The Cotton Palace, Charleston, South Carolina

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
This is in Ladies Tea because it seems to have been one of those destinations of the era- a grand estate, overdone, exotic sunken gardens, arched bridges leading to them lit by lanterns, all forms of entertainment including a racetrack encompassing the park. It sounds a lot like what the British provided at a place called Vauxhall Gardens but have to check on that again, been awhile since I've poked around there.

So far, from what I can find The Cotton Palace also served as a Civil War prison for Union prisoners. The thing is, can NOT find much material on the place, it's crazy! For as extensive, amazing and comprehensively fabulous a piece of architecture and engineering it was for the time- not-much. Will have to get into various government library extensions and university presses. For now- there was the Grand Expo, if anyone is interested, and HOPE someone will be! HOPY cow, it was really something! What I want to know is what happened to all these buildings apparently erected expressly for the event?

I have a wonderful wonderful book on the Atlanta Expo of 1898 ( I think- top of my head ). My grgrandmother's twin sister was a delegate from New York, had her own embossed, leather copy with her name. There's a Civil War section which blows my socks off, all the meetings they held there. ( The blurb under my profile, by McKinley is from his speech there ) Longstreet was at that one! ) By chance, she had no children, it was passed to me. Can't imagine what a guess book from this 1902 expo ould look like. Worth a browse.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2010/20100218004ch/20100218004ch.pdf

Meanwhile, if anyone knows more of The Cotton Palace and more interestingly why on earth we have so little information on it, love to know!

cp1.JPG


cp2.JPG
 
Waco, Texas had the Texas Cotton Palace. The first version was built in 1894, opening in November and being destroyed in a spectacular fire in January 1895.

A second Cotton Palace was constructed in 1910 and was the center piece of Waco civic life until 1931.

Postcard of the 2nd CP, 1917.
CP 1917.jpg
 
Wow! Thank you! These expos were incredible! I mean, look at these buildings and grounds! They were not just kind of hollow shells either- the interiors were just as beautiful so to think they were purpose built for one event really blow you away The South seems to have specialized in this kind of thing. The Atlanta Expo seems a lot the same, then the Charleston, wonder how long it had to take to plan these? And what happened to the buildings later, were they turned into schools or hotels or administration buildings for something?
 
Back
Top