Once the fair idea was conceived, several sites were considered. Among the sites considered within Seattle were
Duwamish Head in
West Seattle;
Fort Lawton (now
Discovery Park) in the
Magnolia neighborhood; and
First Hill—even closer to
Downtown than the site finally selected, but far more densely developed. Two sites south of the city proper were considered—
Midway, near
Des Moines, and the Army Depot in
Auburn—as was a site east of the city on the south shore of
Lake Sammamish. Some of the land had been donated to the city by James Osborne in 1881 and by
David and Louisa Denny in 1889. Two lots at Third Avenue N. and John Street were purchased from
St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, who had been planning to build a new church building there; the church used the proceeds to purchase land in the
Montlake neighborhood. The Warren Avenue School, a public elementary school with several programs for physically Disabled students, was torn down, its programs dispersed, and provided most of the site of the Coliseum (now Climate Pledge Arena). Near the school, some of the city's oldest houses, apartments, and commercial buildings were torn down; they had been run down to the point of being known as the "Warren Avenue slum". The old Fire Station No. 4 was also sacrificed. As early as the 1909
Bogue plan, this part of Lower
Queen Anne had been considered for a civic center. The Civic Auditorium (later the Opera House, now
McCaw Hall), the ice arena (later
Mercer Arena), and the Civic Field (rebuilt in 1946 as the
High School Memorial Stadium), all built in 1927 had been placed there based on that plan, as was an
armory (the Food Circus during the fair, later Center House). It served as the site of the Century 21 Club. This membership organization, formed especially for the fair, charged $250 for membership and offered lounge, dining room, and other club facilities, as well as a gate pass for the duration of the fair. The city ended up leasing the property after the fair and in 1977 bought it from the Masons. The building was eventually incorporated into a theater complex including the
Seattle Children's Theatre.
Paul Thiry was the fair's chief architect; he also designed the Coliseum building. Among the other architects of the fair, Seattle-born
Minoru Yamasaki received one of his first major commissions to build the United States Science Pavilion. Yamasaki would later design New York's
World Trade Center.
Victor Steinbrueck and
John Graham, Jr. designed the Space Needle.
Hideki Shimizu and
Kazuyuki Matsushita designed the original
International Fountain. The grounds of the fair were divided into: • World of Science • World of Century 21 (also known as World of Tomorrow Besides the
monorail, which survives , the fair also featured a Skyride that ran across the grounds from the Gayway to the International Mall. The bucket-like three-person cars were suspended from cables that rose as high as off the ground. The Skyride was moved to the
Puyallup Fairgrounds in 1980.
World of Science , "a virtual cathedral of science". These exhibits were the federal government's major contribution to the fair. In "The Threshold and the Threat", visitors rode a "
Bubbleator" into the "world of tomorrow". Music "from another world" and a shifting pattern of lights accompanied them on a 40-second upward journey to a starry space bathed in golden light. Then they were faced briefly with an image of a desperate family in a
fallout shelter, which vanished and was replaced by a series of images reflecting the sweep of history, starting with the
Acropolis and ending with an image of
Marilyn Monroe.
World of Commerce and Industry The World of Commerce and Industry was divided into domestic and foreign areas. The former was sited mainly south of American Way (the continuation of Thomas Street through the grounds), an area it shared with the World of Science. It included the Space Needle and what is now the Broad Street Green and Mural Amphitheater. The latter included 15 governmental exhibitors and surrounded the World of Tomorrow and extended to the north edge of the fair. Among the features of Domestic Commerce and Industry, the massive Interiors, Fashion, and Commerce Building spread for —nearly the entire Broad Street side of the grounds—with exhibits ranging from 32 separate furniture companies to the
Encyclopædia Britannica.
Vogue produced four fashion shows daily alongside a perfumed pool.
Standard Oil of California celebrated, among other things, the fact that the world's first service station opened in Seattle in 1907. which was later shown on
Mystery Science Theater 3000. There were also several religious pavilions.
World of Art '
Oedipus and the Sphinx was among the works displayed in the Fine Arts Pavilion. The Fine Arts Pavilion (later the Exhibition Hall) brought together an art exhibition unprecedented for the
West Coast of the United States. Among the 50 contemporary American painters whose works shown were
Josef Albers,
Willem de Kooning,
Helen Frankenthaler,
Philip Guston,
Jasper Johns,
Joan Mitchell,
Robert Motherwell,
Georgia O'Keeffe,
Jackson Pollock,
Robert Rauschenberg,
Ad Reinhardt,
Ben Shahn, and
Frank Stella, as well as Northwest painters
Kenneth Callahan,
Morris Graves, Paul Horiuchi, and
Mark Tobey. American sculptors included
Leonard Baskin,
Alexander Calder,
Joseph Cornell,
Louise Nevelson,
Isamu Noguchi, and 19 others. The 50 international contemporary artists represented included the likes of painters
Fritz Hundertwasser,
Joan Miró,
Antoni Tàpies, and
Francis Bacon, and sculptors
Henry Moore and
Jean Arp. In addition, there were exhibitions of Mark Tobey's paintings and of Asian art, drawn from the collections of the Seattle Art Museum; and an additional exhibition of 72 "masterpieces" ranging from
Titian,
El Greco,
Caravaggio,
Rembrandt, and
Rubens through
Toulouse-Lautrec,
Monet, and
Turner to
Klee,
Braque, and
Picasso, with no shortage of other comparably famous artists represented. A separate gallery presented
Northwest Coast Indian art, and featured a series of large paintings by
Bill Holm introducing Northwest Native motifs.
World of Entertainment A US$15 million performing-arts program at the fair ranged from a
boxing championship to an international
twirling competition but with no shortage of nationally and internationally famous performers, especially at the new Opera House and Playhouse. After the fair, the Playhouse became the
Seattle Repertory Theatre; in the mid-1980s it became the
Intiman Playhouse. When the Intiman Theatre became financially unstable,
Cornish College of the Arts took over the lease from the city of Seattle, and now operates it as the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center.
Opera House performances Scheduled groups performing at the Opera House included: Photo credit: The Estate of Josh White (Sr.) and the Josh White Archives --> Source:
Other performances displays the puppets of
Les Poupées de Paris backstage Events and performances at the Playhouse included Sweden's
Royal Dramatic Theatre; a chamber music performance by
Isaac Stern,
Milton Katims,
Leonard Rose,
Eugene Istomin, the Claiborne Brothers gospel quartet, and the
Juilliard String Quartet; two appearances by newsman
Edward R. Murrow;
Bunraku theater;
Richard Dyer-Bennet;
Hal Holbrook's solo show as
Mark Twain; the
Count Basie and
Benny Goodman jazz orchestras;
Lawrence Welk;
Nat King Cole; and
Ella Fitzgerald. Also during the fair, Memorial Stadium hosted the
Ringling Brothers Circus,
Tommy Bartlett's Water Ski Sky and Stage Show,
Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans' Western Show, and an appearance by evangelist
Billy Graham. The fair and the city were the setting of the
Elvis Presley movie ''
It Happened at the World's Fair'' (1963), with a young
Kurt Russell making his first screen appearance. Location shooting began on September 4 and concluded nearly two weeks later. The film would be released the following spring, long after the fair had ended.
Show Street At the northeast corner of the grounds (now the
KCTS-TV studios Tamer entertainment came in forms such as the Paris Spectacular
wax museum, an elaborate Japanese Village, and the Hawaiian Pavilion. In 2011, the Fun Forest was shut down and the
Chihuly Garden and Glass opened in its place. ;Boulevards of the World: Boulevards of the World was "the shopping center of the fair". It also included the Plaza of the States and the original version of the International Fountain. ;Exhibit Fair: The Exhibit Fair provided another shopping district under the north stands of Memorial Stadium. ;Food and Favors: "Food and Favors", officially one of the "areas" of the fair, simply encompassed the various restaurants, food stands, etc., scattered throughout the grounds. These ranged from vending machines and food stands to the Eye of the Needle (atop the Space Needle) and the private Century 21 Club. ;Food Circus: The Food Circus was a
food court in the
former armory, later named the Center House, and renamed the Armory in 2012 as a remodel of the building continues. Unlike the current arrangement with a stage and a large open space for dancing, events, and temporary booths, many food booths were in the middle of the room as well as at the edges. There were 52 concessionaires in all, nine of them with exhibits in addition to their food for sale. Beginning in 1963, the Food Circus also housed a variety of museums, including
Jones' Fantastic Show, the Jules Charbneau World of Miniatures, and the Pullen Klondike Museum. ==Promotional video==