Georgia
 | |
| Location | The Trail |
|---|---|
| Construction | |
| Construction Cost | $18,100 ($545,883 in 2021) |
| Furnishing Cost | $3,000 ($90,478 in 2021) |
Georgia's model for its state building was "Sutherland," It was situated on one of the main avenues of the Exposition, known as The Trail, and immediately north of Virginia and opposite Tennessee and Idaho. It was a replica of the home of the late Gen. John B. Gordon in Kirkwood (an Atlanta suburb).
Before the Fair
The Georgia Legislature made an appropriation of $30,000 ($1.06 million in 2021) to provide for the State's participation in the Exposition, but made no provision for a building. With the aid of a committee of citizens, they raised the money by private subscriptions for this building. The house was furnished entirely with Georgian manufactures.
Description
"Sutherland," the home of General John B. Gordon, famed Confederate soldier is the model for the Georgia State Building. It is of that peculiar type which even architects now call 'Georgia Colonial', a synonym for a homelike exterior. The only changes in the reproduction are the omission of the rear staircase and modification of the rear elevation, because of the lack of domestic apartments.
A broad central hall is used as a general reception room and office, where guests may register. The side walls are of Georgia yellow pine. Every bit of material in the building came from Georgia. It is the boast of the Commission that even the iron beds, in the private apartments, were mined, refined and framed inside the State, and this demand for native material is carried to the extent even of using Georgia soap. To the left is the ladies' reception room. Over a Conover piano, with an Imperial Player, is a portrait of Samuel Hammond, who was a member of Congress when the Louisiana territory was purchased, and who was appointed by President Jefferson the first Governor of the District of St. Louis. Another portrait in the same room is of James Edward Oglethorpe, the Colonial Governor, who brought John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism, to this country. Because of them, Georgia claims to have had the first Sunday school ever established in the United States. Another interesting portrait is that of General Gordon himself, by female artist G. K. Gregory in the gentlemen's reception room. Below it and across a corner is another Conover piano. All decorations are of the simplest sort, the desire being to make it cozy rather than pretentious. Georgia literature, Georgia pictures, and Georgia papers are distributed with generous hand.
Owing to the lateness in preparing for the Exposition was begun October, 1903 the state a did not make a complete and comprehensive exhibit of her natural, educational, and manufacturing products.
In the Agricultural Palace, one of the most different exhibits contributed by Georgia was that of the manufacture of the celebrated Georgia cane syrup, donated by the Georgia Syrup Growers' Association, which cost $1,700 (equivalent to $51,271 in 2021). There was also a complete display of sea-island cotton in bales and types, together with threads and the various cloths manufactured from the same. The state also showcased its cotton industry. The display consisted of a pyramid containing cotton-seed hulls, meal linters, crude oil, surrounded by commercial packages of meal and hulls, refined oils and lard compounds manufactured from cotton seed. The material and maintenance cost 12,000 dollars. A fine tobacco exhibit was also shown.
Etymology
After the Fair
At the end of the Fair, the Georgia commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition donated the entire furnishings of the state building to the Georgia Industrial Home at Macon, Georgia., the only nonsectarian orphanage in the state.
