House <y Garden 
ever far this highly wrought chapel had 
departed from the simplicity of struggling 
religious establishments of the Mexican 
pioneers, and however overcrowded the 
small cell may have seemed, all its parts led 
to consummate 
richness. T h e 
beautiful tones of 
marbles and mo¬ 
saic, wrought 
wood and metals, 
— all combined 
with color where 
color could be 
added , — and 
tempered by a 
soft diffused light, 
bade silence to 
the visitors who 
eagerly crossed 
the threshold. 
With some¬ 
what less freedom 
of outline than is seen in many of the South¬ 
ern California missions the architect had suc¬ 
ceeded with fair success in reproducing at 
Buffalo the character 
of the old buildings. 
But a small space was 
available of the valu¬ 
able area within the 
Exposition limits: 
conditions altogether 
different from the 
wide horizons of the 
West. There great 
arcaded courts and 
long ambulatories 
spread out upon the 
plains, and the spaces 
they enclosed were 
nothing less than 
fields. At Buffalo 
condensation was 
necessary, and it was 
skilfully done. T he 
tower recalled the 
beautiful little belfry 
of the Mission of San 
Carlos, and the un¬ 
broken wall surfaces, 
the heavy propor¬ 
tions of arcades and 
roofs were true to every example remaining 
in the west. That these characteristics, as 
indigenous to our soil as any structures ever 
reared here, should be happily reproduced 
and put to service at an exposition of all 
America was a 
fortunate thought 
to be credited to 
the Mission 
Building’s prime 
movers. 
An announce¬ 
ment was made by 
the M. H. Birge 
& Sons Company 
and Messrs. [. & 
R. I _.amb that a 
series of prizes 
would be given 
by them for the 
best photographs 
and sketches 
which may be 
made of the Mission Building during the 
period of the Exposition. Decision was to 
be rendered by a jury composed of the archi¬ 
tect of the building, 
Director of Fine Arts 
of the Exposition, 
Mr. William A. 
Coffin, Director of 
Color, Mr. C. Y. 
Turner, Mr. George 
K. Birge and Mr. 
Charles R. Lamb. 
Every facility for 
drawing and photog¬ 
raphing was given by 
the proprietors of the 
building to those in¬ 
tending to compete. 
Unfortunately, how¬ 
ever, the rules of the 
Exposition had rigid¬ 
ly excluded tripod 
cameras from use in 
the grounds. Only 
4" x 5" hand cameras 
or smaller ones had 
been permitted, and 
to that size the photo¬ 
graphs of the com¬ 
petition were limited. 
THE PLAN OF THE MISSION I5UILDING 
Negative by u Norwood " 
THE FOUNTAIN 
33 
