In 1964, Life magazine called the Spanish Pavilion the jewel of the New York World’s Fair. Inside there was a 780-seat theater, three restaurants, and exhibition halls filled with masterpieces of Spanish art including paintings by El Greco, Goya, Velázquez, and Picasso. Solid walnut-wood ceiling blocks from the Pyrenees and authentic Spanish tile floors were special interior design features. In one exhibition gallery, sunlight shined through blue stained glass inlays in the concrete wall. Spain was the second most popular pavilion at the entire fair, behind only the Vatican.

Then the fair ended. New York decided the building was too expensive to keep or move. They were going to tear it down.

St. Louis Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes recognized an opportunity. A man proud of his city and his own Spanish heritage, Cervantes asked Spain’s government for permission to relocate the pavilion here. Spanish officials agreed to gift the structure to the city, so long as Cervantes picked up the bill for dismantling, shipping, and rebuilding it at its new location. He organized a fundraising drive. He flew to New York for celebratory dinners with Spanish officials. He brought the jewel of the fair to St. Louis, where it would anchor a downtown cultural revival already alive with the new Arch and Busch Stadium.

A study projected the pavilion would attract 2.5 million visitors annually. It reportedly only drew 450,000 during the second half of 1969. Its restaurants lost money, its cultural exhibits fell flat, and within a year of opening, the Spanish Pavilion sat shuttered. The New York Times dubbed it a “St. Louis fiasco.”

Then came the salvage operation. Hotel developer Donald Breckenridge renovated the structure by erecting a 25-story, 352-room hotel atop the courtyard, turning what used to be the Spanish Pavilion into the lobby of his new Breckenridge Pavilion Hotel, which opened in 1976. It later became a Marriott. It is now the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, steps from Busch Stadium.

According to one account, the statue of Queen Isabella may still be hidden in the hotel somewhere. Other parts of the pavilion are now a Starbucks and an Imo’s Pizza.

The jewel of the 1964 New York World’s Fair is down there, under a 25-story hotel, next to a pizza place, in a city it was never supposed to end up in. You can walk right in.