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Both the Invitation to West Virginia
pamphlet recreated on Page Four and the Pavilion Brochure handed
out to Fair visitors recreated on Page Five state that the West
Virginia Pavilion would be returned to Charleston following the
Fair to become a "State Museum and Archives in the Capitol
area." Does that mean a piece of the World's Fair is in
the West Virginia Capitol?
Well, not exactly. I wrote to Mr. Joe Geiger,
Director of the West Virginia Archives, to ask if the pavilion
had ever been returned to Charleston. Mr. Geiger sent the following
newspaper report from the Archive's files:
WV's participation in the
New York World's Fair involved the construction of an elaborate
separate pavilion with a pergola-like extension providing landscaped
gardens. The pavilion included an Aviary containing cardinals;
a Four Seasons Vacation Land Exhibit; a Wood Exhibit; a Simulated
Coal Mine; a Glass Blowing Exhibit; & the Radio Astronomy
Sky. A gift shop & refreshment area featured WV foods &
gifts. A brochure for the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair reported
that the pavilion would be dismantled and reconstructed in the
Capital area of Charleston as a state museum & archives.
However, plans for the pavilion have been controversial &
costly. Because costs exceeded their estimate, the governor placed
the pavilion under a board composed of state officers with Julius
W. Singleton, Jr. as the director. Visitors at the fair were
impressed with the pavilion and officials ranked it among the
top sites at the fair. Finally, it was decided that the pavilion
would become the State Museum for Natural Resources at WVU (Monongalia
County), but in 1967 the wood was donated to the State FFA Camp
at Cedar Lakes (Jackson County) because funds were not allocated
to reassemble the building. From:
West Virginia in the New York and Knoxville World's Fairs,
September 4, 1982 - West Virginia Hillbilly (newspaper)
As is the case with so many of the Fair
pavilions that were reported to have been sold after the Fair
with plans to be re-erected at another site, it never happened.
I'm sure high New York union costs associated with the careful
disassembly of a pavilion played a huge role in this outcome
for many of those pavilions. In West Virginia's case, it appears
that the pavilion was relocated to West Virginia but the State
was unwilling to allocate the funds for it's reconstruction.
The natural West Virginia wood that the state so proudly displayed
at the Fair was the only thing eventually salvaged. One can imagine
the rest went for scrap like so much of the rest of the Fair.
So if you ever get a chance to visit the
FFA Camp at Cedar Lakes in Jackson County, West Virginia, take
a close look. You might see something from the West Virginia
Pavilion of the New York World's Fair!
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