The Cities That Appeared, and Then Disappeared

From 1851 to the early 20th century, World’s fairs rose in cities across the realm—massive expos said to showcase progress, invention, and civilization. But what they revealed looked less like innovation and more like memory: vast classical structures, domes, arches, columned halls stretching for acres. The 1893 Chicago Exposition alone covered over 600 acres with more than 200 monumental buildings—built, they said, in under two years.

Official accounts claimed the architecture was temporary, made from plaster and wood. But photographs tell another story. Stone-like finishes, detailed interiors, immense scale, and design far beyond what transitory construction should allow. People came to marvel, but also to be taught—to receive the official version of history, of invention, of what was new.

And when it ended, nearly all of it was demolished. Buried, burned, or erased. What’s left behind suggests these fairs weren’t simply built to celebrate the future—but to rewrite the past.

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