14 Oct 2026 1 min read

The 1904 World's Fair

The 1904 Grand Basin with the former Palace of Fine Arts (currently the St. Louis Art Museum) at left.

Returning to the site of the last post, St. Louis's Forest Park hosted the World's Fair—officially the Louisiana Purchase Exposition—in 1904, running from April 30 to December 1. It coincided with the 1904 Summer Olympics that ran from July 1 to November 23, also in St. Louis.

The city's Forest Park served as the fair's main grounds, with its Grand Basin as the fair's centerpiece, as seen here in contemparary park signage.

**St. Louis's Grand Basin signage (photo July, 2018)**

The Grand Basin is on the lower right, with the Palace of Fine Arts in the distance behind the fair's Festival Hall (now demolished). This photo is an elevated view taken from roughly the same location as the first, relative to the Grand Basin.

The Grand Basin is still one of the highlights of the park today, and the photo below was taken in 2018 and is taken approximately from the location of the former Festival Hall, looking northeast.