Stone Crazy

The Japanese Pavilion at the Fair was a square in its outline. The exterior walls were made of concrete. These walls sloped inward and were about 20 feet high. It was as if it were to become a pyramid, but it was a pyramid that was cut off when it reached some 20 feet in height. When these concrete walls were done, the plans called for a facade, made of lava stones, to be laid up on the outside faces of these sloping walls.These stones were dark in color, almost a black. They varied in size but had a varying thickness of about eight inches, as I remember them. They each could be carried by one man.They were to be set about one inch from the outside faces of the walls. The one inch space between the walls and the stones was to be filled with mortar. This method of building the facing material onto an existing wall was a technique well known in Japan but not so in the United States. It required, after the stones were set in place, that the joints between them be stuffed with rags to prevent leakage of the mortar. The high strength mortar (5000 P.S.I., I believe) was then mixed and carefully ladled into the space behind the stones. The rags were left iin place until the mortar had become solid. This procedure was carried out by workmen who had been brought in from Japan for the purpose. In order for them to work, it was necessary to get the approval of the Bricklayers' union in New York, which had jurisdiction of the work there. A deal was struck and the Japanese workers were approved. I do not know the details of that deal. When the rags were removed from between the joints, the visible parts of the lava stones were not stained and the mortar itself was at least one inch inwards of the surface of the stones. There were also carvings made in the lava stones. These carvings extended over many stones and each one had a special meaning. I am not sure what those meanings were, but they would have been significant to a knowledgeable person I think, but am not sure, that these carvings were made after the stones had been set. For example, there was a carving of the sun in its course through the sky. This carving was 20 or more feet in length. It would, I think, have been impossible to make this meaningful carving before the stones were laid up.

Another part of the gift to Manhattanville College was the stones and the sculpture that the designers of the pavillion had used in the decorative gardens outside the building itself. The placement of these garden stones and sculptures was a consideration of great importance. The sculptures in this portion of the gift were made by a very well-known Japanese sculptor by the name of Noguchi.

When the time came for me to deliver on my promise to transport both the lava stones and the garden stones and sculptures, we had to think of the best way we could preserve the stones without damaging them too much in the process. The garden stones and sculptures did not present a problem since they were not fixed in place and could be readily gotten at. The lava stones, however, were another matter. They were affixed to the building with 5000 P.S.I. mortar. I probably do not remember, nor will I try to tell, all the alternative ways we considered, but I do remember what we did. First we painted on each stone a serial number which would identify where it had been set in the wall. Then we hired a photographer who was to take pictures of each outdside face of the wall. These photographs were to show the numbers on each stone and would preserve a record of the carving in the stones. We then hired a crane with a wrecking ball. The crane would swing the ball and hit the inside of the wall and thereby "pop" the lava stones off the outside face. This worked well enough and the stones along with the photographs were delivered to the college. Where exactly the stones were located on the campus I do not know. The photographs, no doubt, were given to the administration up there.

I recently visited Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. As many of you know, not only was there an article in the NY times in 1965 about Japan donating their Pavilion to Manhattanville, but we had a recent post on PTU from one of the fellows who helped take down and number the rocks from the pavilion so they could be reassembled at the college. After literally years of saying I was going to search this mystery out, I actually did it.

My quest started one weekend this past summer, when I happened to have business near the college and went over during a break. The campus is heavily secured and they weren't letting anyone in. Luckily, I had my NY Times article with me and the guards let me go into the main security office. They couldn't help me, it being a weekend, but I took this as an opportunity to take a total auto tour of the place. Alas, nothing jumped out that even remotely suggested the Japan Pavilion. I left hoping that on a subsequent visit, I would find that perhaps the rocks formed, if not a building, at least a wall inside one of the buildings.

Jump cut to last week. I finally called the library at Manhattanville and asked them if I could come do some research about the building and its present whereabouts. I was pleasantly surprised to find a research librarian who was glad to do all the research for me and find out as much as she could and then give me a call.

This past Tuesday, the call came! The news was good and bad. First, the building was never reconstructed but many of the stones, she believed, were put in the garden surrounding the house of the president of the college. The building, according to the records she found, was just too complex for what the college wanted and they gave up on the idea, but only after the structure had been delivered. All the stones from the building were put in what she called "South Field", now a soccer/sports field. Other than the stones placed around the garden, she could not find out whether the rest of the stones were taken away, or now rest under the soccer field. Nothing is known of the steel/space frame structure that formed the interior of the building.

Two days ago, I went to Manhattanville and the librarian graciously took me to the garden and also pointed out where the "South Field" was.

I took pictures of the rocks. Two are ornamental and look like they may have come from the entranceway. There are several that are quite large and thick. I don't know if these were part of the wall or whether they were large stone bases for sculptures or something.

Stone Crazy

A WORLD'S FAIR MYSTERY

Mr. Brennan reported in 2002 that the stones were "popped" off of the mortar holding them in place on the pavilion, carefully numbered and then transported to the college for re-assembly. Manhattanville College states in their brochure that the stones were unable to be reassembled without damage and "as many as possible" were salvaged and used in the decorative garden outside the College President's home.

The New York Times reported in 1965 that the stones numbered 6,000 while Nagare's website numbers the stones at 2,500. Regardless the count, from the Google aerial photograph it appears as though thousands of stones do not grace the Manhattanville College grounds and Gary Holmes photographs show only a few stones in place. Were more stones added subsequent to 2003 when Mr. Holmes shot the photographs? Or are thousands of stones still resting beneath the ground somewhere at Manhattanville College?

And another mystery to ponder ... Mr. Brennan thought the stones on the wall were about 8 inches thick yet most of the stones pictured in Mr. Holmes' photos appear much thicker than 8 inches. Are the stones in the garden actually from the wall or are they from other stones salvaged from the pavilion that would be more appropriate to a garden setting than the thinner stones of the wall?

It has been speculated that the Underground World Home exhibit might still lie buried beneath Flushing Meadows Park awaiting its discovery as buried World's Fair treasure. Perhaps the surest buried World's Fair treasure lies beneath the soccer grounds of Manhattanville's "South Field."

nywf64.com