The Arizona State Fairgrounds is a permanent fairgrounds on McDowell Road, Encanto Village, within the city of

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, United States. It is currently used yearly to host the

Arizona State Fair The Arizona State Fair is an annual state fair, held at Arizona State Fairgrounds. It was first held in 1884, but has had various interruptions due to cotton crop failure, the Great Depression era, World War I & World War II years & the COVID-1 ...

and the Maricopa County Fair, as well as for other events. The

Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, also called the Madhouse Coliseum or Phoenix Memorial Coliseum, is a 14,870-seat multi-purpose indoor arena in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, located at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. It hosted the Phoenix Su ...

, an arena at the fairgrounds, hosted the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

from 1968 to 1992. In 1992, the team moved to what is known today as

Footprint Center The PHX Arena (formerly America West Arena, US Airways Center, Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix Suns Arena and Footprint Center) is a multi-purpose arena in Phoenix, Arizona. It opened under the name America West Arena on June 6, 1992, at ...

. The dirt oval track hosted

AAA National Championship AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming * AAA (video game industry) - a category of high budget video games *'' TripleA'', an open source wargame Mu ...

and

USAC National Championship From 1956 to 1978, the United States Auto Club (USAC) sanctioned Championship Car class featured the top teams and drivers in U.S. open-wheel racing. Until 1971, races included road courses, ovals, dirt courses, and, on occasion, a hill climb. ...

races in 1915 and from 1950 to 1963, and

NASCAR Grand National The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (the top NASCAR series, known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 and 1970, then the NASCAR ...

races in 1951, 1955, 1956 and 1960. It was replaced by the

Phoenix Raceway Phoenix Raceway (formerly known as ISM Raceway from 2018–2020, Phoenix International Raceway from 1964–1973 and 1976–2017, and FasTrack International Speedway from 1973–1976) is a Oval track racing#Unique shapes, dogleg oval track in A ...

in 1964.

History

The fairgrounds were created in 1905, when a volunteer organization, the Arizona Territorial Fair Association, purchased the property and first developed it. At that time, Arizona was not yet a state and had territory status. In 1909, the grounds were purchased by the Territorial Fair Commission, which became the State Fair Commission after statehood in 1912.

Facilities

The fairgrounds site includes the following buildings: *The

— a

Modernist style Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architecture wa ...

14,870-seat multipurpose indoor arena. *The Party Gras, originally the Gem and Mineral Building — a historic 4,176 sq. ft. building built in 1918. It is the oldest building at the fairgrounds. * Grandstand — a 1936-1937 WPA

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators, typically at sports stadiums and including both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium i ...

project with 5,000 covered seats, that replaced an older wooden structure that had burned down. The exterior of the grandstand has 23

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

panels by David Carrick Swing and Florence Blakeslee, that were funded by the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

. The Grandstand Arena is a historical outdoor area, is used for open-air events such as horse shows, dirt track events, mud bog spectaculars, races,

rodeos Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

tractor pull Truck and tractor pulling, also known as power pulling, is a form of a motorsport competition in which antique or modified tractors pull a heavy drag or sled along an , track, with the winner being the tractor that pulls the drag the farth ...

s, and demolition derbies. *WPA Administration Building, or the Civic Building — a historic 12,200 sq. ft.

PWA Moderne The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most notable examples are the skyscrapers of New York City, including the ...

style concrete building, built in 1938 by the Works Projects Administration−WPA, serving as their headquarters for WPA projects in Arizona during the latter

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

years. *The Hacienda de Mexico — a 12,546 sq. ft. covered mall (located between the Wesley Bolin Building and the Home Arts Center). *The Home Arts Center — a 13,584 sq. ft. building. *The Agriculture Center — two building totaling 61,000 sq. ft. designed to accommodate large shows and exhibits, including

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

*Wesley Bolin Building — an almost 20,000 sq. ft. exhibit space *Arizona Plaza — a 17,184 sq. ft.

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

style complex. *Exhibit Building — a 50,000 sq. ft. building used for large shows and commercial exhibits.

WPA Administration Building

The WPA Administration Building was completed in 1939 in the

style.Phoenix New Times: "Demolition of WPA Civic Building at Arizona State Fairgrounds on Temporary Hold"
18 July 2014.KJZZ.org: "Did You Know: Arizona State Fairgrounds 110 Years Old"
by Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez, 21 August 2015; with images of the WPA Grandstand and Administration Building. More recently it had been allowed to deteriorate, and was scheduled to be demolished in July 2014. This move was protested by historic preservationists. They were given a temporary restraining order by the

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

Superior Court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

in 2014 and given until April 14, 2016, to raise $120,000 towards preservation of the building. They succeeded, on 8 April 2016 the project was awarded a historic preservation grant of $120,000 by the Phoenix

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

and a $80,000 grant by the Phoenix IDA.

Gallery

File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Gem and Mineral Building-1918.JPG, This historic building was first known as the Gem and Mineral Building. File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Gem and Mineral Building-1918-3.JPG , The side wall of the Gem and Mineral Building File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Gem and Mineral Building-1918-6.JPG , Close up view of the Gem and Mineral Building File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Gem and Mineral Building-1918-5.JPG , Inside the Gem and Mineral Building File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Grandstand-1930-2.JPG , The historic Arizona State Fair Grandstand File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Grandstand-1930-1.JPG , Different view of the historic Arizona State Fair Grandstand File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair WPA Civic Building-1938-1.JPG, The Arizona State Fair WPA Civic Building File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair WPA Civic Building-1938.JPG, The front entrance of the Arizona State Fair WPA Civic Building File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Home Economics Building-1940.JPG, The Arizona State Fair Home Economics Building was built in 1940 File:Phoenix-Arizona State Fair Home Economics Building-1940-3.JPG , Close up view of the Arizona State Fair Home Economics.

References

External links

Arizona Exposition and State Fair
{{coord, 33, 28, 10, N, 112, 05, 51, W, type:landmark_region:US-AZ, display=title Events in Arizona Culture of Phoenix, Arizona Fairgrounds in the United States Tourist attractions in Phoenix, Arizona 1905 establishments in Arizona Territory Figure 8 Motorsport venues