The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building at Chicago was by all odds the largest house ever reared by man.
The design of the immense building, north of the great basin and stretching along the lake front, was entrusted to George B. Post, of New York.
From the corner pavilion in the foreground to the central pylon, where the five flags wave, is eight hundred and forty-three and one-half feet, and
thence to the further end as many feet more, making one thousand six hundred and eighty-seven feet in all, or
nearly one-third of a mile. The corner pavilion which looks low is really ninety-seven feet high.
The four pylons on each side of the great building are triumphal arches of the Roman and Parisian order. "The pylon standing so high above the side curtains, offered room for a third gallery inside, which probably many million visitors never discovered. On the east side of the Manufactures the orchestrions and automatic musical instruments occupied this attic with many wonders. The notable thing about these portals was the height of the eagles at the base of the flags, eighteen feet, the magnitude of their surroundings dwarfing them to an astonishing extent." --The Dream City
"It cost $1,700,000 to finish this work. Not only was this the wonder of the world, and the central object of the Fair, but its interior revealed a variety of splendor not heretofore attained by the people of the nations." --The Dream City