# Giving Austria its gardens back, and finding Sweden

September 7, 2026. A first Austrian building outline and a newly recorded Swedish site. Sweden's pavilion is still missing from the model.

Austria's pavilion brought together art, crafts and regional displays. The official guide describes thirteen departmental salons, paintings, sculpture and railway models. Its entrance projected toward the avenue, with gardens on either side. The photograph shows how much more elaborate that frontage was than our first model: two towers, a broad entrance stair, sculpture and ornamental garden screens. [B015, printed pages 123–124](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu/page/n130/mode/1up), [B003, printed page 206](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n213/mode/1up).

## A smaller hall with open garden recesses

The insurance plan gives us a stepped T-shaped hall. The two recesses beside its projecting front stay open in this model, following the gardens described in both books. The old oversized rectangle covered part of neighboring Sweden's grounds as well as much of Austria's open space. Correcting the outline restores room around both sites. [M006, sheet 2](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [M001](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/), [B003](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n213/mode/1up).

The sources disagree about orientation. The detailed insurance-plan drawing faces a different direction from the later official ground plan. We have kept its detailed wall shape but turned the projecting entrance toward Administration Avenue, following the later plan and the frontage described in the books. The later plan rounds that entrance schematically; the insurance drawing gives it stepped, flat edges. Both versions remain in the research record. [M005, official ground plan](https://digital.libraries.psu.edu/digital/collection/maps1/id/30388/), [M006](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [B003](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n213/mode/1up).

This is an approximate fit within the mapped Austrian parcel. The early plan does not supply finished wall corners, and the two directional scales used for the fit differ by 25%. The model's placement, proportions and orientation therefore need further checks. Its main roof is estimated at 9 metres. Both books give **47 feet** for the two entrance towers; that height does not apply to the whole hall. The first tower footprints and flat roof profiles remain estimates, with stairs, tower crowns, glazing, garden screens and fine decoration still missing. [B003](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n213/mode/1up), [B015](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu/page/n130/mode/1up).

## Sweden is a known place with an unbuilt model

Sweden's photograph shows a timber country house with steep roofs, projecting wings, a lower connecting section and a fenced garden. The caption describes building parts made in Stockholm, shipped to St. Louis and assembled by Swedish workers, with Swedish gardeners arranging the plants. The guide describes furnishings, pottery, books, landscape pictures and commissioners' offices. Their individual makers and presenters still deserve closer research. [B003, printed page 207](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n214/mode/1up), [B015, printed page 133](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu/page/n140/mode/1up).

The ground plans label Sweden's site opposite China, beside Austria, but do not give us a usable finished building outline. The insurance-plan area checked is blank at this location. The exterior photograph confirms the pavilion existed; it does not reveal exact rear walls or measured heights. We have therefore added the **grounds and photograph**, while leaving the building unmodeled. The patch of ground in the explorer marks our current knowledge of the site, not an empty historical lot. [M001](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/), [M005](https://digital.libraries.psu.edu/digital/collection/maps1/id/30388/), [M006](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [B003](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n214/mode/1up).

The next parcel is separately labeled **Swedish Tourist Club** on the later plan. It has not been folded into Sweden's pavilion grounds. We still need plans, additional photographs or dimensions for both places. The guide's sixteenth-century country-home description and the photographic book's farmhouse description are retained as the sources' different wording.

## Photographs, methods and the next correction

P052 shows Sweden and P053 Austria. They are complete pages from the same official photographic volume, with their captions and visible marks retained. They are not independent publications. The exact photographer, capture dates and camera positions remain unconfirmed. Courtesy Smithsonian Libraries, via Internet Archive. The source register includes **worldsfair00louia**, call number **39088013421086**, and a contact route for better scans or related originals. We have not contacted the library. [Sweden](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n214/mode/1up), [Austria](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n213/mode/1up).

Astra compared the maps and photographs, traced Austria's outline and checked the neighboring ground. Luna helped review the descriptions and page references. The coordinating agent inspected the actual sources and integrated the changes. The important lesson here is that a named parcel and a photographed building provide different kinds of evidence. We can make the missing Swedish building easy to find and research without presenting an invented footprint as a recovered plan.