The World's Fair Historical Society's Mission:
The mission of the World's Fair Historical Society is to preserve the history of world's fairs and educate the public about how important this history is and how it has impacted society. Also known as international expositions or expos, many innovations and inventions have come from these events and many ideas on how to better society have come out them. This is history that a lot of people are not aware of and needs to be promoted so others can learn about it.
The goal of the World's Fair Historical Society is to acquire and preserve artifacts for educational purposes and for them to be put on public display in a museum dedicated to international expositions.
The goal of the World's Fair Historical Society is to acquire and preserve artifacts for educational purposes and for them to be put on public display in a museum dedicated to international expositions. Preservation of artifacts includes such technology as digitalizing photos, magazines, old recordings and other items for future use. Artifacts can also include things that would not fit in a museum, such as old buildings left from world's fairs. A few examples are below. As much as our resources allow we try to stay active in helping to save these buildings.
At our society we also encourage future world's fairs and promote them. We believe that international expositions bring people and nations together. These events are celebratory and enjoyed by millions of people. They help to facilitate cultural exchange and knowledge and the World's Fair Historical Society wants to see these events continue.
A few examples of buildings left
from past world's fairs
Besides these examples, any city that has had an international exposition undoubably has some structure or structures left from it. These buildings might be well perserved and in use or they may not.
We encourage visitors to our site that live in a city that has had a world's fair to look into what structures are left from it and whether they are being used or in disrepair, needing to be saved, and to become active in preserving them.
1905 Louis and Clark Exposition
I have visited Portland, Oregon numerous times and have researched three buildings that have managed to survive the Louis and Clark International Exposition of 1905. The American Inn, now condominiums, the Fairmount Hotel, now apartments and offices and the National Cash Register Building, now a pub and theater. All are very well preserved. Follow these links to see what they look like.
The Fairmount Hotel ♦
NCR Building
The American Inn
The Belgium Building
The Belgium Building from the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair was saved and moved to the Virginia Union University after the fair. Thanks to the efforts of Bells for Peace to restore the bells to the tower, now called the Robert L. Vann Memorial Tower of the Belgian Friendship Building, the completion of Phase 1 was on November 16, 2011.
Visit the Bells for Peace web site (Belgian Building)
New York State Pavilion
T
his structure is left from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair and is in very bad shape. It finally was officially made a landmark in 2009 but the New York City Parks Department, which owns it, is still dragging its feet on getting it restored.
Visit the New York State Pavilion Web Site