Last updated: March 3, 2021
Place
10 - World's Fair
WAYSIDE TITLE: San Francisco Hosts the 1915 World's Fair!
PANEL LOCATION: The wayside faces west and is in the northern portion of the Great Meadow Loop Trail. It is just to the side of the large asphalt path. Exercise caution with passing bikes.
VIEW FROM WAYSIDE: The wayside faces the northern portion of the great meadow. It is a large grassy expanse lined by a row of Monterrey cypress. The larger portion of the Great Meadow is behind you, dotted with palm trees and adorned with the Phillip Burton statue and the Bufano Statue. Beyond the Great Meadow is Headquarters Building 201, Officer's Quarters, and skyscrapers in the far distance. The Palace of the Fine Arts is visible in the far distance to your left. The loop trail extends to either side of you.
TEXT: Was it Joy or was it Exploitation? The Panama Pacific International Exposition proclaimed a full recovery from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire to the world. The fair promoted the Panama Canal's opening, but also coincided with the army's new shipping facility at lower Fort Mason. To showcase San Francisco's economic potential and the nation's global expansion, the city built glittering pavilions and palaces on 635 acres of filled marshland between Fort Mason and the Presidio.
The nine-month fair highlighted new innovations, such as airplanes, electric lighting, telephones and mass production. But an amusement-style "Joy Zone" in at Fort Mason also featured "Native Villages" with stereotypical natives from places like Samoa, the Philippines, and Somalia. Wild West shootouts, idealized slave quarters and a dangerous "Underground Chinatown" were also portrayed, but their offensive nature and poor sales led to replacement by gambling parlors and explicit shows.
TEXT: What are the consequences of using stereotypes?
DESCRIPTION OF IMAGE #1: A black and white photo in the bottom left corner of this panel depicts the "Joy Zone" in 1915. There are more people walking down the promenade than can ever possibly be counted. Amusement-themed buildings border either side of the street, including a tower topped with a smiling clown's head and a figure of a man with a drum for legs. Photo credit San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
MAP: A map of the world's fair is in the bottom right corner of this panel. It is a detailed sketch that includes what is now Crissy Field with a complex grid of paths and buildings stretching east all the way to Fort Mason. An orange circle indicates that "You Are Here" at Fort Mason. Some of the buildings are labeled "palaces," each with different themes such as: horticulture, liberal arts, education and social economy, food production, transportation, mines and metallurgy, and machinery and manufacturers. The palace that is furthest west has a natural arc to its construction and is labeled "Palace of Fine Arts." A section south of Fort Mason is labeled "The Amusement and Concessions Zone." The caption reads: The Palace of Fine Arts (orange dome in distance) is the only remaining building from the 1915 fair.
DESCRIPTION OF IMAGE #2: The illustration is titled "Indian Village in the Santa Fe Grand Concession on the "The Zone,"" credited Bob Bowen Family Collection. It is a recreation of a pueblo-style buildings in the Joy Zone of the 1915 World Fair. One of the buildings is adorned with wooden awnings and a ladder. The other building has windows cut into its walls, and a single bell hangs from a bar spanning the width of each window. A cross tops this building.
DESCRIPTION OF IMAGE #3: A black-and-white photo of the 1915 World's Fair is below this image. Many domed buildings that resemble the Palace of Fine Arts line San Francisco's shore. The tops of these palaces are shrouded in fog.
DIRECTIONS TO NEXT WAYSIDE: Continue straight down the Great Meadow Loop for 404 feet. Watch for cyclists and stay to the left. At the three-pronged fork, stay on the leftmost side of the trail to continue on the loop. Walk 425 feet, and you will reach the next wayside.