Today - 131 years after men wearing straw hats and women wearing hoop dresses and parasols roamed the exposition grounds - only a handful of the exposition's 200 structures are left, chief among them Memorial Hall and the Ohio House. And they're headed, along with the unique model, into a new era.
Once neglected and vandalized, Memorial Hall is getting a $40 million face-lift that will transform it into the home of the Please Touch Museum in fall 2008. The model will be the centerpiece of a new Centennial exhibit.
The restoration has long been the dream of Philadelphia historians, preservationists and architects who hoped to save the Beaux Arts building, originally designed by Hermann J. Schwarzmann as an international art gallery and permanent Centennial memorial. They carefully researched the history of Memorial Hall and the Centennial; they studied the model and photographs, and they are lovingly restoring the architectural gem to embrace its role as a children's museum.
Nearby, the Gothic-style Ohio House - that state's exhibit space in 1876 - is being turned into a cafe, which is expected to open this summer.
"I actually get emotional about this," said Nancy Kolb, president and CEO of the Please Touch Museum. "I have always loved history and have had a long career in museums, so to save this building and tell the story of the Centennial is great for me. And the model is a key part of what we're trying to do."
Kolb, a former member of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, said much attention is focused on 18th-century Philadelphia, but little is given to the 19th-century Centennial, which drew 10 million visitors at a time when Philadelphia had less than 1 million residents.
In the summer of 1876, Philadelphia replaced Niagara Falls as the most popular honeymoon spot.
