The 1962 Seattle World's Fair: What Century 21 Left Behind

Most World’s Fairs disappear. The pavilions come down, the fairgrounds get redeveloped, and a few postcards survive. Seattle’s didn’t. When the Century 21 Exposition closed in October 1962 after ten million visitors, the city kept the site, kept the buildings, and turned the whole thing into Seattle Center. You can still walk the fair today, which is exactly what our first Space-Time Adventure Tour invites you to do.

The Space Needle was the fair’s centerpiece and its symbol: a 605-foot tower with a rotating restaurant and an observation deck, built in roughly 400 days on a plot of land the fair’s organizers bought at the last minute. The Alweg Monorail was built to carry visitors the mile from downtown to the fairgrounds in about ninety seconds, and it still runs that same line between Westlake Center and Seattle Center. The United States Science Pavilion, with its soaring white gothic arches by architect Minoru Yamasaki, became the Pacific Science Center. The Washington State Coliseum, whose “World of Tomorrow” exhibit lifted visitors into the twenty-first century aboard a spherical elevator called the Bubbleator, has been rebuilt as Climate Pledge Arena. KEXP, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Seattle Opera and the International Fountain all live on the old fairgrounds too.

What makes the fair worth revisiting isn’t only the architecture. It’s the attitude. Century 21 opened at the height of the Space Race and it was unembarrassed about optimism: the future was coming, it was going to be wonderful, and everyone was invited. That optimism is the reason Fair Worlds is called Fair Worlds.

The Seattle Center Space-Time Adventure Tour starts at the base of the Monorail station and takes 30–45 minutes. It’s free, it’s built from archival film and audio of the fair, and it involves a pair of physicists who need your help. Guided tours with a host and loaner iPhones are available too.