A filthy dump turned into a place where people from all over the world came together to celebrate humanity and the future.
A Valley of Ashes. Flushing Meadows, in the New York City borough of Queens, would have been an unlikely place to find a World’s Fair, let alone two. Flushing Meadows was a dump, a literal dump, known as the Corona Ash Dump. Organizers and city officials took that horrid, filthy dump that everyone hated and made it a place where people from all over the world came together to celebrate humanity and the future. That ash dump became the setting for not one but two of New York City’s three World Fairs, the 1939’s World Fair and the 1964 World’s Fair.
Public Domain The Valley of Ashes, the Corona Ash Dump in the 1920s.
New York City was strapped for empty land even in the 1930s. That ash dump became a perfect spot (probably the only open spot large enough) for the 1939’s World Fair. 1935 was an unusual time for planning and funding a World’s Fair, being the height of the Great Depression and all. That didn’t stop a group of New York City businessmen. Over the next four years, the committee (housed in the newly completed Empire State Building) planned and organized everything to the last detail, even moving tons of ash from the dump to create a landscaped area fit for a World’s Fair.
Public Domain Trylon, Perisphere, and Helicline from the 1939 World’s Fair.
While the entire purpose of the World’s Fair was to lift the spirits of Americans in Depression-riddled America, there was the added side effect of driving much needed business to the city. The 1939 World’s Fair opened on a very hot April 30th, the 150th anniversary of George Washington’s presidential inauguration (not a coincidence).
World’s Fairs, since the invention of World’s Fairs, have been on the forefront of introducing new technologies and the 1939 World’s Fair was no exception. It was here for the first time that the general public got to experience the wonders of new invention of television. The opening ceremony was even televised across 200 TV sets across the city. Also introduced were the new inventions of Nylon fabric and the View-Master.
As in many World’s Fairs, the park was divided up into various themed zones, such as Transportation, Food (my favorite), Government, Business and so forth. Many of the building designs themselves, keeping with the fair’s theme, The World of Tomorrow, were experimental. Architects were encouraged to be cutting edge and experiment with their designs.
Public Domain The British Pavilion.
Probably the most visited zone at the fair was the Transportation Zone, General Motors constructed a huge 36,000 ft2 Futurama exhibit that had a large diorama (because who doesn’t love a good diorama) of a fictional section of the U.S. featuring a vast array of miniature highways and over 500,000 individually designed homes, 50,000 miniature vehicles and over a million miniature trees. Portions of the exhibit still survive (although mostly the 1964 version) and are on display at the Museum of the City of New York on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (at least there was one the last time I checked).
Public Domain Futurama of 1939 World’s Fair.
The 1939 World’s Fair even warranted its own subway extension, the IND World’s Fair Line. The new line was pressed into regular service after the fair and still exists, although under a different name. The “World’s Fair” station is now known as “Mets-Willets Point.” (This is where the NY Mets stadium is today.)
A wooden subway car re-purposed for the 1939 World’s Fair, painted in the official blue and orange colors of the fair. These cars continued to run until 1969 and were the last wooden elevated cars to run in North America. Now located at the New York Transit Museum.
The fair was open for two seasons, April through October, officially closing up shop on October 27, 1940. The fair attracted over 45 million visitors and was still a complete financial failure.
Now that the fair was over, the powers at be had to figure out what to do with all those exhibits and pavilions that were no longer needed, especially the pavilions that belonged to countries that were now under Axis control. Items from the Polish Museum were shipped to Chicago for the most part, although the statue of Polish-Lithuanian King Jagiello found its way to Central Park. Many of the rides from the amusement zone were sold to Coney Island’s famous Luna Park (some are still around) and Steeplechase Park.
Coney Island and Luna Park, the fair’s Life Saver Parachute Jump, red tower ride, is still there and running (even Hurricane Sandy couldn’t knock the thing down).
The New York City Pavilion, along with a few others, were taken over by the United Nations. While a temporary measure, the New York City Pavilion was used for the UN General Assembly from 1946-1951, saving it from destruction.
The New York City Pavilion, now the Queens Museum.
The 1964 World’s Fair, as seen from the observation towers of the New York State Pavilion.
Fourteen years after the UN left, the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair was held in Flushing Meadows. The fair’s theme was “Peace Through Understanding,” interesting theme during the height of the Cold War. This very 1960s theme was symbolized by a huge 12-story high stainless-steel model of the earth known as the Unisphere.
The Unisphere, contrary to popular belief, was not destroyed in the making of Men in Black.
The fair was held at a time anything space related was all the rage (i.e., the Space Age). Everything was constructed in a futuristic style influenced by new modern construction material, such as reinforced concrete (ugh) and steel.
There was even a tire shaped Ferris Wheel, which can still be found in Allen Park, Michigan along I-94.
This World’s Fair was not entirely sanctioned by the official community of World’s Fairs (BIE). Most major countries did not participate, rather it was “small nations” like that of Japan, Ireland, Pakistan, and even the Vatican, which historically loaned Michelangelo’s Pieta for the exhibit.
In fitting with the Space Age theme, NASA sponsored a 2-acre U.S. Space Park. Exhibits included full-scale models of rockets and pieces of space vehicles.
Public Domain The NASA space park.
The State of New York opened a $6 million open-air pavilion called the “Tent of Tomorrow.” It was a huge 350 ft x 250 ft pavilion supported by 100 ft high concrete columns from which a 50,000 ft2 of polychrome tile was suspended.
The remains of the State of New York pavilion next to the ruins of the observatory towers (or spaceships). The Theaterama portion of the pavilion still remains as the Queens Theatre.
Highlights of the fair were the newly improved General Motor’s Futurama (updated for the Space Age), Ford introducing the Ford Mustang, the “Bel-Gem Brussels Waffle at the Belgian village, and everything Disney. Pepsi presented Walt Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride and the Illinois pavilion had a lifelike animatronic Abraham Lincoln. A few of Disney’s creations were transported to Disneyland and Disneyworld after the fair ended.
Only two structures from the 1939 World’s Fair made it to the 1964 World’s Fair, the New York City Pavilion and the Billy Rose Aquacade and Amphitheater (it was torn down in the 1996. The New York City Pavilion got a fourth chance by becoming the home to the Queens Museum. The Queens Museum hosts a wide range of World’s Fair memorabilia. The best-known permanent exhibition at the museum is the amazing “Panorama of the City of New York”, which was made for the 1964 World’s Fair. This model is ridiculously huge, 9,335 ft2 (867.2 m2), so huge you have to walk completely around it and look down from above to get a sense of it all. The Panorama was built by a team of 100 people working for three years. It includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs, over 895,000 individual buildings. (It was later restored and updated.)
As seen from New Jersey. The Panorama is so large I couldn’t get the entire thing in one shot.
While not much remains of the 1939 World’s Fair, you can still find remnants of the 1964 World’s Fair. The Unisphere remains, along with various other sculptures. The Space Park rockets became part of the New York Hall of Science with the weirdly shaped 1964 building still there. The fair’s Heliport has been re-purposed as a banquet facility called “Terrace on the Park.” Countless other buildings/pavilions made their way across the U.S. for some reason or another.
The Rocket Thrower, a very Space Aged theme statue located near the Unisphere.
The New York Hall of Science.
Terrace on the Park. Honestly this building confused me a bit.
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, as it is now known, has changed little since the fair. Most of the buildings are now gone, but the fair remains in distant memory. The paths still have the same names from the days of the fair. The Transportation Zone was turned into the Queens Zoo, kids now have a science museum all their own, and free space to run around. It is amazing that a former ash dump was turned into a place that celebrated humanity and all that is cheesy about World’s Fairs.
Forms in Transit by Theodore Roszak, by the New York Hall of Science.
Thanks to Forgotten New York for their excellent Flushing Meadows guide!
Check out my other posts on New York City!
