The New York Public Library recently put historical photos online at their web site. Among the photos were those of North Carolinians who were getting the state's pavilion ready for the New York World's Fair, 1939-1940. 

W.E. Fenner of Rocky Mount, Virgil Wilson and William T. Hatch

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Map Plans for North Carolina’s Part in World Fair

Tentative plans for North Carolina’s participation in the World’s Fair in New York were mapped by these business men in Raleigh Wednesday. They decided to raise $75,000 to insure representation for North Carolina at “The World of Tomorrow.” Left to right, they are: J.Q. Gilkey of Marion, assistant director of the State Department of Conservation and Development; Hunter Marshall of Charlotte, secretary of the North Carolina Cotton Manufacturers Association; C.E. Vanderhooven of Asheville, the American Enka Corp.; F.E. Laycock of the Beacon Manufacturing Co.; C.C. Green of New York, secretary of the World’s Fair; W.E. Fenner of Rocky Mount, chairman of the North Carolina Commission on the World’s Fair; Governor Hoey; V. St. Cloud of Raleigh, the Southern Hotel Association; Thurmond Chatham of Winston-Salem, the Wachovia Bank and Trust Co.; R.D. Coleman of Canton, the Champion Fibre Co.; Judge Clayton Moore of Winston-Salem, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; R. Grady Rankin of Charlotte, the Duke Power Co.; and John W. Caffee of Greensboro, a member of the State World’s Fair Commission. (Times Staff Photo.)

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Burton H. Smith of Charlotte, North Carolina, visited the New York World’s Fair headquarters on a recent trip to New York to inspect the various models of Fair buildings and progress which are on display in the Fair’s Exhibit in the Empire State Building. Mr. Smith is a member of the North Carolina division of the National Advisory Committee for the Fair. He is shown beside the Hall of Communications, one of the buildings which will be erected this summer on the Fair site. The model is scaled 1/16 of an inch to one foot and is perfect in every detail, even to the shrubberies which will be blooming in its landscaped courtyard when the fair Opens on April 30, 1939. Mr. Smith viewed a night and day model of the fair, various building models, a progress model showing the transformation of the site and a specially lighted model of the Pherisphere and Trylon, unique Theme Center of the Fair. His keenest interest was in the progress model which shows the landscaping and the planting of the first 500 of the 10,000 trees which will be at the site in 1939.

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The North Carolina flag serves as a backdrop as Clarence Courtney, manager of that State’s exhibit at the World’s Fair of 1940 in New York, welcomes Betty Huneycutt, 18, of Charlotte, N.C. Miss Huneycutt was named Miss North Carolina in a statewide contest in 1938.

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North Carolina’s participation in the New York World’s Fair 1939 was discussed by R.M. Hanes, chairman of the National Advisory Committee for North Carolina and W.E. Fenner, chairman of the official World’s Fair Commission for North Carolina, in a visit to the Fair site in flushing Meadows. Both Mr. Hanes, who is president of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company in Winston-Salem and Mr. Fenner, who is a member of the legislature from Rocky Mount, expressed enthusiasm over the progress of construction at the site.
They are shown in the picture looking over a map with Leslie Baker of the States Participation Department of the Fair and one of the engineers. They are standing near the site of the Theme Center comprised of the Perisphere and Trylon, the former being a 200-foot sphere and the latter a ?-foot triangular obelisk. Piles are now being driven 95 feet to form a foundation for these giant structures.

Messrs. Hanes and Fenner also saw numerous other buildings under construction and the $900,000 Administration Building, already completed and occupied by 600 fair workers. They learned that construction is three weeks ahead of schedule and that the Administration Building was put up in the record time of 124 days.

“We are convinced,” Mr. Fenner said, “that the New York Fair will be the biggest thing of its kind ever held in the world. We shall watch the progress of construction with the keenest interest. We have been both thrilled and enthused by what we have seen and we shall certainly urge that the State of North Carolina be properly represented.”

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Burton H. Smith of Charlotte, N.C., at right, is pictured while on a recent visit to the New York World’s Fair exhibit in the Empire State Building. Mr. Smith is a member of the North Carolina division of the National Advisory Committee for the Fair. Charles F. Kreig of the Fair staff is explaining a point of interest for Mr. Smith.

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North Carolina Exhibit—View of Address

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From a handwritten note on the back of the photo:

L to R, C.C. Spaulding, president N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Company, Durham, N.C., J.W. Smith, Ranking(?) Superior Farmer?, N.F.A., Gause, Texas, and J.B. Simmons, National Executive Secretary, N.F.A., Greensboro, N.C.

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Frances Roughton of Old Fort, North Carolina, looks for her sign on the huge Zodiac Ball in the New York World’s Fair Court of States. Miss Roughton is a hostess at the North Carolina exhibit.

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W.E. Fenner of North Carolina’s Word’s Fair Commission discusses plans for reopening the State exhibit in the Court of States at the World’s Fair of 1940 in New York with Grover Whalen, Fair President. North Carolina announced its return to the Fourth Fair recently.

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North Carolina Exhibit—Speech

 

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Betty Huneycutt, Miss North Carolina, points to her selection as Miss North Carolina in the timeline of North Carolina history at the North Carolina Exhibit. With her is an unnamed exhibit hostess.

 

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On the Steps of the Administrative Building at the World's Fair.