I combined historical images of the 1939 World’s Fair home replica built in Silver Spring Maryland with photos I shot in December 2012 after the home went on the market for only the third time in its history. The compilation video was posted on YouTube as a holiday gift for Ann Scandiffio. Ann grew up in the home and her parents, Dr. Mario Scandiffio and his wife Pauline, were the home’s first owners back in 1939.
The tour continues.
Furnished and decorated by Washington’s venerable Hecht Company, Silver Spring’s 1939 World’s Fair Home’s public spaces reflected the traditional vocabulary that met visitors to the familiar Cape Cod home in the Northwood Park subdivision. The living room was the first room on the left of the entry hall.
1939 World’s Fair Town of Tomorrow Home No. 15: First floor plan. Living room highlighted.
Earlier this week on my way to testify at a historic preservation hearing in Maryland I got to stop by Silver Spring’s 1939 World’s Fair home. A few weeks ago I wrote about the Realtor emailing to let me know that the home was for sale. She generously offered to give me a tour of the home and I accepted.
Silver Spring’s World’s Fair Home. December 2012.
The latest issue of the Art Deco Society of Washington‘s Trans-Lux newsletter is hot off the press (or whatever it is you call the PDF distiller). My article on Silver Spring’s 1939 World’s Fair Home:
© 2010 David S. Rotenstein
Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s is a new exhibit opening Saturday at the National Building Museum and running through July 10, 2011. The exhibit includes a section on a house built in the North Four Corners part of Silver Spring: Washington’s 1939 New York World’s Fair Home. As far as the available evidence suggests, the Silver Spring developers who received a license from the New York World’s Fair Corporation were the only ones who built an exact duplicate using the plans and material specifications for the demonstration home that was on display in the Long Island fair in 1939 and 1940. Continue reading