Idaho Building (1904)
The Idaho Building at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904 was a 1-story hacienda designed by architect J. Flood Walker. The building was smallest among the state building exhibits, yet it made a lasting impression on fairgoers. The architect received over 300 requests for architectural drawings of the building in 1904, and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat said of the building, "This is the ideal ranch house that the St. Louis exposition has created, and if remembered for nothing else by western people, the world's fair will always be recalled by the constantly growing number of houses constructed after the fashion of Idaho's pretty building." Architecture The exterior of the 1-story building was 60 feet square with minimal decoration, cream colored walls, with windows six feet above ground. The roof was red clay tile. Inside the building, ten rooms surrounded a small courtyard and fountain. Interior rooms featured paneling and open beam ceilings of wood from Idaho's forests. Transparency photographs of Idaho scenery hung inside the windows, and Native American artifacts were displayed. A writer for the Omaha Daily Bee said that "Idaho's building is a cosy bungalow, with a great smoking room that has polished floors,