.  As the first of its kind, it was spectacularly successful.  It also set off a mania for such fairs in cities around the world.  I would be willing to bet that very few people know that this year’s fair is being held in Dubai.  Have you bought your tickets yet?

After the success of the Crystal Palace, there were seven more such fairs by the end of the decade.  In the 1860’s, there were twenty-eight more fairs scattered from Paris to Jakarta, in  the 1870’s, there were forty-three, and by the 1880’s, there were an astounding eighty-two such fairs.  Everybody had to have their own version, so I guess it is not all that surprising that the citizens of Fort Worth, Texas threw their ten-gallon hats into the ring, too.

The Texas Spring Palace was built to showcase Texas agricultural projects and more importantly, to attract immigrants.  Following the tradition established by Prince Albert’s Crystal Palace, the fair was housed in a single large building approximately three blocks wide and featuring the second largest dome in America—only slightly smaller than the dome on the nation’s capital. 

Built for only $35,000, the Palace was completed in only thirty-one days and was constructed using as many Texas agricultural products as possible.  The tarred roof, for example was not covered with gravel, but with kernels of Texas corn embedded into the tar.  The exterior also showcased animal hides, skulls, coal, wheat, seashells, and an impressive collection of horns and antlers.  

The general belief at the time was that visitors would be attracted by building something huge—something larger and more outlandish than anything anyone had ever seen.  Unfortunately, Texas was doomed to come in second best in this endeavor, since right about the time that Texas was building its exhibit hall, a guy named Eiffel was building an iron tower in Paris.  

Visitors could wander through the building and watch silkworms at work, or visit a log cabin, or a tipi, or watch waterfowl swim around in the fountain, or gaze upon Sam Houston’s walking stick.  And the livestock—there were a lot of various kinds of livestock.  (I can’t help but wonder what this non-air-conditioned building smelled like on a hot day.)

Incredibly, the fair was something of a success, attracting a surprising number of visitors, a full third of which came from outside of Texas, and the fair was very successful in attracting new businesses.  Hoping to cash in on a second season, the city fathers began work to double the size of the building in preparation for the 1891 exhibition.

Unfortunately, all those agricultural products used to create the building had dried out during the hot Texas summer.  On May 30, 1890, a fire started in the building, spreading so quickly that the visitors on the second floor were forced to jump from windows.   The huge building was completely destroyed in less than fifteen minutes.  Ironically, the same fate would later befall the Crystal Palace.  

The newspapers reported that the fire was started when a young boy stepped on a wooden kitchen match (commonly called a “Lucifer “ at the time) and the flame spread to an alfalfa-covered column, which in turn ignited painted canvas signs.

While there are no plaques or memorials in Fort Worth today to commemorate the Spring Palace, there is a statue honoring Al Hayne, a civil engineer, who lost his life while making sure that women and children safely escaped from the building.  Of the 5000 visitors present, Hayne was the only casualty.  Two years later, the city of Fort Worth organized a professional firefighting force.

Over the years to come, the city fathers tried repeatedly to organize a new exhibit, but were never able to get enough popular support.  After Dallas began holding an annual State Fair, Fort Worth changed its plans slightly, turning the plans for a renewed Spring Palace into the annual Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo, (which eventually became the more health-conscious  Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo).