San Franciscans built the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 both to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal and to demonstrate the resolve of San Francisco after the city’s destructive fire in 1906. Despite the odds, San Franciscans, aided by fellow Americans and people from across the world created their monumental and flamboyant fantasy city on 635 acres in the marshlands leased to the city from the U.S. Army alongside the city’s bay.

Its location and beauty made the Palace of Fine Arts central to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Eight enormous palaces separated by courts created the central exhibits of the expo. The Palace of Fine Arts and the Machinery Palace flanked the court structure to the east and west. Facing the rising sun, Bernard Maybeck’s palace combined the crescent shape of Mohammed with the colossal columns of classical Roman and Greek architecture. The Palace was not one distinct structure but four separate areas: the rotunda in the center, two wings complete with enormous columns and luxurious gardens, and a reflecting pool that allowed observes walking from the east to observe a mirror image of the structure.

The Palace of Fine Arts is the most significant structure of the Panama-Pacific Exposition because it is the only building to survive. Burdened by the beginning of the First World War, the expo failed to outlast 1915. After the premature close of the event in December 1915, most of the buildings fell into disrepair. The Palace remained only to be completely demolished in 1964, however, it was rebuilt to create the Exploratorium interactive museum in 1969 and the 966 seat Palace of Fine Arts Theater in 1970. The Theater remains to this day hosting everything from high school graduations to classical concerts.