32 The Queens Courier • july 31, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com EACH COUNTRY HAD ITS OWN STYLE “Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.” This phrase was certainly on display during the 1939 World’s Fair, where many pavilions reflected the personalities of the countries that hosted them. The Italian Pavilion was a mix of classical Roman and modern Italian architecture as designed by Michele Busiri-Vici. A statue of the female deity Roma towered over the colonnaded entrance on a pedestal amid water that cascaded down steps into a pool at the base of a monument honoring inventor Guglielmo Marconi. The second floor had a restaurant and night club with fountains and terraces. Meanwhile, the Polish Pavilion, designed by Jan Cybulski, Jan Galinowski and Felicjan Kowarski, had a section dedicated to countrymen’s participation in the settlement of the United States. Another area showed original documents demonstrating Poland’s long-standing democratic traditions. The Eastern European nation also created a monument to King Wladyslaw Jagiello. This ancient leader of the Polish-Lithuanian union was immortalized in bronze sitting on a horse and holding two crossed swords over his head after defeating the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. (This statue currently lives near Central Park’s Turtle Pond.) The Irish Pavilion caused a controversy before it was built. The English wanted all the British Empire affiliates to present at the same site. But the newly independent Irish successfully resisted, and their pavilion marked the free country’s first appearance at an international trade fair. Designed by architect Andrew Devane, the main building had a shamrock shape with a double wall of precast concrete panels and a surface with pieces of gray Irish stone. Columns around the doorway were green and a concrete slab above them was orange. A statue of a young woman emerging from the sea greeted guests at front. With the hopes of re-creating the experience of visiting these pavilions, the Queens Historical Society hosted an afternoon tasting and cultural event with music, food and literature from Italy last Sunday. The Flushing venue (143-35 37th Ave.) is set to host A Taste of Poland on Aug. 10 and A Taste of Ireland of Aug. 24. Both events will run from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Visitors can also check out Remembering Yesterday: Queens and Its NY World’s Fairs, an exhibit of World’s Fair artifacts and photographs on display through May 31, 2015. This article is part of a series by the Queens Tourism Council that will run periodically until October in commemoration of the 75th and 50th anniversaries of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, which took place in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. For more information, go to www.itsinqueens.com/worldsfair.
QC07312014
To see the actual publication please follow the link above