1964 New York World's Fair

The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the second World's Fair to be held at Flushing Meadows Park in the Borough of Queens, New York in the twentieth century. It opened on April 22, 1964 and ran for two six-month seasons concluding on October 17, 1965.

Epilogue

Like its predecessor, the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair lost money. It was unable to repay its financial backers their investment and it became embroiled in legal disputes with its creditors until 1970, when the books were finally closed and the New York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation was dissolved. Most of the pavilions constructed for the Fair were demolished within six months following the Fair's close. While only a handful of pavilions survived, some of them traveled great distances and found reuse following the Fair:

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• The Austria pavilion became a ski lodge in western New York.
• The Wisconsin pavilion became a radio station in Neillsville, Wisconsin.
• The US Royal Tire-shaped Ferris Wheel was relocated to become a road sign along Interstate 94 near Detroit, Michigan.
• The Pavilion of Spain relocated to St. Louis, Missouri and is now a part of a Marriott Hotel.
• The Parker Pen pavilion became offices for the Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.
• The Johnson Wax disc-shaped theater was reworked and became part of the S.C. Johnson office complex in Racine, Wisconsin.
• The Christian Science pavilion became a church in Poway, California.

New York City was left with a much improved Flushing Meadows Park following the Fair, taking possession of the Park from the Fair Corporation in June, 1967. At the center of the park stands the symbol of "Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe" – the Fair's Unisphere symbol, depicting our earth of "The Space Age." (The Unisphere later was made famous again in 1997 when it was featured in the film Men in Black.) The city also received a multi-million dollar Science Museum and Space Park exhibiting the rockets and vehicles used in America's early space exploration projects. Both the New York State pavilion and the Federal pavilion were retained for future use. No reuse was ever found for the Federal pavilion and it became severely deteriorated and vandalized before being demolished in 1977. The New York State pavilion also found no residual use (other than as a movie set for The Wiz and a backdrop for Men in Black) in the decades after the Fair closed and remains an abandoned and badly neglected relic of the Fair. The Space Park deteriorated due to neglect, but the surviving rockets were restored and placed back on display in 2004. It is presently open again as part of the New York Hall of Science, whose building is also one of the remnants of the Fair. The Fair's Heliport has found reuse as a banquet/catering facility called "Terrace on the Park."

Related Topics:
June - 1967 - 1997 - Men in Black - 1977 - The Wiz - 2004 - New York Hall of Science

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In 1978, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, as it is now called, became the home of the US Tennis Association and the US Open tennis tournament is played there annually. The former New York City building is home to the Queens Museum of Art and continues to display the multi-million dollar model of the city of New York.

Related Topics:
1978 - US Open - Queens Museum of Art

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