Proposition A Could Help Fix Years of Damage on Fair Park’s Most Famous Buildings

By Norman Alston, FAIA
Special Contributor

The widely recognized heart of Fair Park is the Esplanade. Organized around a vast reflecting pool that extends from the park’s main gates on Parry Avenue to the remarkable, recently restored Hall of State, there exists a space defined by art, architecture, and history.

The Esplanade And Fair Park

A result of the vision of internationally known planner George Kessler, it was known in its earliest days as the Promenade. When consulting on the initial planning for the Texas Centennial Exposition in the mid-1930s, well-known architect and planner Paul Cret recognized the power and importance of this feature, re-imagined it, expanded it, and christened it as the Esplanade. It is easily the most recognized and photographed feature at Fair Park.

Conceived and built first as a fairground, then the location of the Texas Centennial, Fair Park’s primary purpose has always been to house large expositions. The Esplanade is defined on its long north and south sides by the two largest of the seven remaining exposition halls at Fair Park.

Known today as the Centennial Building on the north side and the Automobile Building on the south side, they remain the largest and most frequently used elements of the economic engine that has supported Fair Park over the decades since the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936. They embody the “Texanic” architecture of George Dahl and feature some of the most important and dramatic art found at Fair Park. They also share the common, pernicious physical problems that plague Fair Park. Two very similar buildings with very different stories. Today, we will look at the Centennial Building.

Fair Park’s Centennial Building

At 113,000 square feet, Centennial is the largest of all the exposition buildings. Its story actually begins in 1905 when a new, fire-proof exposition building — then known as the State Fair Auditorium and Exposition Building — was constructed on this site in response to the near-ruinous 1902 fire at Fair Park’s original large, wooden exposition building.

In contrast to the popular misconception that Fair Park buildings were not meant to last, the reality is that the 1905 building still exists. It was retained, enlarged, and re-skinned for the 1936 Texas Centennial. Its three high-pitched roofs and elaborate wooden gable-end windows are easy to see from both inside and outside of the building.

Losing The Centennial’s Chrysler Hall

During the Texas Centennial Exposition, the building was known as the Hall of Transportation and was primarily occupied by railroad exhibits, from model railroads to full replicas of elaborate railroad cars. It also contained the Chrysler Hall, centered on the Salon of Mirrors, which was also a Chrysler automobile showroom.

According to the book Fair Park Deco by Jim Parsons and David Bush, many thought Chrysler Hall to be the most beautiful exhibit at the Centennial. Unfortunately, Chrysler Hall was completely removed, and not even photographs of it have been found.

Public Art at Fair Park

Each of the Esplanade exposition buildings features three large porticos, with each representing one of the six nations to have claimed Texas and is apparently the origin of the “Six Flags Over Texas” idea. Each of these prominent porticos frames a large statue by artists Lawrence Tenney Stevens and Raoul Jossett. Beneath them are very large and elaborate murals by artist Carlos Ciampaglia. These murals typically reflect the theme of transportation but are not restricted to representing trains.

However, in addition to the murals, Centennial retains the remarkable bas-reliefs by Pierre Bourdelle. These are unique in that Bourdelle tinted the stucco, built it up to be slightly thicker than the surrounding stucco, then carved it back to create the images we see today.

The needs of the Centennial Building can be most readily seen with the artwork.

For reasons that are not known, the stucco installations of that time do not address the natural expansion and contraction that stucco is known to experience as it heats and cools. Today, we install joints periodically to control and relieve the stresses of this movement. In 1936, they did not. The result is that these natural stresses produce cracks in the stucco, leading to moisture infiltration and worse cracks and failure of the stucco over time. It has been a constant battle since the buildings were constructed.

While some of these issues are being addressed now by the Dallas Parks and Recreation Department through the 2017 Bond Program, many more required repairs and improvements have been identified. Among the practical improvements that Proposition A would fund, catching up on the necessary repairs to the building exterior, especially the stucco, is chief among them.

[Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series from Preservation Dallas Board Chair Norman Alston, FAIA, on how Dallas’ Proposition A on the Nov. 8 ballot could transform and preserve Fair Park. For the first two columns, click here and here.]

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Norman Alston, FAIA, founded Norman Alston Architects 30 years ago to allow him to focus his practice on historic preservation, the fulfillment of his architectural passion. Through his restoration designs, education and advocacy, he seeks to integrate historic buildings into the urban fabric while creating a wider culture of preservation that embraces the unique character of the community’s architectural legacy.