​​

​Overview

Scope and Content

Fair Park, the site of the State Fair of Texas, is located in east Dallas near the downtown business district.  It is owned by the city of Dallas and managed by the Dallas Park and Recreation Department.  The 277-acre site is home to the annual State Fair of Texas, the Cotton Bowl stadium, five museums, and gardens.  Fair Park houses one of the greatest concentrations of early twentieth-century Art Deco exposition buildings in the United States. 

The original eighty-acre site was purchased by Captain William H. Gaston from the Thomas Lagow league and the John Grigsby league for $16,000 in 1886 and deeded to the newly chartered Dallas State Fair and Exposition Association. In return Gaston received 140 shares of stock, which he later donated to the fair organization.  The Dallas Exposition opened its first fair on October 26, 1886. 

Fair Park was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986 because of its exceptional significance in American history.  This significance is derived from its 105-year association with the State Fair of Texas and as the site of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.  While the location of Fair Park dates back to the original 1886 fairgrounds, many of the existing buildings and public spaces were constructed for the 1936 Exposition which attracted over seven million visitors.

In preparation for the Centennial, the fairgrounds were expanded and transformed into a showplace of modern buildings under the remarkable direction of Centennial Architect George Dahl and consulting architect Paul Cret.  The design theme for the Exposition was "Texanic" and "Southwestern."  This regional flavor, intermingled with modern concepts, was the basic design style for both the renovation of existing Fair Park structures and the design of new buildings.

After sixty-five years, all of the permanent and many of the temporary buildings, murals, statues and bas-relief sculptures survive.  In addition, a number of buildings have been constructed since the Centennial; most blend well with the character of the 1936 Exposition buildings. 

In 1904, this special park was acquired when the State Fair met with reverses in the way of a destructive fire and unprofitable exhibition.  Fair Park became Dallas' second park when the City of Dallas agreed to pay the mortgage and take title to the property, build exhibition halls, and start a sewer-water system with a $125,000 bond issue.  Since that time, the City has leased the land to the State Fair Association for a few weeks out of every year in order for the fair to be held. For twenty-four days each year in October, Fair Park experiences the vitality and social interaction that has characterized state fairs since the turn of the century.  During the last decade, attendance at the Fair has surged to 3.5 million, ranking it as the largest annual exposition in the United States.

The collection consists of land deeds, land transfer documents, contracts, reports and studies, maps, and printed materials documenting the early history of Fair Park and planning studies and promotional materials for Fair Park dating 1972-1992.

Organization

The collection is arranged into two series:  land transfer documents and planning studies.

Access

Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use by any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures must be obtained in writing from the Dallas Municipal Archives. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.

Citation

Fair Park, 1888-1930, 1972-1992 (Box <x>, Folder <y>), Dallas Municipal Archives

Related Materials

Collection 1995-027—Fair Park, 1905-1918, 1930-1952
Collection 2005-006—Fair Park Esplanade Conservation
Collection 2002-007—Fair Park Mural Conservation, 1999-2000
Collection 1994-035—Fair Park Music Hall Renovations
Collection 1997-023—Parks-Fair Park Improvements, 1941-1980, undated
Collection 1991-107—South Dallas/Fair Park Neighborhood Preservation Economic Development Plan, 1987

Index Terms

Dallas -- Texas -- History
Dallas (Tex.). Park and Recreation Department
Fair Park (Dallas, Tex.)

Container List