After finishing Count the Nights by Stars, I couldn’t resist looking up some photos of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897 (the primary setting of the book). I thought I’d share my discoveries here! There is a lot more information out on the internet, but maybe you’ll enjoy some of these highlights which were also featured in the novel.
This is the giant see-saw ride I mentioned in my last post. It went upwards of 200 feet in the air and cost 25 cents for your first ride and a dime for every ride thereafter. Apparently the amusement was meant to rival another recently popular construction: the Ferris Wheel, which had just been constructed by George Ferris and opened in 1893. In the distance, you can see the Memphis building, which was built to resemble a Pyramid.
I love this image. There’s the Memphis building again, easily visible to the right. In front is what appears to be the Parthenon. I wondered if you could spy the see-saw, and you can– poking above the hills in the upper left.
It’s hard to believe these beautiful buildings were created solely for the 6 month celebration and were torn down afterward, as they were not built solidly enough to last long-term.
The Rialto Bridge across Lake Watauga. The Rialto housed shops where you could buy souvenirs commemorating the Centennial. Beneath it you can see a gondola, which you could ride for a fee. Watauga was a man-made, artificial lake.
A final image, a bird’s eye view of the grounds. I am a bit confused, because in the last photo you could view the Memphis building very close to the Parthenon, and here I cannot. There is a triangular building across the lake, but in the photo it appears very close. Perhaps this was an early design for the park layout, before it was built, and the map changed somewhat? If I am looking at it from the wrong angle, let me know.
Hope you enjoyed a little peek into a piece of history I knew nothing about until picking up Count the Nights by Stars by Michelle Shocklee. Click here to see my review of that book. Let me know if you have any other interesting tidbits of information about this or any other Expositions of olden days!
a page out of her book 