Home——History——Remnants——Appendix——Acknowledgements——Coming——Contact——Links

Found Remnants /Architecture

Legion of Honor
While the California Palace of the Legion of Honor located in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park was not a part of the PPIE it almost certainly would not have come into being had it not been for France’s contribution to the Exposition. Already immersed in WWI when it started construction of its pavilion on January 7, 1915, France opted to create a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur, an architectural treasure emblematic of French national pride since Napoleon Bonaparte adopted the former Hotel de Salm for the home of his newly created Order of the Legion of Honor in 1809. How better to show the world that the honor and spirit of the French nation was still in tact?

Reasoning that its irreplaceable treasures would be better off on display in America rather than having to run the risk of being stolen, damaged, or destroyed during the war, France sent a “small exposition” to be housed in its pavilion which contained more than 60,000 square feet of exhibit space. The catalog of paintings, engravings, sculptures, medals, tapestries, porcelains and other art objects which chronicled their exhibits was an inch thick.

Central to the pavilion was the great Court of Honor where August Rodin’s bronze sculpture of The Thinker sat and brooded. The property of San Francisco sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckles, it was loaned by him to the French pavilion for the period of the Exposition.

There were eleven other Rodin’s on display in the French pavilion. Alma Spreckles, Adolph’s wife, had made a partial payment on four of these sculptures prior to the Exposition. She remitted the final payment when the Exposition closed, and had her purchases moved to the Spreckle’s mansion at 2080 Washington. Before the remaining Rodin’s could be returned to France at the conclusion of WWI, she purchased these as well. These 11 sculptures formed the core of Alma’s Rodin collection which eventually totaled more than 80 pieces of plaster, clay, marble, and bronze.

Alma had not only become a collector of Rodin sculptures, she had fallen under the spell of the French pavilion and prevailed upon her husband to have a copy of it built as a new art museum for San Francisco where her burgeoning art collection could be displayed. At the close of the Exposition, Adolph Spreckles obtained permission from the French government to construct a permanent replica of the “Legion of Honor”, but WWI delayed the ground breaking until 1921.The Spreckles decided to dedicate their new museum to the 3,600 California men who had lost their lives in “The Great War”. On Armistice Day, November 11, 1924, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, opened its doors to the public for the first time.

NEXT>