How a World's Fair Pavilion Became a Family's Cabin Adam Friedberg Nestled in the Adirondacks, Chuck Stafford's family cabin began its life in Queens. They've been standing on the Flushing Bay Promenade, just north of the Mets" stadium and across the water from La Guardia Airport, for nearly 50 years: two identical fiberglass shells. Not quite buildings, not quite sculptures, the twin structures look simultaneously retro and modern - a past vision of futurism. But these twins were once triplets. Their missing sibling, separated from them in early childhood, stands several hundred miles away in the northern Adirondacks, where it has been repurposed as an improbable summer cabin. The family that owns it recently opened it for the season, an annual ritual since 1969. Connecting the dots among the three structures reveals a New York story that almost nobody knows - not even the city agency that owns the two structures in Queens. That story begins with the 1964 New York World's Fair, most of which took place in what is now Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Some famous holdovers from the fair remain there, like the Unisphere and the New York State Pavilion. A mile away, however, the fair had a lesser-known component: the World's Fair Marina. It was there, on the waterfront, that three small fiberglass buildings with glass walls were erected. With their playfully modern aesthetic and prefab design, they captured the fair's sense of optimism and possibility. One was used as a Coast Guard pavilion; the other two housed exhibits by outboard motor companies. Chuck Stafford was 10 when he and his family visited the fair from their upstate home in Watertown, N.Y. He was mostly interested in the newly opened Shea Stadium (he and his father took in a Mets game), but he remembers seeing the marina pavilions. He also remembers an auction notice showing up at his father's office in late 1965, after the fair's conclusion. "My dad was an engineer in the paper mill machinery business, and he'd get these auction fliers for machine shops or paper mills that were being liquidated," recalled Mr. Stafford, who still lives in Watertown and now runs the company. Then he got this flier where they were auctioning off pavilions and stuff from the World's Fair. The flier, which Mr. Stafford still has, showed one of the marina pavilions and suggested it could be reused as a refreshment stand, pool enclosure or summer cottage. Mr. Stafford's father, Carlos Stafford, was intrigued. "I remember all of us discussing it over dinner," recalled Deb Galloway, Chuck Stafford's sister. One option was to have it as a canopy for a swimming pool. But we had a parcel of land in the Adirondacks, so what about using it as a summer cabin? So in January 1966, Carlos Stafford bid on the Coast Guard pavilion - "Just a few thousand dollars, I think," Chuck Stafford said - and won. He had the pavilion disassembled and its pieces shipped to Watertown. Meanwhile, a contractor friend of his successfully bid on the other two structures but wanted only the glass walls. The fiberglass shells were left behind. The Staffords now had their summer cabin, but they couldn't yet use it. There was no access road to the family's land in the Adirondacks, so Carlos spent two summers building one. It took another summer to lay the foundation, truck in and reassemble the pavilion's pieces, and execute Carlos's clever split-level interior design, which managed to fit a kitchen, bathroom, dining area, living room, fireplace and four bedrooms into the pavilion's 1,100 square feet. The site's remote location made connecting to the power grid prohibitively expensive, so Carlos rigged up a bank of old Western Union telegraph batteries, charged by a 1920s generator, to provide electricity. By the summer of 1969, the Staffords" cabin was ready for occupancy. The futuristic structure was an odd sight on their heavily wooded lakeside plot. But its glass walls made the interior space feel expansive and connected to the outdoors. They called it the Glass Camp. Forty-four years later, the Glass Camp still stands on the Staffords" land. Carlos died in 2004, but Chuck, his siblings and their families continue to use the cabin. There have been some small changes - the telegraph batteries, for example, have been replaced by marine batteries charged by solar panels and a small windmill. For the most part, though, the Glass Camp still reflects the Staffords" original vision.