House £s? Garden 
THE MISSION BUILDING. 
AT THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION. 
George Cary, Architect. 
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION. 
HE Mission Building is clear in the 
memory of all who visited the Pan- 
American Exposition at Buffalo last year. 
Close as it stood to the hodgepodge of a 
modern show,—where many objects each 
strive to be more conspicuous than the other 
and all clamor for 
attention,—its se¬ 
rene beauty was 
the more impres¬ 
sive ; its character 
was the more dis¬ 
tinct. The archi¬ 
tecture was a diff¬ 
erent one from 
ours of to-day. It 
recalled that early 
and poetic life of 
the far southwest, 
that existence of 
religious devotion 
and rural industry 
which was begun 
with brave self- 
sacrifice and 
doomed to a pa¬ 
thetic decline. 
The contrast be¬ 
tween this simple 
structure and the 
gay forms of the 
exposition could 
not have been 
more complete if 
Father Junipero 
himself andhisbe- 
loved Indians had 
suddenly appeared and escorted us to one of 
the arched entrances. 
It was near the northeastern angle of the 
canal that the light plastered walls appeared 
behind a screen of Lombardy poplars planted 
on the water’s edge. Above deep shadows of 
overhanging roofs rose a low tower covered 
with blue glazed tiles that shone in the sum¬ 
mer sun. Vines and bright flowers streamed 
over the parapets of loggias and pressed 
through the iron grilles of windows. Throngs 
of sightseers made their way into gardens and 
courts and found there refreshment and de¬ 
light. Resting on benches between a circle of 
cedar trees in the centre of the courtyard, they 
watched the splashing water from Mr. Bitter’s 
bronze fountain set within four columns 
brought from Spain. Timbers, covered with 
vines, formed an open roof above the old 
marble shafts and were a favorite promenade 
of several important occupants of the build¬ 
ing—the white cockatoos. A few Mexican 
macaws sent 
their scoldings 
resounding from 
t wall to wall and 
through the ar¬ 
cades. Vines were 
trained upon 
every place of sup¬ 
port, and potted 
plants were set 
a b out on the 
courtyard pave¬ 
ment over whose 
bricks may have 
slipped the 
sandelled feet of 
pious friars. 
H o w did an 
echo of a hundred 
years ago come to 
be given tangible 
form ; and how 
could a relic of 
monastic life in 
America lend 
itself to a modern 
and legitimate 
end ? In the Cal¬ 
ifornia missions 
Indians were led 
in the teachings of 
Christianity and in the arts of civilization. 
Tilling of the soil, weaving, painting, hewing 
timbers, and building bridges and roads filled 
the hours between the ringing of the Angelus 
and were a part of the daily round. And 
when three firms resolved to construct a 
building suitable for displaying their wares at 
the Pan-American Exposition, a mission 
building was soon decided upon, as it would 
have—were it faithful to its prototype— 
natural divisions appropriate to three kinds 
31 
