Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0360Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of an interior room with aa large oval table in the center surrounded by many chairs. Above the image "26" is printed, below the image 32244 The Room of the Governing Board, Pan-American Union Building, Washington, D. C." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
32244
THE GOVERNING BOARD ROOM. PAN-AMERICAN UNION BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C.
Eminent foreign critics habe declared that the Pan_American union Building, for tis cost, combines more architectural beauty and practical usefulness than any other public building in existence. It was completed in 1910 at a cost of $1,100,000, of which sum $850,000 was given by the late Andrew Carnegie, while the remainder was contributed by the American republics, including the United States. Its architecture, in general, is reminiscent of that of Spain, and a unique feature is the Spanish Patio, or inner court, open to the sky but surrounded on all sides by the building. Here, around a central fountain of pre-historic Aztec design, beds oftropical flowers, berad-fruti trees, rubber plants, and giant palms flourish throughout the year and red and blue maxaws live amid the foliage.
Whithin the building is the Columbus Memorial Library, containing 53,000 volumes of Americana in various languages. There are a number of sumptuously decorated and furnished rooms, corridors, galleries and ahlls, among the most interesting of which are the Gallery of Patriots and National Flags, and the magnificent Hall of the Americas, 100 ft. long by 65 ft. wide wherein brilliant social funcitons areheld from time to time. At the N. and S. ends of this Hall are smaller apartments, the one at the S., into which we are now looking, being espeically noteworthy. It is the Governing Board Room, whose most striking decoration is a bronze frieze of four panels, illustrating the arly history of the New World. The oval table and the chairs are made of Dominican mahogany. On each chair are carved the neam and coat-of-arms of one of the republics, whose representative occupies that particular chari at meetings of the Board.
Copyright Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection