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

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

, 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 is a 14,870-seat multi-purpose indoor arena in Phoenix, Arizona, located at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. It hosted the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association from 1968 to 1992, as well as indoor s ...

, an arena at the fairgrounds, hosted the Phoenix Suns of the

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

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

Footprint Center Footprint Center (formerly known as America West Arena, US Airways Center, Talking Stick Resort Arena and Phoenix Suns Arena) is a multi-purpose arena in Phoenix, Arizona. Built in the regional population center of the southwestern United Sta ...

. 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: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and m ...

and USAC National Championship 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 (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Natio ...

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

Phoenix Raceway Phoenix Raceway is a 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The motorsport track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two NASCAR race weekends annually including the final championship race since 2020. ...

in 1964.

History

The fairgrounds was 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 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 to showcase mineral specimens from Arizona's extensive mining industry. The building's interior has a vaulted beamed ceiling, and large skylight above a wrap-around balcony. It is the oldest building at the fairgrounds. * Grandstand — a 1936-1937 WPA grandstand 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 are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', 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 Administrati ...

. The Grandstand Arena is a historical outdoor area, is used for open-air evens such as

horse shows A horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. Many different horse breeds and equestrian disciplines hold competitions worldwide, from local to the international levels. Most horse shows run from one to three days, sometimes longer fo ...

, 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 farthe ...

s, and

demolition derbies Demolition derby is a non-racing motorsport usually presented at county fairs and festivals. While rules vary from event to event, the typical demolition derby event consists of five or more drivers competing by deliberately ramming their veh ...

. *WPA Administration Building, or the Civic Building — a historic 12,200 sq.ft. PWA Moderne 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 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 domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

*Wesley Bolin Building — an almost 20,000 sq.ft. exhibit space *Arizona Plaza — a 17,184 sq.ft. adobe 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 PWA Moderne 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 set for demolition in July 2014, before historic

preservationists Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...

sought to stop the demolition and were granted a temporary restraining order by the

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

Superior Court. They were 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 Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

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, rural counc ...

and a $80,000 grant by the Phoenix IDA, a provider of private activity bonds for projects that give a public benefit.

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 Tourist attractions in Phoenix, Arizona 1905 establishments in Arizona Territory