Pacific Science Center finds a piece from the 1962 World’s Fair in their Underground Tunnels
I am a proud supporter and follower of the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. I enjoy their daily posts on Facebook, especially their Throwback Thursday ones. Yesterday’s post was a real winner, here is what they said…
Here’s a great #throwbackthursday straight from the depths of the tunnels under our campus.
We found a DNA helix model represented by the 4 suits in a deck of cards in the tunnels that we recognized from pictures of the original Science Pavilion Exhibits during the 1962 World’s Fair.
This particular model was a part of the “Development of Science” Building, now currently known as Building 4. As the second building in the intended Science Pavilion sequence, the “Development of Science” Building was filled with displays intended to address “the development of science from simplest beginnings” and to “show how man has improved his ability to see, define, measure, and predict events of the natural world”.
It came with this photo…
Okay, firstly, how big is their underground tunnel system? Are they talking super villain lair big or just a place to park some cars? More importantly, why is a piece of history like this languishing in a tunnel? I know that it is probably because of budget issues, or maybe they don’t have a place it would fit, but I hope that those are two issues they might want to think about overcoming.
I am a big fan of the 1962 World’s Fair and would love to see this piece brought out of storage, cleaned up and put on some sort of permanent display and would be willing to donate money specifically for that purpose. If you feel the same way, feel free to Contact the Pacific Science Center and tell them so.
If you would like to see this Helix in its former glory, it was featured prominently in a scene in the classic, Century 21 Calling (both normal and MST3K versions). Enjoy!
Hey! I work at the Pacific science center. To answer your question, the tunnels are REALLY big. They're kind of dank and claustrophobic and go all over the campus, and you could easily get lost in them. There is actually so much more vintage stuff stored in there, precisely because of space issues. If we showed everything from past years, we wouldn't have any space, so the tunnels serve a lot as a storage function. I've found stuff like massive blueprints from the 50s down there, but it's also used to store random stuff like our office Halloween decorations lol. Luckily the tunnels are dry, dark, and undisturbed, and all the history down there is pretty safe as far as I can tell.