A World's Fair pavilion hides in plain sight

Spain Pavilion, 1964 Photo: Alan LovitchIf you're a baseball fan, you probably watched at least a portion of this year's World Series between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals. If you also happen to be a fan of World's Fair relics (hey, you're on this site now, aren't you?) then you might not have known that you were occasionally seeing a pavilion from the fair, hidden in plain sight.

The Spain pavilion from the fair was re-located to St. Louis after the fair, with high hopes for it to be a tourism destination. Unfortunately, most people don't even know it is there. Today the pavilion, or more precisely, its exterior walls, serve as the lobby for the St. Louis Hilton. The hotel happens to be right next to Busch Stadium, with several rooms having views of the field. So in several of the wide, aerial shots of the stadium, millions of people were seeing a World's Fair pavilion, without even knowing it.

As a sidenote, along with the pavilion, a six-foot plus bronze sculpture of the first Queen of Spain also moved to St. Louis. If you go to the hotel hoping to see the Queen, you won't find her. She's in hiding right now, but we found her. Stay tuned...

St. Louis Hilton & Busch Stadium 

Comments

[Boggy]

I have a nearly complete set of the Blackhawk slides sold at the 64 fair. If you need a scan of any pavilion, please let me know. I also have a set of the larger "SuperSlides"