Do We Want to Exhibit a Clean or Unclean City? Private Contractors, Scavengers, and Waste Disposal at the 1939 New York World’s Fair

By Tina Peabody

Aerial view of the Corona Ash Dumps, circa the early 1920s

As preparations began for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, there was considerable concern about presenting a cleanly image to visitors. Bernard Sachs and E. H. L. Corwin, both officials of the Committee of Twenty on Street and Outdoor Cleanliness, argued in a letter to the New York Times that the World’s Fair was an opportunity to pursue comprehensive sanitary improvements in New York City. “The 'Wonder City of the World,' beyond a doubt;” they wrote, “the 'cleanest city,' by no means. But we must make it that."[1] Another letter to George McAneny, the Fair Corporation’s Chairman of the Board advised an increased police presence to enforce sanitary standards. "This is important to the interest of the city when the Fair crowds come,” the letter read. “Do we want to exhibit a clean or an unclean city [sic].”[2] Municipal engineer George A. Soper suggested making sanitation a “major element” of the World’s Fair, including exhibits on sanitation and public health.[3] He argued that sanitation would be of interest to the general public, and was crucial since the Fair would be built on “one of the most insanitary parts of the City” – a former ash dump in Flushing Meadows [4]

Scholars have considered the way the 1939 New York World’s Fair influenced waste management decisions in New York City, especially the role Parks Commissioner Robert Moses played in convincing the Department of Sanitation (DOS) to stop dumping at Riker’s Island in preparation for the Fair, and the eventual creation of Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island.[5] The World’s Fair Corporation records from 1939 and 1940 located in the New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division also reveal how essential waste management was to the operation of the Fair itself, both in terms of the day-to-day operation and perceptions of the Fair. The imposing task of transforming a former ash dump into a sanitary space worthy of a worldly city led officials to emphasize cleanliness and efficiency, but the Fair’s plan ultimately excluded scavengers and many private contractors not connected with the DOS and closed to the door to comprehensive waste reclamation.

Concerns about the cleanliness shaped perceptions of the Fair from the moment construction began. The fact that the Fair would be built on a former ash dump did not inspire confidence that the Fair could live up to the ideals Sachs and Corwin espoused, and many Fair investors were initially uneasy with the idea of reclaiming the site in such a short time.[6]Anxieties about the transformation of the site continued as preparations began. Some residents of the neighboring Flushing-Hillcrest community claimed that clearing the old ash dump for the Fair was driving rats “as big as cats” to their homes.[7] Fair workers on the dump site also had to beware of rats, some reportedly even wearing protective legging to protect themselves.[8] During the course of the preparation and operation of the Fair, rat extermination campaigns continued to control these potential reminders of the Fairgrounds unseemly origins.[9] A Fair Corporation radio release painted these efforts as a triumph over an “unsightly wasteland”: "Thus a once ugly, pest-ridden area, caked with slime, piled with rubbish and swept by foul-smelling clouds of smoke and flame has been transformed into a veritable dream of the Arabian Nights." [10]
The Fair Corporation was also careful to assure all Fair waste was handled efficiently. Scavengers and private waste contractors vied for the rights to salvage materials during construction and collect the waste from concessions during operation. While the Fair Corporation took some time to develop its overall waste disposal strategy, scavenging was clearly prohibited. On August 2, 1937, a father of four named Anthony Carrailo wrote to World’s Fair Corporation President Grover Whalen asking for permission to salvage iron during the construction of a new sewerage system for the Fairgrounds, emphasizing that this was his only means of supporting his children.[11] Four days later, C. T. Ford, Maintenance Engineer in the World’s Fair Operations Department, rejected Carrailo’s request though he had been asked by other Fair officials to give him a permit. "These junk pickers have proved quite a nuisance at this site and the police are trying to keep them out,” Ford wrote, and added that officials had already posted signs stating that junk picking was prohibited.[12]

Despite Ford’s clear stance against scavenging, the Fair Corporation did consider proposals from a number of other private waste contractors for reclaiming the Fair’s refuse. The Fair Corporation seriously considered a contract with the Jersey Feed Farm based in Secaucus, New Jersey. Secaucus swine farms had played a major role in the waste disposal of food waste from New York City’s hotels and restaurants since the late nineteenth century. Typically, Secaucus swine farmers paid hotels and restaurants for the privilege of carting away their food waste to feed their herds.[13] In 1938, Ford estimated that 250,000 hogs were raised in Secaucus every year on New York City refuse.[14] Jersey Feed Farms had a number of major waste disposal contracts in New York and New Jersey, including a contract with the Waldorf Astoria hotel, and they hoped to create a similar agreement with the Fair.[15] However, Ford believed that the Farm’s trucks were too large to haul waste from the Fairgrounds. Though Jersey Feed Farms offered to pay for the waste, Ford felt the costs of hauling the waste to a transfer point would be nearly as much as bringing it to an incinerator, lessening the financial benefit. Ford also argued that it would be preferable not to force concessionaires to separate food waste from other refuse.[16]

As Ford’s comments suggest, the Corporation had begun to favor a more centralized form of refuse removal that would prevent concessionaires from having to separate different forms of waste. In August of 1938, Ford wrote a memo arguing that all waste removal and street cleaning should be done with the Fair’s own equipment and also advocated disposing of the waste by incineration.[17] He also noted that they did not anticipate working with the Secaucus swine farmers or requiring concessionaries to separate their waste.[18] As early as March 1937, the Fair Corporation had made arrangements to use city-owned incinerators for disposal free of cost, provided that they paid the cost of hauling the waste to the disposal site.[19] After this point, private waste contractors were often told that arrangements had already been made and sometimes that all cleaning operations would be “unified.”[20] Using the term “unified” emphasized that – as Ford suggested in his memo - the Fair would not be forcing concessionaires to separate saleable materials for multiple collections. This suggests the only way the Fair’s waste would be reutilized is if the incinerator generated power from burning the refuse.[21]

The response to Stephen Meade’s request to salvage tin demonstrates the Fair’s shift away from waste reutilization, and especially the reluctance to ask concessionaires to separate refuse. Meade wrote to the Salvage Department of the World’s Fair in January 1937, proposing to remove tin cans for concessionaires, provided they were placed back in the cartons they came in.[22] He would pay two dollars for every thousand cartons, and haul the material away at night.[23] Initially, the Fair’s Director of Concessions Maurice Mermey kept the letter on file until they were ready to make a decision, but in 1938 Meade was still inquiring about the status of his application.[24] Though the Benjamin Eisner, Sanitary Engineer at the Fair, did finally agree to speak with Meade about the proposal in late November 1938, he also noted that it was not practical to separate cans from other refuse “or to enforce private exhibitors to do so.”[25]

The World’s Fair Corporation’s emphasis on efficiency over waste reclamation is representative of broader waste management trends in New York City in this period. In the thirties and forties, the DOS increasingly turned to sanitary landfilling as its primary method of disposal, and concern for lowering costs and improving waste collection efficiency generally took precedence over reuse.[26] For many independent junk dealers of this era like Anthony Carrailo, this meant that opportunities for salvaging were harder to come by, especially since sanitary landfills discouraged scavenging.[27] During the scrap campaigns of World War II, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia refused to deal with junk dealers, resulting in considerable delays in utilizing aluminum scrap.[28]The World’s Fair example suggests that even for larger contractors like the Jersey Feed Farms, the desire for efficient collection could prevent opportunities for repurposing refuse. While the emphasis on unifying sanitary services may have helped encourage a cleaner World’s Fair and a cleaner city, these waste management trends would also ultimately set the stage for the waste disposal crises of the sixties and seventies.


Tina Peabody is a Doctoral Candidate at the University at Albany, SUNY.

[1] Bernard Sachs and E. H. L. Corwin, “Fair Offers Opportunity: City Is Urged to Institute a Program of Outdoor Cleanliness,” New York Times, July 4, 1938.

[2] Robert J. Caldwell to George McAneny, March 15, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 237, Folder 12, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division.

[3] George A. Soper to Stephen F. Voorhees, June 1, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 237, Folder 10

[4] George A. Soper to Stephen F. Voorhees, June 1, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 237, Folder 10; on Soper see Martin V Melosi, Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment(Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005), 71–72.

[5] Ted Steinberg, Gotham Unbound: The Ecological History of Greater New York, 1st edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), 214–25, 242–51; Benjamin Miller, Fat of the Land : (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000), 188–212; Steven Hunt Corey, “King Garbage: A History of Solid Waste Management in New York City, 1881-1970” (PhD Dissertation, New York University, 1994), 212–26, New York Public Library Local History and Geneaology Division.

[6] James Mauro, Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World’s Fair on the Brink of War (New York: Ballantine Books, 2010), 14–16.

[7] For some of the press coverage of complaints, see: “War on Rats,” Long Island Daily Star, July 29, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1972, Folder 6; “Flushing-HIllcrest Folks Pooh -Pooh Rat Complaint,” Long Island Daily Press, July 30, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1972, Folder 6; “Big Rats Invade Hillcrest Homes, Oborne Charges,” Long Island Daily Star, July 28, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1972, Folder 6; “Rats a Menace,” Long Island Press, July 3, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1972, Folder 6; “Rat Refugees Flee From World Fair Site; Annoy Residents of Forest Hills Area,” Long Island Daily Press, June 22, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1972, Folder 6.

[8] “Fair Workers Rout Rats; Flushing Fears Invasion,” Long Island Daily Press, July 2, 1936, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1972, Folder 6.

[9] “Poison Tidbits for Fair’s Rats,” The New York Sun, February 11, 1939, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1972, Folder 6.

[10] John S. Young, “From Ash Heap to Park,” 1938, 3, 5, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 778, Folder 19.

[11] Anthony Carrailo to Grover Whalen, August 2, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 238, Folder 15.

[12] C. T. Ford to Chief Engineer and Director of Construction, “Junk Picking,” August 6, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 238, Folder 15, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division.

[13]For some discussions of the Secaucus swine farming swill trade, see Harry J. Rokafeller, Jr., “Garbage Fed Hogs,” The Voorhees Farmer 1, no. 4 (April 1917): 126, 128; “Report of the Department of Street Cleaning of the City of New York for 1895- 96-97” (New York (N.Y.): Department of Street Cleaning, 1898), 128–30, City Hall Library.

[14] C. T. Ford to Director of Operations, July 26, 1938, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 238, Folder 8.

[15] C. A. Straub to Maurice Mermey, April 14, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 18.

[16] For Ford’s comments on the potential contract with Jersey Feed Farms, see C. T. Ford to Director of Operations, July 26, 1938.

[17] Ibid

[18] Ibid

[19] Frances Lehrich, “Board of Estimate City of New York,” April 20, 1939, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1723, Folder 5, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division; William F. Carey, April 25, 1939, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 1723, Folder 5, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division; Maxwell B. Harvey to C. R. Van Etten, January 6, 1938, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 15, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division; F. W. Olmstead to General Manager, “Incineration of the World’s Fair Refuse: Volund System,” March 27, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 22, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division; H. A. Foster to Colonel Hogan, “Incineration of the World’s Fair Refuse,” March 19, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 22, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division.

[20]Thomas J. Donovan to Edwin E. Singer, December 15, 1938, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 15, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division; Maxwell B. Harvey to Thomas J. Donovan, “Removal of Used Paper Products,” December 8, 1938, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 15, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division; D. M. Reese to Grover Whalen, November 22, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 17, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division; J. P. Hoguet to D. M. Reese, December 16, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 499, Folder 17, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division.

[21] There was an incinerator in Flushing that generated power, but it is not clear if this is the facility that would have been used. Corey, “King Garbage: A History of Solid Waste Management in New York City, 1881-1970,” 202–4.

[22] Stephen J. Meade to World’s Fair Committee, Salvage Department, January 9, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 238, Folder 21.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Maurice Mermey to Stephen J. Meade, January 15, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 238, Folder 21; Stephen J. Meade to Maurice Mermey, January 15, 1937, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 238, Folder 21; Stephen J. Meade to Maurice Mermey, November 16, 1938, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records Box 238, Folder 21, New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division.

[25] Benjamin Eisner to Stephen J. Meade, November 28, 1938, New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records, Box 238, Folder 21.

[26]For a discussion of sanitary landfilling as a dominant method in New York City, see Corey, “King Garbage: A History of Solid Waste Management in New York City, 1881-1970,” 189–91, 202–38.

[27] On landfills and scavenging see Susan Strasser, Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash (New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Co., 2000), 271–72; On the centralization of the scrap trades and the struggle of small dealers to compete, see Carl A. Zimring, Cash For Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 65–70, 85–86, 108–23.

[28] Hugh Rockoff, Keep on Scrapping: The Salvage Drives of World War II, Working Paper Series, Working Paper 13418 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., 2007), 7–9, 40–41.