1964 New York World's Fair - Legacy

Legacy

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. Today, it is heavily used for both walking and recreation. The paths and their names remain almost unchanged from the days of the fair.

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 was made famous again in 1997 when it was featured in the film Men in Black. The Unisphere has become a symbol of Queens, and has appeared on the cover of the borough's telephone directory books. The city also inherited a multi-million dollar Science Museum and Space Park exhibiting the rockets and vehicles used in America's early space exploration projects.

The Space Park deteriorated due to neglect, but the surviving rockets were restored and placed back on display in 2004. It is currently open again as part of the New York Hall of Science, a portion of whose building is also a remnant of the fair. The fair's Heliport has found reuse as an elevated banquet/catering facility called "Terrace on the Park".

Both the New York State Pavilion and the US Federal Pavilion were retained for future use. No reuse was ever found for the US 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 TV and movie sets, such as an episode of McCloud; for The Wiz; and part of the setting (and the plot) for Men in Black. In the decades after the fair closed, it remains an abandoned and badly neglected relic, with its roof gone and the once bright floors and walls almost faded away. In 1994, the Queens Theatre took over the Circarama adjacent to the towers and continues to operate there, using the ruined state pavilion as a storage depot.

In 1978, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, as it is now called, became the home of the United States Tennis Association, and the US Open tennis tournament is played there annually. The former Singer Bowl, later renamed Louis Armstrong Stadium, was the tournament's primary venue, until the larger Arthur Ashe Stadium was built on the site of the former Federal Pavilion and opened in August 1997. Collectively, the complex is called the USTA National Tennis Center.

The R33 and R36 cars built for the IRT Flushing Line (#7) subway route that served the 1964 fair ran the route for over 39 years afterwards, with some in revenue service through 2003. Some of the rolling stock still survives today in maintenance work use or in storage. At least one of these cars is in the collection of the New York Transit Museum, and usually is on display there.

The former New York City pavilion is now home to the Queens Museum of Art, which also continues to display the multi-million dollar scale model of the City of New York, updated from time to time. As of 2012, the historic 1939 structure also has an excellent display of memorabilia from the two world's fairs. For many years, the section where the early United Nations General Assembly once met was reverted back to its historic role as an ice skating rink, but in 2009 the skating rink was moved to a new recreation center across the park. In April 2011, the Museum broke ground on an ambitious expansion project at the old skating rink that will almost double its floor space, bringing the total to about 100,000 square feet.

Commemorative postage stamps were produced for the fair, souvenir medals were issued, and a large amount of memorabilia remains in private hands. There is significant interest in collecting these pieces. Items of all types, many quite inexpensive, frequently appear in sales.

For many years the fair's amateur radio station console was used by the American Radio Relay League. Later sold, in 2006 it was purchased by a Collins Radio collector in Texas.

In 1995, PBS produced The 1964 World's Fair, a 52-minute documentary about the fair, narrated by Judd Hirsch.