Today the United Nations headquarters is a three-minute walk from my NYC apartment on the East Side of Manhattan.
However, I understand that before that HQ was built, the UN bounced around to a number of temporary locations. I’ve made a mental list over the years:
San Francisco
Lake Success, NY (a town on Long Island, near the Queens border)
Today’s Queens Museum Building in Flushing Meadows Park
Now today, on a local news feature called “Today in NYC History,” they claim the UN was also housed on the Hunter College campus in the Bronx. And about a month ago I stumbled across an old newspaper headline (from the 1950’s IIRC) claiming that the UN intended to move into the Empire State Building.
My list is getting a little silly (and probably a little incorrect), so I want to get to the bottom of this: What were all the temporary locations of the UN before they moved into their permanent Manhattan HQ? (Chronology/dates would be nice, too)
And, what were the proposed locations that never got used? (For example, I’m almost positive that the Empire State Building idea never happened.)
San Francisco wasn’t the headquarters of the UN. It was just the site where the UN Charter was signed. I don’t think there were any meetings there aside from that. The General Assembly, et al. weren’t in place yet.
I seem to remember reading that there was a plan to put the permanent headquarters of the UN on Navy Island, in the Niagara River between Grand Island and Niagara Falls. The island could have been declared an extranational zone between the British Empire and the USA.
Obviously this didn’t happen. But it would be interesting to get definite info about how serious the proposal was.
Continuing these thoughts, is the UN an extranational zone? UN diplomats have diplomatic immunity, right? And is it true that the UN is not allowed to promote itself or its services inside the territory of the USA?
As for UN complexes, I think there’s one in Nairobi. And I seem to remeber hearing that UN University has a campus in Japan. This came up when there was a proposal to build a permanent campus in Hamilton, Ontario.
Okay, I’ve dug up a little info myself which clarifies things a bit.
Apparently, before today’s permanent HQ was built, various arms of the UN were simultaneously housed in the three locations I already mentioned: Hunter College campus in the Bronx (now Lehman College), Flushing Meadow Park in Queens (former grounds of the 1939 World’s Fair), and in an old gyroscope factory in Lake Success on Long Island.
And Sun, yes, the UN is an extranational zone, meaning that they’re not bound by US, state or local laws. They even have their own police, fire and postal service.
Before NYC – which could not afford the cost or land – got the improbable nod for the permanent UN headquarters (read how they pulled it off in The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York) several other US cities lobbied heavily for the honor. These included San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia; Philly was the odds-on favorite and was so confident it would be chosen that it had already begun condemning land for the building site.
Great book. That’s where I was going to look, but I guess if you have it, and asked the question, it’s probably not answered in there.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure that by the Fifties, Canada was no longer in any way part of the British Empire.
I remember hearing about NYC complaining about UN diplomats parking with impunity wherever they pleased, and the UN responding by hinting that it could always take its business elsewhere. I believe Guiliani responded by saying that he wouldn’t really mind having several acres of prime real estate in Midtown up for sale and no longer tax-exempt. Well, I thought it was amusing.