New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street | also 56-01 Grand Central Parkway | Flushing Meadows-Corona Park | built 1964
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1964
The Hall of Science opens its first World's Fair exhibits, including a Frank Capra space film
The pavilion's basement exhibits opened to fairgoers on June 16, 1964, though the building was not dedicated until September 9. Its 12 science and health displays, mostly paid for by companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Dow Corning and Upjohn, ranged from brain models to nuclear-war survival. Visitors could also watch Frank Capra's 1964 film Rendezvous in Space and tour a children's exhibit called Atomsville USA.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1964
Wallace K. Harrison wraps the Great Hall in curving concrete set with blue glass
Harrison designed the 80-foot-high Great Hall as an amoeba-shaped room whose concrete wall curves inward, rising above a hexagonal base. To speed construction he had the concrete panels prefabricated rather than poured on site. The wall is made of 22 curved panels, each 13 inches thick and divided into a grid; its 5,400 rectangles hold pieces of blue glass in the dalle de verre technique, a facade credited to Henry Lee Willet.
“The rectangles were built using the dalle de verre method, with blue glass pieces inlaid into the concrete. In total, there are 5,400 rectangles.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
The former fair pavilion reopens as a permanent science museum with free admission
After the fair closed, the city spent $6 million adding exhibits, and the Hall of Science opened as a museum on September 21, 1966, without charging admission. Many displays were holdovers from the fair, including Atomsville USA, and each exhibit had a telephone handset or push-button that played an explanation. By early 1967 about 2,000 children were visiting each day, and two million people came in the museum's first two years.
“The Hall of Science officially opened to the public as a museum on September 21, 1966, and initially did not charge an admission fee.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1971
A planned nuclear-reactor wing at the museum is halted after protests and a funding shortfall
From 1966 the city and the Atomic Energy Commission planned a nuclear education center around the Hall of Science, including an "atomarium" auditorium built over a reactor in a pool. Local residents protested once they learned the reactor would be live rather than a model. With $2.5 million already spent, the project was stopped indefinitely in December 1971, and the $25 million set aside for it went instead to the original Yankee Stadium.
“Once local residents learned that the nuclear reactor would be a live reactor and not a model, they began protesting the plans.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1975
Starved of city money, the museum gets the nickname "Hole of Science"
Funding cuts during the 1975 fiscal crisis left the Hall of Science unable to pay even $80,000 for climate control; it shortened its hours, cut staff and relied on volunteers to keep exhibits running. One attraction was a 1963 film forecasting that people would someday reach the Moon, and staff took to calling the place the "Hole of Science". Even so, it ranked as the city's third-most-popular museum in the 1970s.
“Because of the lack of investment in the museum, its staff had taken to calling it the "Hole of Science".”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1984
Physicist Alan J. Friedman wades through a flooded museum to take over as director
The city hired Alan J. Friedman in September 1984, when the stalled museum had no exhibits and a flooded floor; he recalled walking through water to his interview with Bess Myerson and Claire Shulman. Friedman refocused the Hall of Science on hands-on exhibits for children, added a third level of exhibit space, and led it to a rededication on October 8, 1986, following a $9 million overhaul. He later oversaw two new wings and retired in 2006.
“At the time, the museum had no exhibits, and the floor was flooded. Friedman recalled that he "walked through water" to get to his interview…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1994
A metal object falls from the Great Hall's ceiling and kills a visitor
In 1994, while the museum was building a new entrance rotunda, a metal object dropped from the Great Hall's ceiling and killed a visitor. The Great Hall was closed for a time afterward. The new main entrance building, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle and facing west toward 111th Street, was finished in April 1996.
“The Great Hall was temporarily closed in 1994 after a metal object dropped from the ceiling and killed a visitor.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
Hurricane Ida floods the museum and destroys half of its exhibits
The Hall of Science had reopened in July 2021 after a pandemic closure, only to shut again that September when Hurricane Ida flooded it. Water filled the basement and ruined half the exhibits, though the newer north wing escaped damage; museum head Margaret Honey put the losses at $25 million. Part of the museum reopened in February 2022 and the rest that October.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- New York Hall of ScienceWikipedia
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