Set a Spell

Naturally an area as large as Flushing Meadows-Corona Park would require enough public outdoor seating to accommodate Fair-goers with weary, aching, feet. Two new park bench designs were created for The Fair. Of the 6700 benches that covered the Fair’s 1200+ acres, 1500 were backless, designed so as to not interefere with the view of certain landscaped sections of The Fair.

The benches were manufactured by Kenneth Lynch & Sons in Oxford, CT. Lynch is still in business and still producing the benches today. You can even buy one for your own garden! The 6-foot bench will run you about $700.00.

Benches in storage between seasons;
black-andwhite photos from the New York Public Library

Gloria, cold and camera-shy, on
on of the "Jetson" benches, 2005

A new bench with a much more futuristic look (David Dunlap in The New York Times described it as having “boomerang-shaped, Jetsons-style legs”) was designed for the 1964-65 Fair. You can still see these sleek aluminum beauties at Flushing Meadows. (Also originally manufactured by Lynch, a cast-iron version of this design is available from them as well.)

So what became of all those benches from the first Fair? You can still see the '39 design, including the backless version, all over town. My first thought was that those original 6700 benches were relocated throughout the City sometime between 1940 and 1964. That may well have been the case, but according to Timothy Lynch (Kenneth Lynch's son), none of the benches seen in various City parks today are from The Fair. This only makes sense: a cast iron and wood bench exposed to the elements is simply not going to survive for 70+ years.

BUT...also according to Mr. Lynch, an original '39 bench does, in fact, survive, and is housed in the Olmsted Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Originally constructed as the administration offices of the '64 Fair, the Olmsted Center is today headquarters to the Queens Parks Department.

So today I used a PTO day and rode out to The Fairgrounds. To find The Bench. I was simultaneously delighted and dismayed. The bench is there, sure enough, but it suffers the indignity of being relegated to a thoroughly dreary, drab, and depressing hallway; the pictures speak for themselves. Everyone was really nice, and I even got a lady to agree to take my picture on The Bench. But really, this noble Fair survivor deserves better, is worthy of a setting befitting its heritage, one that will enable it to be seen and appreciated by more people. The Queens Museum across the park would be a much more ideal location, I should think.

I noticed a few things about the bench, however: the right arm (right as you're facing the bench, not as you're sitting on it) is of a heavier casting than the center and right arms; the foot of the left arm end does not have the bolt hole seen on the other two arms and on more recently produced benches; and the decorative detailing on the left arm is also slightly, though obviously, different. I suspect that the left arm is original, and the center and right arms are replacements. From when, I couldn't say. The wood slats are considerably worn, and full of worm holes; these could certainly be original. And of course they wouldn't have been painted bright orange in '39! Still, this is the closest to an original Fair park bench that we have. 

Next time you're in the vicinity of the Olmsted Center, stop in and have a look; the gals at the the front desk will direct you down the correct corridor.