# Varied Industries: two courts and a better-connected canal

September 7, 2026

Varied Industries now has two open courts instead of one generic opening. A low connecting hall divides them, and seven small buildings occupy parts of the courts. Outside, the canal follows more of its original bend, with three crossings and connected bank walks. These are first shapes, not finished architecture. [M001, original ground plan](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/), [M006, Sanborn atlas, sheet 12](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en).

## What the plans let us recover

The insurance plan labels the connecting hall 20 feet high. It also identifies a German restaurant, whose U-shaped outline leaves a small recess open. Other small structures appear in the courts, but we have not identified every exhibit. Their one-storey marks do not tell us an exact height, so the first small models use an estimated four metres. The enclosing hall's 26-metre roof height remains an estimate too. [M006, sheet 12](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en).

The plans disagree enough that one fit cannot settle every wall and roof. We fitted the courts separately from the exterior. That improved their placement, but two roof strips from the exterior fit then crossed into the open courts. Rather than shorten them arbitrarily, we have left the raised glass roofs for a later review. The plan records six-foot rises above a roof whose absolute height is still uncertain. The outer building fit is also approximate by several metres in places. [M001](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/), [M006](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en).

Dome and tower labels record their tops, not the heights of solid rectangular walls. Those upper profiles remain unfinished. An especially important distinction comes from the official guide: the proposed 400-foot tower was abandoned. It does not belong in a model of the completed fair. [B015, official guide, pages 72–73](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu).

## Correcting the crossings together

Our previous diagonal bridge sat between two crossings marked on the ground plan. We replaced it with those two crossings. A third marked bridge had been represented as an ordinary path; restoring the water made it necessary to give that crossing a deck too. The bank walks now connect the crossings to the neighboring plaza and avenues. [M001](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/).

The new canal meets the existing Grand Basin and West Waterway without duplicate water surfaces. Those joins accommodate older approximate shorelines; they are not a new survey of the whole central water system. Bridge widths, heights and profiles remain estimates. A narrower walk also clears the projecting rotunda without moving the building simply to make an old road fit. The distant Fire Fighters area still has an inherited road conflict, which remains on the build list.

## Checking the result, and keeping the record

Astra traced the courts and investigated the canal crossings. The coordinating agent built the geometry and reviewed the source overlays and browser views. Independent checks caught a collision trap in the proposed implementation: treating a whole court as exempt from collision would also have made its little buildings passable. The court buildings now remain solid while the surrounding space stays open.

The path checks compare their full widths with buildings and water, and check that shared junctions are drawn once. Roof and ground checks are compared with the actual rendered shapes. Browser views provide another check, including the open courts and each bridge approach. Plain bridge edges and missing architectural detail remain visible limitations.

The [Varied Industries photograph, P043](https://www.loc.gov/item/2013649186/), shows how much facade detail is still missing. A newly registered [Fine Arts group photograph, P044](http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/141375), is now available beside that model too. Its record preserves the museum's identifiers, rights information and a contact route for asking about better copies. Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. The museum has not participated in this reconstruction.

Sources, errors and deferred details are part of the work we want to share. The next broad pass will keep improving the connected grounds before pursuing every window or ornament.