University of Virginia Library

THE HALL OF MINES AND MINING.

Side by side with the Electrical Building, stands the Exhibition Hall of Mines and Mining. The building is but one story in height, the main cornice being sixty-five feet from the ground. Its design follows no arbitrary lines, but in simple and straightforward elegance it is all that a great Exposition building should be.

The entrances are upon each of the four sides of the building, the principal ones upon the ends. These are each one hundred and ten feet high and thirty-two feet wide, opening into lavishly decorated vestibules eighty-eight feet high. To the right and left of each entrance interior, broad flights of steps lead to the galleries, sixty feet wide and twenty-five feet above the floor. The interior is lighted by large windows on the sides, and from above by a, high clearstory extending around the building. Decorations, illustrative of mining, are generously bestowed about, and are massed at the prominent points of the facade. Part of the mining exhibit consists of marbles of various kinds and hues, which are incorporated in the building itself, as they serve as facing for the loggias on the first floor. These loggias, or covered promenades, each twenty five feet wide and two hundred and thirty feet long, are richly decorated arcades that extend between the main entrance and the dome covered pavilions at each corner on the ground floor, and from which entrance is had to the building at several points. In addition to this there is a deeply recessed promenade on the gallery floor level, which commands a fine view of the grounds and waterways. The gathering, smelting and treatment of ores of both the precious and baser metals will be illustrated by working models. Mining machinery will be in full blast, and many valuable mine products displayed.