Fair Park - Cultural District

Cultural District

Many Dallas cultural institutions call Fair Park home. Several of the buildings were constructed for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, loosely organized around a naturalistic water feature named The Lagoon.

The Texas Museum of Automotive History

On November 20, 2010, Fair Park celebrated the grand opening of the Texas Museum of Automotive History (TMAH) - www.tmah.org TMAH displays 100+ cars and showcases the inter-development between race cars and commercial cars from 1901 (when automobile racing started in Fair Park) until 1984 (when Fair Park hosted the 1984 Dallas Formula 1 Grand Prix). TMAH is currently housed in the Grand Place Building, opposite the Old Mill Inn Restaurant. The museum is developing a program to teach life and work skills to at risk your men and women (15-18) through a museum based Restoration Factory. In 2013, TMAH is slated to relocate to the vacated Museum of Nature and Science Building when the Museum of Nature and Science moves into their new building near Victory Plaza in downtown Dallas.

Old Mill Inn

The Old Mill Inn was one of the few Texas Centennial Exposition buildings not to incorporate Art Deco styling in its design. Clad in fieldstone and incorporating heavy-timber construction, this was the exhibit building for the flour milling industry. It now serves Fair Park as a restaurant.

Magnolia Lounge and (former) Hall of Religion

This little-known project by New York architect William Lescaze introduced European Modernism to Texas in 1936. The design of this hospitality lounge for the Magnolia Petroleum Company included elements commonly found in Art Deco architecture. However, the building’s overall image was radically different from that of any other structure at the Texas Centennial Exposition.

The lounge now serves as the offices for the Friends of Fair Park and also contains the Margo Jones Theater. Site of Theatre '47, the first professional, regional theater company in the United States, the small performing space pays tribute to the visionary founder of America's regional theater movement. Immediately adjacent to the Magnolia Lounge is the former Hall of Religion, future home to Texas! Music Center.

African American Museum

The current museum building occupies virtually the same site as the Texas Centennial Exposition’s Hall of Negro Life. It boasts a permanent collection that consists of the works of such highly regarded African American artists as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Larry D. Alexander, John T. Biggers, Clementine Hunter, Benny Andrews, Edward Mitchell Bannister and Arthello Beck

The Leonhardt Lagoon

South of the Midway, George Dahl arranged Dallas’s future cultural institutions informally around a tranquil lagoon. This offered Texas Centennial exposition visitors peaceful respite and a romantic, naturalistic counterpoint to the intense activity of the exposition. A major earth sculpture became part of the Leonhardt Lagoon in 1986.

Museum of Nature and Science

The westernmost building of the museum was once the Museum of Natural History and was design for the Texas Centennial Exposition as a monolithic, rectangular box with little architectural detail. The entrance features three vertical window bays with decorative aluminum mullions. Flanking it are paired pilasters with shell-motif capitals. The rest of the building is clad in limestone. In 1988, workers excavated the northeast corner of the building, creating a series of landscaped terraces.

The easternmost building of the museum originally housed the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Dallas Museum of Art) and later The Science Place. It is a spartan building clad in Texas limestone and shellstone built as the centerpiece of the Lagoon area. It is located on axis with the plaza and entry to Fair Park Stadium (now the Cotton Bowl) on the opposite shore. In 1996, the museum's TI Founders IMAX Theater addition gave the building a new monumental entry.

Fair Park Band Shell

The concentric plaster arches of the Band Shell comprise an essentially Art Deco composition. Elements of the Streamline Moderne style are present in the reinforced concrete backstage building. Lighting pylons surround the sloping 5,000-seat amphitheater.

Texas Discovery Gardens

This was the original Horticulture Building for the Texas Centennial Exposition. It has since been altered by exterior renovations and additions, including the minimalist glass Blachly Conservatory. In the gardens behind the main structure is a model home that the Portland Cement Company originally built for the exposition.

The Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park and Education Annex

The aquarium represents a highly complex building type still in its infancy in the 1930s. Many of the building technological advances, including the use of natural light over the exhibit tanks, are not apparent on the building’s exterior. Both Streamline Moderne and Zigzag Moderne elements are present on the building's entrance. The expanses of blank wall include a series of alternating brick planes and sculptural panels by artist Allie Tennant. Adjacent to the building is the aquarium’s Education Annex. This served as the Christian Science Monitor Pavilion during the Texas Centennial Exposition. Friends of Fair Park

Cotton Bowl

The Cotton Bowl stadium was built in 1932 below-grade and originally known as the Fair Park Bowl. Subsequent expansions now put the capacity at 92,200. The Cotton Bowl Classic was played there from 1937-2009. Annually during the State Fair of Texas, it hosts the AT&T Red River Rivalry game between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma and the Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic game between Grambling State University (Louisiana) and Prairie View A&M University. It was also home to the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 to 1971 until their move to Texas Stadium in Irving. In 1994, it again expanded to host World Cup soccer; a 2008 expansion brought capacity to more than 90,000. It also hosts soccer tournaments, concerts and other festivals throughout the year.

Music Hall at Fair Park

Music Hall, built in Spanish colonial revival style, was the General Motors Building during the Centennial Exposition. It underwent extensive remodeling in 1972. It was home of the Dallas Opera until 2009 and is the current home for Dallas Summer Musicals.