Among the books published in 1904 were Frank L. Baum’s The Marvelous Land of Oz, Henry James’ The Golden Bowl and Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Benjamin Bunny.
April 27 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate.
Oct 2 – Graham Greene, novelist.
Nov 28 – Nancy Mitford, novelist and biographer.
Construction began on one of London’s most famous hotels, sited on the fashionable street of Piccadilly. The Ritz Hotel was designed by Charles Mewés, architect of the original hotel in Paris, and British designer Arthur Davis, in collaboration with Swedish engineer Sven Bylander. It was the first building in the capital to be built around a steel frame rather than a timber one and was set out to resemble a luxurious French Chateau.
The interior of the seven-storey building was to be completed in the Louis XVI style, with a central Palm Court where refreshments would be served around a gilded fountain. The hotel itself, owned by Swiss hotelier César Ritz, opened in May 1906.
On July 19, King Edward VII laid the foundation stone for the new cathedral in Liverpool. The building, designed by unknown competition winner Giles Gilbert Scott, was consecrated in 1924 when the altar was finished but was not to open for regular services until 1940. Scott was never to see his masterpiece fully completed as work continued until 1978, a full 75 years after the design was approved and 18 years after the architect’s death. He is buried under the building’s bell tower.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed a five-storey, red-brick building for the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo, New York. The building itself was demolished in 1950 but was the very model of innovation in 1904, with plate glass windows, steel desks and suspended toilet bowls. It was also the first fully air-conditioned building on record. ‘Nearly every technological innovation used today was suggested in the Larkin Building in 1904,’ Wright later claimed.
October 4 – Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, French sculpture and designer of the Statue of Liberty.
On April 30, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the World Fair, opened in St Louis to a crowd of 200,000. The event, to commemorate the centenary of a purchase of a huge swathe of land from the French, was opened by the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company with the words, ‘Open ye gates. Swing wide ye Portals.’
Crowds were amazed to see a woodland park transformed by the construction of 1,500 new buildings, including several ‘palaces’ housing arts, science exhibitions and demonstrations of human progress from the previous century.
One of the most impressive and expensive structures was the Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Cass Gilbert. Made of steel and stone, unlike the timber-framed buildings in the rest of the park, it cost over $1 million and was intended as a lasting reminder of the fair. Inside, visitors could see paintings, engravings, sculptures and jewellery from artists around the world. The last surviving structure from the event, it is now home to the St Louis Arts Museum.