The Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition was first projected in 1871 by J. Irving Pearce, William F. Coolbaugh, Potter Palmer, Cyrus H. McCormick, and R.T. Crane and opened in 1873. Although there was a deficit every year until 1877, these enterprising citizens felt that it was good business for it helped to re-establish confidence after the Great Fire. Here Theodore Thomas’ summer night concerts and many grand operas were given in the eighties. It was razed in 1891 to make way for the Art Institute.
Courtesy of “Chicago and Its Makers” (Chicago: Felix Mendelsohn, 1929).
