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1936 Texas Centennial Exposition

Weimer Pursell Posters

Art Deco Richmond

Fall 2011 21

When the president of the Texas Centennial Commission appeared before a congressional committee in 1935 to explain why the federal

government should commit $3 million to help the Lone Star State commemorate the 100th anniversary of its independence from Mexico, he predicted that “Texanic,” a word invented to describe the centennial celebration, would soon join “gigantic” and “titanic” in the dictionary. Although Texanic never found its way into everyday use, there is no better way to describe the impression made by the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas—an impression that !"#$%#&$'(&#$)%#*$(+$#',$-.!$.+/$%&$&#%00$1,%+2$3,0#$&,4,+#*564,$years later.

Part of the Centennial Exposition’s impact lies in the fact that much of its 1936 fabric still exists. In contrast to the impressive but impermanent nature of most world’s fair pavilions, sixty percent of the exposition facilities in Dallas were designed and built to serve as the home of the annual

By Jim Parsons and David Bush

State Fair of Texas. Today, the exposition grounds, now called Fair Park, are a National Historic Landmark District containing the largest surviving collection of Art Deco exhibition art and architecture from America’s golden age of world’s fairs. What is more, after years of insensitive renovations and alterations, a growing awareness of the treasures at Fair Park has led to major projects aimed at restoring the buildings, murals, and sculpture to their centennial splendor.

The story of the Texas Centennial Exposition, like every American exposition of the 1930s, began in economic depression. Although major oil discoveries in the early 1930s had buoyed the Texas economy, the state’s agriculture was hard-hit by the Great Depression. By the middle of #',$/,)./,7$&#.#,$(36)%.0&$'./$&,#$#',%8$&%2'#&$(+$.$28,.#$centennial celebration to help stimulate the economy and attract tourist dollars. “If during the next six months the !,(!0,$(3$#',$9#.#,$)("0/$1,)(-,$600,/$:%#'$#',$%/,.$(3$

A “Texanic” World’s FairThe 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition

[The Texas centennial celebration] will be Texanic

in ideals, continental in proportions, and

international in scope.

Cullen F. ThomasPresident, Texas

Centennial CommissionJune 2, 1935

“

”

The Esplanade of State was designed as the main axis of the Texas Centennial Exposition grounds. As part of the reconstruction of Fair Park for the Texas Centennial Exposition, Centennial Architect George Dahl refaced a 1905 exhibit hall to create the Hall of Transportation (now the Centennial Building) shown here. Photo by David Bush.

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holding a big celebration on the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of Texas independence,” the state’s centennial commission speculated in July 1934, “it would have the effect of creating a general forward-looking spirit through the State. It would be more stimulating than anything we can think of, and this effect would be immediate.”

That year the state commission opened bids for a central exposition to be held in 1936. Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio, the largest cities in Texas, all submitted proposals, but Dallas’ pledge of nearly $10 million—$3.5 million from municipal bonds, $2 million from private bonds, and $4 million from the use and expansion of the city-owned fairgrounds—easily trumped the others. Dallas, the second-largest city in Texas with a population of 260,000, was named the exposition’s host.

;0#'("2'$<.00.&=$1%/$:.&$(36)%.00*$.)),!#,/$%+$9,!#,-1,8$1934, the state centennial commission did not authorize work to begin on the exposition grounds until June 8, 1935. The Texas Centennial Exposition was set to open June 6, 1936, leaving twelve months for a complete overhaul of Fair Park that included remodeling a dozen existing state fair 1"%0/%+2&7$/,&%2+%+2$.+/$)(+&#8")#%+2$-(8,$#'.+$63#*$+,:$buildings, and landscaping the entire 185-acre exposition grounds. The total price tag was estimated at $25 million.

Responsibility for completing the Texanic task of transforming Fair Park rested on the shoulders of George L. Dahl, a forty-one-year-old Dallas architect who had traveled to six expositions across the United States and Europe. As centennial architect and technical director, Dahl was either directly or indirectly involved in every aspect of the exposition’s design “from the largest towering building to the smallest hot dog or peanut stand,” in the words of one newspaper account. To deal with the scope of the project and the tight time frame, Dahl recruited a staff of 130 architects, designers, engineers, and artists, many of whom had worked at previous expositions, especially the 1933 Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago. Dahl’s chief designer, Donald S. Nelson, was an architect at the Century of Progress; his lighting engineer, C. M. Cutler, was responsible for the lighting of the Chicago exposition; and artists Carlo Ciampaglia, Raoul Josset, and Pierre Bourdelle had all helped decorate the 1933 fair.

Dahl had a clear vision for the exposition grounds. The architectural style would be “classic modern,” with a site !0.+$68-0*$8((#,/$%+$#',$>,."?5;8#&@$AB',$#8,.#-,+#$should be carried along the lines of good contemporary .8)'%#,)#"8,7$1"#$&#%00$%+C",+),/$1*$2((/$)0.&&%).0$/,&%2+7D$Dahl wrote, adding that he expected “a great deal of glamor E&%)F7$1"#$&#%00$.$-(+"-,+#.0$.+/$/%2+%6,/$,33,)#@D

Navigation is one of eight massive murals Carlo Ciampaglia executed on the Hall of Transportation (now the Centennial Building). These murals were painted over in 1942, but have been uncovered and restored in recent years.

The lobby of the Hall of Food and Beverages (now the Embarcadero Building) has been restored to its original paint scheme. Photos this page by Jim Parsons.

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The monumentality began at the Parry Avenue gate, the main entrance to Fair Park, which led visitors past pylons decorated with reliefs depicting pioneers entering Texas and into the Grand Plaza and Esplanade of State, the quarter-mile central axis of the exposition grounds. Dahl remodeled existing state fair facilities on either side of the esplanade into the Hall of Transportation and the Hall of Varied Industries, Communications, and Electricity, the exposition’s two largest buildings. The two exhibit halls faced each other .)8(&&$.$GHH53((#$8,C,)#%+2$!((0@$9%?$-.&&%4,$!(8#%)(,&7$three along the front of each building, featured murals depicting transportation and industry by Carlo Ciampaglia and Pierre Bourdelle and statuary by Lawrence Tenney Stevens and Raoul Josset symbolizing the six nations whose C.2&$'.4,$C(:+$(4,8$B,?.&@

The State of Texas Building anchored the eastern end of the esplanade. The state Legislature allocated $1.2 million for the project, making it the most expensive public building per square foot constructed in Texas to that time. Its exterior, faced in shell Cordova limestone, was carved with the names of Texas soldiers and statesmen; the building’s rich interior featured native materials, statuary, and murals. Opening-day accounts compared the Hall of State, the building’s principal interior space, with Westminster Abbey, and anyone standing in that space today will see that the comparison was not misplaced. The room measures ninety-four by sixty-eight feet, with two enormous murals by Eugene Savage and a four-story ceiling supported by soaring limestone columns.

Oddly, the centerpiece building of the exposition was not designed by Dahl, the centennial architect. A group of Dallas architects, jealous that Dahl was overseeing all the design :(8I$.#$#',$,?!(&%#%(+7$0(11%,/$&#.#,$(36)%.0&$.+/$(1#.%+,/$the commission for themselves, but were then unable to agree upon an acceptable plan. At the last minute, young J("&#(+$.8)'%#,)#$<(+.0/$>.8#',0-,$:.&$).00,/$%+$#($6+.0%K,$the design, and his building, with its interiors by Adams & Adams of San Antonio, remains one of the outstanding Art Deco structures in the United States.

The State of Texas Building fronted on a cross axis, the Court of Honor. The agrarian area, a group of several buildings dedicated to food, poultry, and livestock, occupied the north end of the court. The livestock component, a holdover from the State Fair of Texas, was a point of pride for the exposition’s organizers: “Other World’s Fairs have stressed Science, the Arts or other major phases of !8(28,&&7$1"#$#',$68&#$L(80/=&$M.%8$(3$#',$9("#':,&#$@$@$@$:%00$offer livestock and agriculture, two enterprises on which that section of America was built, as principal features.” Some of Fair Park’s most delightful artwork was in this area, including Pierre Bourdelle’s stylized animal heads on the east side of Livestock Building No. 1 (now the Pan American Arena) and the Lawrence Tenney Stevens sculpture Texas Woofus, a strange mix of a longhorn steer, sheep, stallion, hog, turkey, and duck. (The Woofus was not among Stevens’

more popular works at Fair Park. In a 1983 interview, Donald Nelson called it “a sin.” The original sculpture eventually disappeared without a trace. A replica, created in 2002, stands in front of the Swine Building today.)

The Federal (now Tower) Building, designed by Nelson, stood at the south end of the Court of Honor. Located at the geographic center of the exposition grounds, the building included one of the tallest structures at Fair Park, a 179-foot tower topped by a stylized, gilded eagle designed by Raoul Josset and sculpted by Jose Martin. At the foot of the tower is the entrance to one of Fair Park’s few intact historic interiors, the Reception Room, which still contains its 1936 Herman Miller seating and conference table under a stepped, backlit ceiling.

Beyond the Federal Building was the Civic Center, another collection of permanent buildings erected for the exposition. The City of Dallas spent more than $3.5 million on new, modernistic buildings to house the Dallas Museum of Fine

The Texas Woofus sculpture by Lawrence Tenney Stevens (recreated by David Newton, 2002) is a bizarre mix of

Texas livestock displayed in the agrarian area of Fair Park.

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Arts, the Dallas Museum of Natural History, and the city aquarium, along with an amphitheatre, all arranged around a man-made lagoon. “The informal and unique arrangement of this group of museums lends itself admirably to the idea behind its construction, that of making it the center of cultural progress not only for local people, but of the whole Southwest,” the exposition’s publicity department noted.

Despite its high-minded purpose, the Civic Center was not free from the exposition’s commercial aspects. Visitors drove Ford automobiles on “The Roads of the Southwest,” a test track made up of different road surfaces that encircled the lagoon in front of the museums. Dallas architect Luther Sadler’s streamlined pavilion for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper exhibit still stands next to the aquarium, but two other attractions that once stood on the shore of the lagoon are long gone—Sinclair Oil’s animated, life-sized dinosaur 62"8,&$.+/$#',$N.#%(+.0$O.&'$P,2%&#,8$O(-!.+*=&$2%.+#$).&'$register, which tallied each day’s attendance.

The Civic Center also included one of the entrances to the Midway. As at all world’s fairs, the Midway was the most !(!"0.8$.+/$!8(6#.10,$!.8#$(3$#',$,?!(&%#%(+7$:%#'$,?(#%)Qand racy—attractions like the Streets of Paris, which offered shops, cafes, and a private club in a scaled-down version of the ocean liner Normandie. The Streets of Paris also featured titillating shows starring what a San Antonio Light reporter called “fan and bubble dancers without the fans and bubbles.”

The Midway represented the Texas Centennial Exposition’s impermanent nature as well. Many concessions, the Midget City and Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not Odditorium among them, were demolished after the fair’s second season, as were the massive Ford Motor Company building, designed by Detroit architect Albert Kahn and famed industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague, and Teague’s pavilion for Texaco. Lawrence Tenney Stevens’ sculptures Tenor

The Administration Building (now The Women’s Museum) !"#$%&'$()#%$*+,-.,/0$Centennial architect George Dahl remodeled for the Texas Centennial Exposition. At the entrance is the Spirit of the Centennial, a sculpture by Raoul Josset. Photo by David Bush.

The East Texas Room, one of four rooms in the State of Texas Building dedicated to regions of

the state, features walls paneled in East Texas gum wood and murals by Dallas artist Olin Travis. Photo by Jim Parsons.

The Niche of Heroes, the entrance to the State of Texas Building, features Allie V. Tennant’s bronze sculpture Tejas Warrior. The State of Texas Building was designed to be the centerpiece of the exposition grounds. Photo by Jim Parsons.

Fair Park Visitor Information

Little survives of most world’s fairs, but it is still possible to walk through Fair Park in Dallas and get a good sense of what it was like to visit the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. Except for the time between mid-September to late October when the annual State Fair of Texas is held, visitors usually feel like they have the fairgrounds to themselves.

Fair Park is a City of Dallas park and is open to the public year-round. The restored murals, reliefs, and sculpture are, for the most part, on the build-ing exteriors and may be seen during regular park hours. Fountains on the Esplanade of State are turned on dur-ing special events. The Dallas Histori-cal Society operates the Hall of State (the former State of Texas Building), one of the most spectacular Art Deco buildings in the United States. The Hall of State is open daily except during special events and holidays.

Visitors may see the Reception Room in the Tower Building (the former Federal Building) weekdays during regular business hours. Original mod-els of the Esplanade of State and the main exhibit buildings are displayed in the lobby. Parking and admission to all of these attractions are free.

The Civic Center remains intact and continues to serve its intended pur-pose. The Museum of Science and Nature (the former Dallas Museum of Natural Science and Dallas Muse-um of Fine Arts buildings), Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park (the former Dallas Aquarium), and Texas Dis-covery Gardens (the former Hall of Horticulture) are year-round attrac-tions. The exposition’s administration building on the esplanade has been restored as The Women’s Museum. All of the museums charge an admission fee

For details, please visit www.fairpark.org.

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and Contralto on the Esplanade of State were damaged and removed. Some of the exposition buildings, like those for Ford, were designed to be temporary, but even the !,8-.+,+#$&#8")#"8,&$:,8,$&'(:%+2$C.:&$1*$RSTG7$!,8'.!&$a result of the rushed construction schedule. The Texas Centennial Exposition papers at the Dallas Historical Society %+)0"/,$60,&$3"00$(3$0,##,8&$38(-$3.%8$(36)%.0&$/,-.+/%+2$that recalcitrant contractors repair leaking roofs, cracking stucco, and buckling asphalt.

Although the museums and the State of Texas Building (now the Hall of State) remained open year-round after the exposition, the exhibit buildings were usually mothballed except for a few weeks of hyperactivity during the state fair in September and October. The fairgrounds’ biggest loss came in 1942 when the largest exhibit building on the site, #',$3(8-,8$J.00$(3$U.8%,/$V+/"&#8%,&7$:.&$/,&#8(*,/$1*$68,@$Pierre Bourdelle’s murals and cameo murals on the building were lost with it. A smaller exhibit hall was built after World War II, but its esplanade façade would not be restored until the 1980s.

Along with changing tastes, money and maintenance have always been issues at Fair Park. Rather than keeping up #',$.8#:(8I7$&#.#,$3.%8$(36)%.0&$/,)%/,/$#($!.%+#$(4,8$#',$murals and reliefs that remained from 1936, turning principal exhibit buildings into bland beige blocks. Sandblasting on the M,/,8.0$>"%0/%+2$8,/"),/$,?#,8%(8$8,0%,3&$#($C.#$&"83.),&7$.+/$maintenance of the State of Texas Building (now called the Hall of State) proved a huge drain on the building’s occupant, #',$+(+!8(6#$<.00.&$J%&#(8%).0$9()%,#*@$>,)."&,$#',$4.&#$majority of visitors to Fair Park came during one month in the fall when the state fair’s attractions rendered the exposition buildings all but invisible, the Fair Park of 1936 became a fading memory.

That began to change in 1986, when concerned citizens formed the Friends of Fair Park to preserve the art and architecture of the 1936 exposition, encourage thoughtful planning for the park’s future, and promote year-round use of the site. The Friends’ ongoing efforts, supported by the City of Dallas and millions of dollars from municipal bonds,

have produced amazing results. Original murals have been uncovered and protected, sculpture has been recreated, and the Esplanade of State has undergone a thorough restoration. The work continues today under the administration of the City of Dallas Park and Recreation Department.

Although more work remains to be done, visitors to Fair Park can once again enjoy the truly Texanic experience that was the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. !

Jim Parsons and David Bush are staff members of Greater Houston Preservation Alliance and co-authors of Fair Park Deco: Art and Architecture of the Texas Centennial Exposition, to be released in September 2012 by TCU Press of Fort Worth. Their book Hill Country Deco: Modernistic Architecture of Central Texas was reviewed in the Spring 2011 issue of Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine and an earlier publication, Houston Deco, was reviewed in the Fall 2009 issue.

Three of the animal head murals, designed by Pierre Bourdelle, on the

exterior of Livestock Building No. 2 (now the Pan-American Arena). Like many of the murals and decorative painting at

Fair Park, these were covered after the Texas Centennial Exposition and have been uncovered and restored in recent

years. Photos by David Bush.