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"One night late
in the Fall they put out the blazing lights in The World of Tomorrow.
The following morning the wrecking crews arrived."
Robert Moses was speaking of the 1939/1940
New York World's Fair when he made that remark. He could very
well have said the same thing 25 years later.
But not everything met the fate of the
wreckers. Bits and pieces of the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair
survive to this very day. To be sure, one can still find the
scraps of paper and souvenirs that mark its existence. But, there
are much larger mementos to be found:
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Adam writes: "The Socony
Mobil building is now in Poughkeepsie, NY. I forget who owns
it but it's leased partly by the county and partly by the state
and (after interior remodeling) used as offices, meeting spaces,
and classrooms. The overhanging V-shaped roof is still a prominent
feature. I [used to work there], which was where I heard about
the building being a relic of the World's Fair." -eMail
& photo (below) from Adam, April 21, 2011
This building (aerial below) located
on the Northeast side of Poughkeepsie, appears to be the building
that Adam refers to. Photo courtesy Gary Holmes.
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Artist's rendering of the Socony
Mobil Pavilion at the NY World's Fair
SOURCE: Commercial
Transparency by Photo Lab, Inc., Washington, DC
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| The U.S. Rubber Ferris Wheel
was moved to Detroit, Michigan where it became a giant road sign along Interstate Highway 94. |
| The Spanish Pavilion was disassembled and reconstructed in downtown Saint Louis, Missouri at 1 S. Broadway, where it was to become a part of the city's Westward Expansion area that encompassed the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium. After sitting neglected and unused for years it was finally incorporated into a hotel, which has changed hands from time to time. |
| The Parker Pen Pavilion was moved to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri
to the Lodge
of Four Seasons. Mark Brown writes "My family owns
the Lodge of Four Seasons. It is true that we do indeed
have the Parker Pen Pavilion onset. My grandfather purchased
the building and brought it to the Lodge many years ago. It now
houses offices for the Executive office as well as the Accounting
offices. I guess it was once an outdoor structure, they must
have since added walls so as to house the offices that we have.
It is still in good shape." - April 17, 2000 |
| The
Johnson Wax Golden Rondelle,
minus the soaring canopy, was moved to downtown Racine, Wisconsin,
where it became a part of the S.C. Johnson Companies' corporate
area. For many years, the Academy Award winning film, "To
be Alive!" was shown at the theater, although it suffered
from repeated use. The film has since been restored and is shown
in full three-panel form by digital high-definition projection.
The Rondelle is still used as a meeting facility and theater. |
| The Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdom
that stood in front of
the Hall of Free Enterprise were donated to the Amway Corporation. Mr. John Faye of Amway's
Visitor Center writes "You are right they were on the ten
columns (pillars) on the front of the Economics Building at the
NY World's Fair. When we were offered the building when they
were dismantling the Fair we couldn't use the building, but asked
if we could have the plaques. When we received them we had them
flattened out and mounted on a sculpture we had in front of our
World Headquarters building in Ada, Michigan. We remodeled and
re-landscaped a few years back and moved the sculpture to another
location and at that time we moved the plaques out along the
53 flag poles that we now have in front of our World Headquarters
building. The plaques are now mounted on pedestal inclines among
the flag poles with glass covers to protect them." - April
28,2000 |
| The Coca-Cola Carillon was relocated to Stone Mountain Park outside of Atlanta, Georgia,
Coca-Cola's headquarters city. Follow the link and click-on "Other
Attractions" within the Stone Mountain website to see a
picture of how the Carillon looks today. Thanks to Elizabeth
Klug for finding the website. |
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The Wisconsin Pavilion Rotunda was relocated to Neillsville, Wisconsin,
as a radio station and gift shop. It houses the studios of WCCN
radio today.
"Part of the Wisconsin Pavillion
ended up at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. It was used as the eating
area in the dinning hall. I think this part was what originally
housed the big piece of cheese. I know for a fact this
to be true as I worked at the camp in 1974. When I went to get
the job for an interview, I had to go to the manager of the camp
who lived in Queens right near the fair and he boasted of the
connection between the camp and the Worlds Fair." -eMail
from Michael, August 26, 2000
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David Bruskin writes: "Don’t
know if you knew this bit of trivia, but the non-teepee part
of the [Wisconsin] Pavilion’s structure was sold for
$1, disassembled, transported to upstate Pennsylvania, and became
the combined dining hall, kitchen, and recreation hall for Camp
Ramah in the Poconos where it is in use to this day. If you track
down Camp Ramah in the Poconos and/or Fork Mountain Pond (the
camp’s lake) in Pennsylvania on GoogleEarth, you can’t
miss it in a satellite photo; it’s the largest structure
in camp (look at the NW corner).
For over forty years now, nearly
a quarter million campers, counselors, and staff have used these
buildings to eat, pray, put on camp shows, and too many other
activities to mention. At age nine, I watched the lunar landing
on a single small B&W TV (with crummy reception, of course)
that had been placed on the stage for the entire camp to watch.
Between being at the World’s Fair and then recycled for
extensive memory-rich usage at Camp, those wood walls and metal
girders have hosted more happy people than most of the world’s
structures." -eMail from David, January 10, 2009
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| The Triumph of Man exhibit of the Travelers Insurance Companies
was donated to the
Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, Ohio and
was displayed there for many years. The present fate of the exhibit
is unknown. Update: July 26,2000 An eMail received from
the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus stated that "The
Triumph of Man," exhibited at COSI for nearly 30 years,
was disposed of in the process of their move to a new building
in November, 1999. The eMail stated that it "did not fit
in the new building" and that it had succumbed to the ravages
of time. A few small pieces were saved as mementoes and are on
display in an area dedicated to the history of COSI. So it would
appear almost certain that we have lost this legacy of the Fair. |
| Sinclair Dinoland Dinosaurs: The Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Brontosaurus now reside in Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX. The Triceratops is at the Louisville Science Center in Louisville, KY. The Stegosaurus can be found at the entrance to Dinosaur National Monument in Harpers Corner, Utah. Corythosaurus is displayed at the Riverside Park & Zoo in Independence, KS. The Ankylosaurus went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston, TX and the Struthiomimus went to the Milwaukee County Museum in Milwaukee, WI. The Trachodon is at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. The whereabouts of the Ornitholestes is unknown. |
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The Decorative Street Lights
are located at the Orange
County Fair Speedway in Mechanicstown (Middletown) NY which is
in Orange County about 65 miles northwest of New York City. I've
also seen a collection of them at a resort on the main highway
through the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. Lights have also
been spotted at an amusement park on the New Hampshire/Massachusetts
border (Canobie Lake Park).
Canobie Lake lights
courtesy of Doug Seed  
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Decorative Street
Lights at the Orange
County Fairgrounds. Photo courtesy Mary Ellen Coghlan, 1999.
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Decorative Street Lights at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Two
of the lights from the Astral Fountain area are located at the
Fairgrounds in a park-like area.
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World's Fair Street Lights
can be found in the Poconos
at the Penn Hills Resort, Route 447 & 191, Analomink, PA. Kathleen
O'Malley reports, "The World's Fair lights are still all
over the place, though pretty faded with age." January 23,
2003
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General Foods Arches may be found at "The Enchanted Forest"/Water
Safari in Old Forge, NY and at Rocky Point, RI, a defunct amusement
park. Another visitor writes that a third GF Archway can be found
at a small strip mall at Cherry Lane on Hempstead Turnpike in
West Hempstead, Long Island, Nassau County, NY. Mark Lewis reports
that at least one of the Arches survives at the Oklahoma City
State Fair Park in addition to the street lamps relocated there
from the Fair (August 16, 2006)
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The arch at Rocky
Point Amusement Park in Rhode Island.
Photo courtesy Jimmy Walsh, May
9, 2006
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These photos show the Arches
on the Hempstead Turnpike in Long Island at the Cherry Valley
Center. On the top image, you can still see where the words "Peace
Through Understanding" would have been bolted on. -eMail
from Curtis Cates, August 26, 2000
Photos courtesy Curtis Cates
of BBQ Productions
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The Austrian Pavilion was a part of the Cockaigne Ski Resort in Cherry Valley, NY,
just east and just north of Jamestown. Update: January 25,
2011 This World's Fair legacy was lost to history on the
night of January 24-25, 2011 when fire completely destroyed the
former Austrian Pavilion at the Cockaigne Ski Resort.
Former Austrian pavilion is shown
in this brochure from Cockaigne's 1985-86 Ski Season
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Fire destroys the former
Austrian Pavilion at the Cockaigne Ski Resort
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January 25, 2011
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Source: Jamestown
Post-Journal, January 25, 2011
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| The AMF Monorail Cars were sent to Houston after the Fair with
hopes that they might be put into operation at the newly completed
Houston Intercontinental Airport. That did not happen. One had been sighted near Alvin, Texas. It's current status is unknown. |
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 Tower of Light's
"Holiday with Light" show
figure "Uncle Ben" Franklin and a portion of "Carby
Carburetor" from Chrysler's "Show-Go-Round"
Theater show are in the hands of private collector
Gary Holmes. (If you look closely, Carby
is sitting atop one of the decorative Street Lights from the
Fair. Gary has one of those too!)
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Gary writes:
 "The Uncle Ben figure has
a tale. When the Fair closed in '65 I was a heartbroken kid who
wrote to all the pavilions asking for a piece of my beloved Fair.
I got dozens of rejections until the Tower of Light wrote me
and said they would give me Uncle Ben! Although the men removing
it broke a couple of fingers and his hat, I patched him back
together, rewired him and won the Science Fair that year for
my electricity exhibit, which included Ben. Ben has been my prize
possession ever since.
Carby was acquired at the estate
auction of the late Bill Baird, the puppeteer who designed the
Show-Go-Round puppets [for Chrysler]. I had bid on the whole
figure but lost, then went to the auction house to retrieve my
deposit on the bid. Once there, the auctioneer said that while
the whole figure had gone to someone else, they had found the
head and arms of the '64 Carby [a new head and arms were made
for the Carby of the '65 run] and sold them to me outright. Then
he threw in the head of one of the "chorus members"
of the show as well."
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| Gary also reports The Pavilion
of Berlin was purchased for a college and never got reconstructed.
It lay in a field near Woodbridge, NY. Mr. Holmes reports that
he "hasn't been near the field in decades, but I hear that
it's pretty much deteriorated beyond use, unfortunately." |
| Another Holmes find! Chrysler
Autofare puppets can be found at the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City,
Iowa. The museum has the Monkey Wrenches and some of the singing
Nuts and Bolts. The puppets were designed by famed puppet master
Bil Baird for Chrysler's "Show-Go-Round" presentation.
The museum has the largest holding of Baird puppets in the world. |
| Jim Weinberg reports that the Belgian
Aerial Tower Ride was relocated to Dania, Florida where it served
as an attraction at the Pirates World Amusement Park from 1966 to
1975. The park is long gone, replaced by a condominium development.
The fate of the Aerial Tower Ride is unknown. |
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