{"id":252,"date":"2014-11-17T04:04:53","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T04:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/?p=252"},"modified":"2015-09-22T22:23:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T02:23:10","slug":"fair-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/fair-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair Park – Dallas, Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Esplanade<\/a>

Esplanade of State and Exhibit Buildings<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

American World’s Fairs of the 1930’s bring to mind the great expositions of Chicago in 1933 \/ 1934, New York and San Francisco in 1939 \/ 1940. But there were other fairs that are often ignored today, such as the San Diego Fair of 1935 \/ 1936 and the fairs held in Cleveland and Dallas in 1936 \/ 1937. While little remains of the Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and New York Fairs, the Dallas Fairgrounds are\u00a0surprisingly intact, or so it seems at first glance. What survives from the Texas Centennial Exposition is a combination of the original and wonderfully recreated and restored structures, fountains and sculptures.<\/h4>\n

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Almost every summer Chris and I hit the road and drive to some part of the United States for antiquing in places we have never been. This past summer we went to Texas and one of the places that I was most interested in seeing was Fair Park. We\u00a0first became aware of Fair Park and its significance to depression era World’s Fairs and few years ago, so we\u00a0weren’t going to let the opportunity to visit the site slip by. When we arrived at Fair Park, I was impressed that so many of the 1936 fair buildings were still standing. I purchased the book Fair Park Deco<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span> by Jim Parsons and David Bush later that day, which is the definitive history of the Texas Centennial and the restoration of the Art Deco fair grounds.<\/h4>\n

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\"Tejas<\/a>

Tejas Warrior<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

The grounds were established in 1886 for the Dallas State Fair, on an 80 acre site in East Dallas. Over the years the site expanded to its current size of 277 acres. The site became known as Fair Park in 1904 and a series of buildings were constructed in the then current Beaux Art style. The idea of a centennial celebration had been in the works since the early years of the twentieth century. As the centennial approached the United States was just pulling out of the great depression, and the idea of a large fair was welcomed as a way to stimulate the Texas economy. Dallas won the bid to hold The Texas Centennial Exposition over Houston and San Antonio. Construction and re-modeling of the existing buildings were begun in the fall of 1935, which did not give the builders a lot of time before the opening of the fair in June the following year. Opening on June 6 the fair ran until November 29th. It reopened the following year as the Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition.<\/h4>\n

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After the fair closed the modifications and changes to the fair grounds and buildings began. One of the first losses were the statues Tenor and Contralto and the concrete speaker towers behind each as well as the 50 foot pylon that stood between them.. Located at the eastern end of the reflecting pond in the Esplanade of States, they were damaged after the exposition closed and were removed sometime around 1938. In 2009, sculpture David Newton re-created the statues using period photographs. The pylon was rebuilt at the same time.<\/h4>\n\n\t\t