During the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which ran from 20 February to 4 November 1915, Paul Elder & Company ran a satellite bookstore booth at the Fair. It was located in the Palace of Liberal Arts, at the corner of 2nd St and Avenue D. The store prominently featured the eleven different PPIE-related titles that Elder published (although in the photograph at right, the only Elder title which can be positively identified is The Great Small Cat And Others).
The booth was designed by Bernard Maybeck, and features many of the same Gothic tracery elements that he designed for the Grant St bookstore, as well as one of the medieval-style chandeliers.
Sales at the booth were brisk, and some titles (for example, The Art of the Exposition) had at least four printings. Unfortunately, according to company records, shoplifting was also brisk, and partly for that reason the booth did not generate much in the way of profits.
Inspection of the Palace of Liberal Arts floor plan reveals just how large the PPIE was. This extensive exhibition hall (the size of four football fields) was just one small part of the fairgrounds, covering what is now the entire Marina district of San Francisco.
