My Archive Summer 2019 “My great aunt Mary saved all the family photos that eventually got passed down to me. Her brother, my grandfather, John, was drafted during WWII.” —Paul Demonte

Heinz Dome, 1939. Unfortunately long gone, the Heinz Building at the New York World's Fair was an extremely popular exhibition at the Fair. During the 1939 season, the 100-tall domed building was decorated with a relief mural by Domenico Mortellito, depicting scenes of harvest in the eastern and western hemispheres. The interior presentation included an animated stage show that dramatized "the story of strained baby food." A figure, the "Aristocrat Tomato Man," sang and nodded his tomato head. The 'Goddess of Perfection,' a 16-foot statue (who held a sphere in her hands, though it was more of a disco ball then tomato) moved from inside the dome to its roof for the 1940 season, making the building even more visible.

Designed by York & Sawyer, Hurley & Hughes, and Edward Luders. Given Luders background, it is almost certain he was brought in for his ecclesiastical and liturgical expertise, as the other two firms did not specialize in church architecture. The circular pavilion was one of the most popular at the Fair and included Michelango’s Pieta, viewed from a moving sidewalk.

In the 1760s the Willetts, an English family who had settled in this area of Flushing in the 17th century, sold 120 acres to then Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden. Colden named his estate Spring Hill and constructed a mansion (seen here) near the public highway at the northern line of the farm. In the sale of the property, the Willetts required that their family burial ground remain intact and private and that they retained burial rights there in perpetuity. The state confiscated the property from Colden's son who had remained a Loyalist in the 1780s, after which the home passed through a series of owners. Eventually subsumed by the large Durkee family estate, Cedar Grove Cemetery purchased that 250-acre property in 1893. Later much of what had once been Spring Hill was organized into the separate Jewish cemetery, Mount Hebron. Today, the Willett Family Burial Ground remains, though with only a few extant headstones, about 200 feet east of Mount Hebron’s main entrance. The mansion of the Colden Estate was used in the early 20th century as administrative offices for the cemetery but was demolished by the mid-century.

Vatican Pavilion, 1964. Perhaps surprisingly the Vatican Pavilion was the second most popular site at the 1964-1965 World's Fair. 52% of attendees visited the pavilion, including Pope Paul VI, 15 Cardinals, one Patriarch, three Apostolic Delegates, and 127 Archbishops and Bishops. It was five times more popular than any other religious sponsored locale at the fair. The attractions in the popular pavilion included the tiara of Pope Paul VI, a replica of the Tomb of St. Peter, and the Pietà, Michelangelo's stone masterpiece, which was shipped from St. Peter’s Basilica in a waterproof metal container and displayed behind bullet-proof plexiglass. The artwork, which had not left its basilica home since 1499, was dramatically situated by Jo Mielziner, famed Broadway set designer and viewed from a series of multilevel moving walkways. The oval-shaped mid-century building with a golden roof and cross that rose to 100 feet was designed by the firms of York & Sawyer, Hurley & Hughes, and Luders and Associates. The building also featured a glass-enclosed mezzanine that formed a tent-like circular chapel. Following the close of the fair, both interior and exterior architectural elements of the Chapel of the Good Shepard were purchased by St. Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Church in Groton, Connecticut. A new church building (which still stands today) was designed using these features by architect, William F. Herman, Jr.

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens In 2006, the USTA National Tennis Center was rededicated as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in honor of King’s remarkable tennis career and her activism for women’s and LGBTQ rights. Between 1961 and 1979, King won 39 Grand Slam titles, including a record 20 Wimbledon titles. Both during the height of her career and after, King fought for equal prize money for women, who were paid considerably less than their male counterparts. In 1973, she formed the Women’s Tennis Association and was its first president. As a result of her advocacy, the U.S. Open became the first major tournament to offer equal prize money. In 1981, King was publicly outed as a lesbian in a palimony suit and lost all of her endorsement deals, yet she continued to fight against discrimination, and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987 and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 for her advocacy work. The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a major attraction in the last weeks of summer, when international crowds flock to Queens for the U.S. Open, one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. Photo by Ajay Suresh.

You submitted, and we rounded up our faves! Here are some spectacular shots of New Yorkers at school over the years.