Heritage of an Exposition

How the architecture of the Panama-California Exposition, which influenced the appearance of all California, flowed from designs of famed buildings in historic Spain, Mexico and Italy

Salamanca in northwest central Spain became a center of culture and education as early as the 13th Century. By the 15th Century the wealthy Spaniards who sent their sons to its university built palaces for them to live in.

One of these was the Palace of Monterey. The design of its noted tower, shown below, was borrowed for a number of the towers of the exposition.

Above is the one on the building which stood on the northeast corner of the central Plaza de Panama.

A similar tower, though more ornate, crowned the building across the Prado and which became known as the House of Hospitality.