New York World's Fair Site: Explore its utopian future on an audio tour

This self-guided audio tour will take you through the fairgrounds for the historic New York City World’s Fairs of 1939-40 and 1964-65. We’ll visit iconic sites of both fairs, hearing about the architecture, design and history of the famous Unisphere, The New York State Pavilion and the temporary headquarters of the United Nations, now the Queens Museum.

You’ll hear about the origins of the park, which inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald when it was an eyesore ash heap, and how that was transformed into beautiful fairgrounds and then into a major city park. You’ll hear about the colorful history of the fairs’ exhibits and pavilions, which includes the infamous feud between artist Andy Warhol and controversial mega-developer Robert Moses.

It’s best to take this tour during the day, when the Queens Museum is open, so that you can pop in and see the New York City Panorama, which is an enormous scale model of all of New York City. Please check the museum’s hours beforehand.