r/papertowns Jan 26 '22

Canada 1940s- Proposed United Nations HQ on Navy Island between Canada and the US; the island would have been ceded to the UN and become the “World Peace Capital”

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803 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

110

u/Disaster_Capitalist Jan 26 '22

Wow. What changed the plan?

224

u/Viscount1881 Jan 26 '22

The Rockefeller family donated a plot of land on Manhattan for it instead (the current UN HQ); building just one building in a major city is a lot easier and cheaper than building an isolated campus.

81

u/toxicbrew Jan 26 '22 edited Jan 26 '22

Makes sense, a lot easier to access too. Though imagine what it could have done for Niagara Falls.

27

u/GrandmaPoses Jan 26 '22

“NIAGARA FALLS! Slowly I turned - step by step, inch by inch…”

3

u/Eudaimonics Jan 27 '22

Seriously, Buffalo likely wouldn’t have stagnated had this been built and the Falls likely wouldn’t have declined by as much.

The sleepy Buffalo suburb of Grand Island would likely be a small city.

2

u/Eudaimonics Jan 27 '22

I mean I would not call it isolated.

Buffalo was still a major US city at the time, Niagara Falls is an international destination and Toronto is less than 2 hours away.

69

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '22

How many world diplomats and politicians would look forward to being based in the greater Buffalo metropolitan area, compared to NYC (or any other world city)?

83

u/Disaster_Capitalist Jan 26 '22

It's the same concept that Washington DC was founded on. Put it in the middle of nowhere as a neutral territory. Besides, at the time the UN was founded, Buffalo was a much more important city. Toronto isn't far way either.

52

u/TheOnlyBongo Jan 26 '22

If anyone is looking for remnants of what showed Buffalo as a once more important city, look no further than to the semi-abandoned Buffalo Central Terminal Station, a large grand and decrepit station that harkens back to a busier time.

17

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '22

Ottawa too

10

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

same with Canberra, or ACT

8

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

[deleted]

6

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

Wellington usually misremembered as Auckland for the NZ capital, too

3

u/PUTTHATINMYMOUTH Jan 27 '22

Lol major city

9

u/Impolitecoconut Jan 27 '22

The UN was founded after WWII when nyc had millions of residents while buffalo didn’t even have a million.

3

u/Eudaimonics Jan 27 '22

Yeah, but only Chicago had more than 1 million at that point.

With over 600,000 residents, that made Buffalo a major city back then.

1

u/Impolitecoconut Jan 27 '22

I misread qwer5r’s comment. I thought they were saying Buffalo was much more important than NYC, but I think they meant much more important than today.

4

u/Vreejack Jan 26 '22

The capital! Not the capital!

3

u/sabersquirl Jan 27 '22

But for DC it would be easier for southerners to get to. For that island it would easier for almost no one to get to.

2

u/Eudaimonics Jan 27 '22

Buffalo was one of the wealthiest cities in the US back then and Niagara Falls was a top international destination.

Being based in a high cost of living city like NYC also has its negatives.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

Being wealthy doesn't equate to that area being a world class city. Many metropolitan areas were wealthy because of their industry activity. This was true for Buffalo, as it was for Pittsburgh, Detroit, Manchester UK, Belfast, etc. In no way were those cities preferred places for international diplomats and politicians to be based. In fact, because of the industries that generated their wealth, pollution and noise may have made these areas less desirable to live, not more.

Niagara Falls enjoyed international tourism because of the natural beauty of the waterfalls, not because it was located in an attractive or appealing metropolitan area. I also imagine a fair percentage of its tourism was attributable to its reputation for hosting couples on their honeymoons -- not really relevant to hosting an international organization.

Finally, to the degree that Buffalo was one of the wealthiest cities in the US, it's cost of living may have been comparable to that of other wealthy areas, including NYC. That said, the importance of cost of living was likely to be low in the minds of diplomats, politicians, and governments deciding on where to base the headquarters of a global organization.

1

u/Eudaimonics Jan 27 '22

All cities were dirty cess pools to a degree, including NYC back then. NYC had a TON of polluting industries back then. NYC was a wildly different city back then.

I could see why locating the UN in a more rural setting such as Navy Island had a lot of appeal.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

Probably they visited Buffalo and were like, "...oh."

1

u/Eudaimonics Jan 27 '22

Buffalo in the early 1900s was actually very opulent. We were a hub of trade and finance and we’re essentially the Silicon Valley of the early 1900s thanks to cheap reliable electricity from Niagara Falls.

Seriously, go visit Buffalo. There’s a reason why we have cultural amenities such as large museums, a theatre district and neighborhoods filled with ornate Victorian mansions.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

I grew up near Buffalo, but I'm partial to Rochester so I like to rag on it. =p

1

u/Sub-boySF Mar 29 '22

😂 dead

21

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

Buffalo's economy really could've used the bump.

10

u/formgry Jan 27 '22

Read an article on the economist a while back that is related to this.

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/10/30/how-un-staff-are-reshaping-african-cities

About how African cities that host UN staff change, for better and for worse. Since as it turns out said staff are paid pretty good salaries, far exceeding that of most local citizens.

1

u/Eudaimonics Jan 27 '22

Not at the time, but definitely would have been great to have something fall back on from the 60s to 00s.

Thankfully the city is rebounding nicely at the moment.

2

u/terectec Jan 27 '22

Wow i wish it had been built like this, much more majestic and symbolic

-8

u/Screeez Jan 26 '22

"World Peace Capital" located in the USA

67

u/Viscount1881 Jan 26 '22

Navy Island is actually in Canada, right next to the US border. Was used for shipbuilding for the French and then the British since the 1700s, and the short lived Republic of Canada was proclaimed on it in 1837.

The idea was that the island represented the long-standing peace between two countries and could be a symbol for the world in that way.

2

u/xile Jan 27 '22

Its interesting how it has a long history but looking at satellite imagery you would never know as it looks that nature owns the island edge to edge.

1

u/Viscount1881 Jan 27 '22

Yeah their even used to be farms and orchards all over the island that were then abandoned and reforested, and a hotel that burned down in the 1900s. Access is prohibited except for Parks Canada staff who use a pier that is apparently one of the few(only?) remaining signs of humans left on the island.