On April 30, 1904,  Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company President David R. Francis officially opened the Louisiana Purchase Exposition  — also known as the 1904  World’s Fair — with the call, “Open ye gates. Swing wide, ye portals.” A magnificent spectacle greeted the opening day crowd of 200,000 — a  dazzling city stood on what had been a woodland park. Fair organizers had erected nearly 1,500 buildings — including several grand “palaces” — across 1,200 acres of a newly redesigned Forest Park.