May 25, 2020

Fair Park Dallas

By roadsrus

 

DSC07595In 1936 Dallas, TX had what amounted to a world’s fair.  More than 50 buildings were erected for it, and it attracted 6 million outsiders, locals, and 1 President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.   It lasted for 6 months and left behind the largest collection of 1930s art deco architecture on the planet in the shadow of the old, no-longer-used Cotton Bowl Stadium.  Fair Park has gained both state and national historic landmark status.

DSC07599Ruth and I visited it for the 2nd time earlier in 2020 and admired its 277 acres of potential.  The 1936 art deco esplanade still exists and has been kept up.  It still looks like it must have when the Texas Centennial played out in Fair Park to celebrate its 100th birthday, but today Fair Park mostly attracts runners, dog walkers, and us.  It’s opened daily and welcomes curious visitors off Parry Avenue very close to downtown Dallas.  A DART accessible mass-transit station is within walking distance of this extant art deco showcase.  Many of the remaining buildings have been restored and upgraded with colorful murals, one building is clearly being restored, and there is lots of talk of turning this into a major Dallas tourist attraction after we conquer coronavirus.

DSC07624The Cotton Bowl has not been played in this on-site stadium since 2009.  After that, it moved to Arlington, TX and is now played, when in Dallas, at the AT&T Stadium.   This is a controversial  issue here, and I would not be surprised if the still existing stadium in Fair Park is used again at some point.

This area is definitely worth seeing when in Dallas.

Hank

 

 

About roadsrus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roadsrus
This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2020 at 8:00 pm and posted in a 5 Compass attraction, Great City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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