Missouri History Museum

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On April 30, 1904,  Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company President David R. Francis officially opened the Louisiana Purchase Exposition  also known as the 1904  World's Fair  with the call, "Open ye gates. Swing wide, ye portals." A magnificent spectacle greeted the opening day crowd of 200,000 a  dazzling city stood on what had been a woodland park. Fair organizers had erected nearly 1,500 buildings including several grand "palaces" across 1,200 acres of a newly redesigned Forest Park.

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