16 4 / 2009
"When on July 9, 1894, the Fair closed, 2,255,551 visitors had passed through the gate. Surplus gains from the Fair was devoted to purchasing objects for the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, a memorial not to a person but to the Mid-Winter Fair. At his own expense Mr. de Young gave an additional building. When Mayor James Rolph, Jr., as the city’s representative, accepted the building, March 15, 1917, de Young closed his address with, “I give to the city of San Francisco this building and all it contains, with only one condition attached, that no admission fee shall ever be charged."
Cora Older in Magic City, 1961, which is a primary source.
