The largest attendance of any single day during the Fall exhibit, 1913, 

 at the Conservatory, was on November 18, when 31,492 visitors were counted 

 on entering. 



This exhibit showed an increased attendance of 45,000 over the attend- 

 ance a year ago. 



PALM HOUSE — EXHIBITION HOUSE — FERN HOUSE — SHOW 



HOUSE— CONIFER HOUSE— ECONOMIC HOUSE— NEW 



HOLLAND HOUSE— STOVE HOUSE 



The Garfield Park Conservatoi~y is one of the largest of its kind in the 

 world. Nowhere else has an attempt ever been made to build greenhouses 

 for the exhibition of exotic plants in a public park with public funds on 

 such a large scale. 



The houses contain 68,0.5.5 square feet of floor space, and are roofed over 

 by 104,700 square feet of glass. The cubical contents of the entire structure 

 is 1,927,400 cubic feet. The Palm House, which is the largest room, is 65 

 feet high in the center, 26,7.38 square feet of steam radiation being required 

 for heating. 



Prior to 1905, each of the large West Chicago Parks: Humboldt, Gar- 

 field and Douglas, had its own conservatory and propagating house. As 

 these buildings were old and beyond repair, new houses had to be considered. 

 Consideration was given to the excessive cost of maintaining three sepa- 

 rate conservatories whose contents were practically the same, and whose 

 exhibits were duplications of one another. In order to reduce the cost of 

 erecting and maintaining three smaller conservatories with the necessary 

 propagating houses, in which to provide for the flower shows and the out- 

 door display during the summer, the West Park Board decided to erect one 

 large conservatory, centrally located. 



The use of a power house already in existence, for heating purposes, and 

 the placing of compost evils and other unsightly but necessary adjuncts to 

 a greenhouse establishment, decided the present location, which is conve- 

 nient to surface and elevated roads and on the main park drive encii-cling 

 the city. 



The Conservatory was completed in 1907. The object was to erect a 

 conservatory that would contain a great vai'iety of plants interesting to the 

 layman and professional, and of educational value to the student, to produce 

 periodical exhibits that would be of interest to the people, and to create a 

 center of horticulture that would lead the Middle West. The Conservatory 

 represents the most modern studies in growing exotic plants under glass for 

 exhibition purposes, and it is unique in containing different sections, having 

 special temperature and humidity to meet the requirements of plants from 

 all parts of the warmer zones of the earth. 



The entrance to the Conservatory is dignified and in keeping with what 

 one meets inside. Flanked by two beautiful groups — "Idyl" and "Pastoral" — 

 a most imposing picture is presented, a tropical jungle, as it were, from the 

 carboniferous age. The formal exhibition shelves on either side of the en- 

 trance indicate one of the purposes to which these glass houses are devoted. 

 Right and left the path leads through jungles of palms and ferns from the 

 tropics. As the palms are the dominating feature of this exhibit, this house 

 is called the Palm House. There are Cocoa Palms, Date Palms, the Fish Tail 

 Palm that supplies alcoholic drinks to the Malays and Indians, the Raphia 

 Palm used for basket making, matting, etc., the Coi-phya Palm from South- 

 ern Europe, and the Carludevica from South and Central America, the latter 

 furnishing material for the expensive Panama hat; the Sago Palm and Sugar 

 Palm, (Phoenix Sylvestris). Many of these palms furnish food, clothing and 

 shelter for the alaoriginal people of tropical countries. One of the most 

 important, perhaps, is the Banana Tree. At the north end of the house, 

 around the pool, is a group of Bamboos. These ti'ees furnish the staple wood 

 for many purposes in China and the entire eastern part of Asia. The stems 

 are used for building bridges, masts, poles, etc. When split, they are used 



