Machinery Gardens
Part of the Main Picture, located next to the Palace of Machinery, were the Machinery Gardens.
Description[edit | edit source]
Between broad strips of paving the gardens extended for nearly one-third of a mile, with great masses of bright colors set in spacious lawns. A Bandstand on the western edge of the gardens had daily concerts given successively by the Garde Republicaine band of France, the Grenadier band of Great Britain, the President’s band of Mexico, Sousa’s band, and other bands of national renown. Two of the most notable of the thirteen hundred pieces of statuary on the Exposition Grounds were in Machinery Gardens. They are symbolic compositions. One stands for “The Mountain,” the other for “The Prairie.” The first of these, “The Mountain,” presents a miner and a hunter on opposite sides of a mountain. On the summit stands a figure personifying “The Old Man of the Mountain,” with bald head sunken between the shoulders. “The Prairie is a group of figures symbolizing the harvest period. Solitude is expressed in the one; joyousness in the other.
