In the summer of 1965, a special commission established by New York’s Mayor Robert Wagner submitted a list of pavilions they thought should remain to serve the park. Among them was Johnson’s New York State Pavilion. The Commission felt the towers constituted a natural tourist attraction. The Theaterama building would be a great marionette theater and the “Tent of Tomorrow” could provide a covered area for athletic events, concerts and dancing. Robert Moses thought it would make a good “art museum.” So it stayed while the rest of the Fair went away.

Money was eventually spent to refurbish parts of the pavilion to display art. And for a brief period following the Fair, there were a few art exhibits shown. The Byrds played a concert there once. So did the Grateful Dead. From 1970 to 1974, a roller rink operator from Ohio operated the pavilion as a popular outdoor roller skating rink called the Roller Round. The million dollar terrazzo map was plastic coated to protect the surface from the skaters. Talk was that the World Trade Center, then under construction, would be interested in having the map as a part of their grand courtyard. But it never happened. The floor stayed. The towers were never opened.

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