[Music]
construction on the 1893 World’s Fair
begins on a cold winter day in Chicago
the volume of work to be done is
staggering in effect an entire city has
to be built in just 27 months there’s
only one architectural company capable
of leading such an enormous project
Burnham and Ruud is the most sought
after firm in town Daniel Burnham and
John welborne group were kind of V if I
can use this phrase the kind of studs of
the skyscraper era these were the two
guys who ran the most successful firm
who were building the most successful
and artful and handsome buildings in
Chicago Olmsted chooses a six hundred
acre plot of land just south of the city
on the shores of Lake Michigan there
Burnham in route lay out plans to
construct 200 buildings that will house
more than 60,000 exhibits from around
the world but the swampy sandy land
makes construction difficult there are
pictures of the excavation underway and
people were using wheel barrels long
chains of wheel barrels Burnham hand
picks ten of the country’s top
architects to design the jewel of the
fair a collection of majestic white
buildings so enchanting the fair will
carry its nickname into the future the
white city and then tragedy
sadly route got sick and died right
after they were chosen to be the guys in
charge of the fair it’s hidden in
history but it was route who was the
sort of creative genius of that firm he
was the guy who was a visionary
now Burnham has to shoulder the
responsibility of constructing the fair
alone it’s as if a shadow has already
fallen over the fair but the real
darkness is still to come
just a few miles away from the
fairgrounds HH Holmes is building his
own dream project a World’s Fair Hotel
he’ll use to rent out rooms to fair
goers on the outside it’s a large hotel
with retail stores on the first floor
35 rental rooms on the second and homes
his office on the third
but inside it’s much more the house is
actually sort of to think of it it is
sort of a physical representation of
Holmes himself a very complicated being
that isn’t it all inside what it appears
to be on the outside in May 1892 a
beautiful young woman from Indiana
Emeline segrand comes to Chicago a
doctor h/h Holmes is willing to pay well
for his stenographer
so she goes to work for him she finds
her new employer incredibly charming
he knew what women needed he knew how to
appeal to them and how to make them feel
at ease whatever that skill is he had it
in spades and used it every opportunity
he could but it’s not what it seems
Holmes asks her to marry him then one
day finds a way to get her into a room
in his hotel it’s one of the rooms he’s
designed himself airtight and windowless
it won’t take long before she runs out
of air
one of the good doctors next victims
will be locked in another room he’s
taken pleasure in designing
it has gas jets inside that he can
control from a secret hiding place
occasionally he’ll stop to listen as she
fights for her last breath over the
months Holmes will use his hotel to kill
other victims gassing some victims
performing experiments on others and
occasionally dissecting some while
they’re still alive
power and control are central to Holmes
methods he adds new rooms to his house
of horrors rushing to finish before the
fair opens and new victims arrive in
town he designs it himself he’s his own
general contractor and what he does is
he brings in different teams of
craftsmen to work on the building he
fires them brings in another team fires
them so there really isn’t anyone who
really understands everything that’s in
this building Holmes does whatever
firing and hiring he has to do then
rides his bike the short distance to the
World’s Fair a construction site
[Music]
whether it’s to mark the progress of the
event that will bring in his prey or
because he’s simply amazed by the sheer
magnitude of the construction is
anyone’s guess
like thousands of other Chicagoans he
pays the admission fee and settles in to
watch the spectacle people took
excursion trains out there on Sundays
and they wanted to see it a B and C
Burnham on the site there are 40,000
laborers 36,000 railroad cars of
material 75 million feet of wood and
thousands of tons of iron and steel to
walk around and the artists had their
sheds you went in there and you could
could see an architect or a sculptor is
more like it or a whole sculpture shop
the kind of thing you might have seen in
15th century Florence the largest most
complex project by far is the building
of the White City organizers want it to
be so beautiful so grand that stories
about it will be told for centuries the
team invents a technique called spray
painting to paint the large buildings a
month before the fair is set to open
there are still half built structures
shipments are late
a 264 foot Ferris wheel that can carry
2,000 passengers still has to be erected
while it was questionable if Burnham
would finish the Fair on time a serial
killer was making firm plans to put his
mark on history
construction on the 1893 World’s Fair
begins on a cold winter day in Chicago
the volume of work to be done is
staggering in effect an entire city has
to be built in just 27 months there’s
only one architectural company capable
of leading such an enormous project
Burnham and Ruud is the most sought
after firm in town Daniel Burnham and
John welborne group were kind of V if I
can use this phrase the kind of studs of
the skyscraper era these were the two
guys who ran the most successful firm
who were building the most successful
and artful and handsome buildings in
Chicago Olmsted chooses a six hundred
acre plot of land just south of the city
on the shores of Lake Michigan there
Burnham in route lay out plans to
construct 200 buildings that will house
more than 60,000 exhibits from around
the world but the swampy sandy land
makes construction difficult there are
pictures of the excavation underway and
people were using wheel barrels long
chains of wheel barrels Burnham hand
picks ten of the country’s top
architects to design the jewel of the
fair a collection of majestic white
buildings so enchanting the fair will
carry its nickname into the future the
white city and then tragedy
sadly route got sick and died right
after they were chosen to be the guys in
charge of the fair it’s hidden in
history but it was route who was the
sort of creative genius of that firm he
was the guy who was a visionary
now Burnham has to shoulder the
responsibility of constructing the fair
alone it’s as if a shadow has already
fallen over the fair but the real
darkness is still to come
just a few miles away from the
fairgrounds HH Holmes is building his
own dream project a World’s Fair Hotel
he’ll use to rent out rooms to fair
goers on the outside it’s a large hotel
with retail stores on the first floor
35 rental rooms on the second and homes
his office on the third
but inside it’s much more the house is
actually sort of to think of it it is
sort of a physical representation of
Holmes himself a very complicated being
that isn’t it all inside what it appears
to be on the outside in May 1892 a
beautiful young woman from Indiana
Emeline segrand comes to Chicago a
doctor h/h Holmes is willing to pay well
for his stenographer
so she goes to work for him she finds
her new employer incredibly charming
he knew what women needed he knew how to
appeal to them and how to make them feel
at ease whatever that skill is he had it
in spades and used it every opportunity
he could but it’s not what it seems
Holmes asks her to marry him then one
day finds a way to get her into a room
in his hotel it’s one of the rooms he’s
designed himself airtight and windowless
it won’t take long before she runs out
of air
one of the good doctors next victims
will be locked in another room he’s
taken pleasure in designing
it has gas jets inside that he can
control from a secret hiding place
occasionally he’ll stop to listen as she
fights for her last breath over the
months Holmes will use his hotel to kill
other victims gassing some victims
performing experiments on others and
occasionally dissecting some while
they’re still alive
power and control are central to Holmes
methods he adds new rooms to his house
of horrors rushing to finish before the
fair opens and new victims arrive in
town he designs it himself he’s his own
general contractor and what he does is
he brings in different teams of
craftsmen to work on the building he
fires them brings in another team fires
them so there really isn’t anyone who
really understands everything that’s in
this building Holmes does whatever
firing and hiring he has to do then
rides his bike the short distance to the
World’s Fair a construction site
[Music]
whether it’s to mark the progress of the
event that will bring in his prey or
because he’s simply amazed by the sheer
magnitude of the construction is
anyone’s guess
like thousands of other Chicagoans he
pays the admission fee and settles in to
watch the spectacle people took
excursion trains out there on Sundays
and they wanted to see it a B and C
Burnham on the site there are 40,000
laborers 36,000 railroad cars of
material 75 million feet of wood and
thousands of tons of iron and steel to
walk around and the artists had their
sheds you went in there and you could
could see an architect or a sculptor is
more like it or a whole sculpture shop
the kind of thing you might have seen in
15th century Florence the largest most
complex project by far is the building
of the White City organizers want it to
be so beautiful so grand that stories
about it will be told for centuries the
team invents a technique called spray
painting to paint the large buildings a
month before the fair is set to open
there are still half built structures
shipments are late
a 264 foot Ferris wheel that can carry
2,000 passengers still has to be erected
while it was questionable if Burnham
would finish the Fair on time a serial
killer was making firm plans to put his
mark on history
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