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San Francisco 1915

The Danish building at the world exhibition in San Francisco, 1915 (Anton Rosen, published in Architekten, 1914).
The Danish building at the world exhibition in San Francisco, 1915 (Anton Rosen, published in Architekten, 1914).

In February 1915 the Panama Pacific International Exposition opened in San Francisco. This commemorated the completion of the Panama Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in August 1914 and the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by the Spaniard Vasco Núñez de Balbaos. The opening took place only nine years after the catastrophe of 1906, when San Francisco had been devastated by a powerful earthquake followed by extensive fires. The exhibition was a great success and assisted in bringing the city back to its feet again.

 

Amongst the many lands represented at the exhibition was Denmark. The idea for a Danish building had taken root as early as 1909 and the plans came to life after a collection was made amongst the Danish Americans. The rooms in the house resembled a cosy flat with reception rooms and a large hall. Here the visitors to the exhibition could imagine that they were in Denmark for a while. On the front face of the building’s main tower were plaster models of the Lur Blowers in Copenhagen's City Hall Square. At the tower’s foot stood a replica of Harald Bluetooth’s large rune stone in Jelling and opposite it was a stone with an explanation of the story of the building. The architect of the building was Professor Anton Rosen, whilst the replica of the rune stone was made by sculptor Siegfried Wagner, who produced the Lur Blowers in 1911-14. It is not known where the copy of the rune stone ended up. 

Gate tower of the Danish building at the world exhibition in San Francisco, 1915 (Anton Rosen, published in Architekten, 1914).
Gate tower of the Danish building at the world exhibition in San Francisco, 1915 (Anton Rosen, published in Architekten, 1914).