World's Fair still on the mind Visitors return after 70 years

[GAcoaster]

Article from the Daily News:

 

World's Fair still on the mind Visitors return after 70 years

 

 

BILLED AS a glimpse into the future, the 1939 World's Fair - which opened 70 years ago next week - transformed a desolate dump into a sprawling global expo that forever changed the landscape of Queens.

 

The legacy of the Depression-era fair, which paved the way for a second edition in 1964 and for which Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was created, has faded from public consciousness as its attractions perish and the ranks of attendees diminish.

 

But on the fair's 70th anniversary, optimism reigns among preservationists, who herald plans to restore two relics in the park - a boathouse and the New York City Building, home to the Queens Museum of Art.

 

"It's worth saving," said Randy Richter, co-president of the World's Fair Preservation Society. "There are a number of scholars that consider it possibly the greatest fair ever."

 

Indeed, the 1939 fair - unveiled on the eve of World War II - introduced television and two colossal structures, the 610-foot-tall Trylon and 180-foot-wide Perisphere, which were torn down but endure as Queens symbols.

 

Lesser-known was a boathouse that is now among just four park buildings remaining from the first fair era. A year-long, $5.5 million restoration effort beginning this summer includes plans for a new roof and rest room.

 

Other 1939 fair remnants at Flushing Meadows are a storehouse near the new pool and a garage by the Olmsted Center, a parks administration building.

 

But the most prominent relic, by far, is the New York City Building. Work there, which will begin late this summer and finish in 2011, calls for the restoration of a colonnade that was in place during the 1939 fair.

 

"It'll look more like it looked in '39 after this than it had in 40 or 50 years," said Tom Finkelpearl, the museum's executive director.

 

Last week, the museum, where admission is free tomorrow and on April 30 to mark the respective openings of the 1964 and 1939 fairs, played host to a small gathering of visitors to the first fair.

 

Among them was Easter Miles, 79, of Orange, Conn. Her dad, NYPD Detective Joseph Lynch, was killed, along with his partner, Detective Ferdinand Socha, while defusing a bomb at the fair on July 4, 1940.

 

"My father gave his life here, and this is very important to me," she said of saving fair relics like the Queens Museum/New York City Building. "This should be a monument forever."

 

Ray Waldman, 80, of Little Neck, agreed that saving fair remnants is key to keeping the expo from drifting into obscurity as attendees die. "When the old-timers go, there will be no memory of that time," he said.

 

A 1939 fair attendee who didn't make the get-together wondered what might have happened if the rides and pavilions were maintained through the decades.

 

"I'm betting it would have been the greatest amusement park in the country but, unfortunately, people didn't think that way," said Larry Wishnak, 85, of Sparks, Nev.

 

The 193-40 NYWF was absolutely AMAZING by all accounts. I've always been fascinated by it and the 64-65 NYWF as well, and there are some great Images of America books on the fairs. The site really went from being a dump to a wonderland for the fairs. For anyone who's ever read The Great Gatsby, the Fair's location is what is described as the land of ashes, since it was an ash dump and swamp before being transformed.