Texas Centennial Exposition

The exposition carried a double theme, history and progress, across about fifty buildings billed as the first world's fair in the Southwest. Its most popular draw, the Handbook of Texas says, was the Cavalcade of Texas, a pageant of four centuries of Texas history. The United States issued commemorative three-cent stamps and half-dollars for the anniversary, and many Texas newspapers printed special centennial editions. The Dallas fair closed on November 29, 1936, then reopened on June 12, 1937, as the Greater Texas and Pan American Exposition and ran to October 31.

What the plaque says

Texas Centennial Exposition As plans began to take shape for the Centennial celebration of Texas Independence, a group of Dallas businessmen led by R. L. Thornton, Sr., Fred Florence, and Nathan Adams, joined together to promote the city as the host of the major Centennial event. The Centennial Exposition Corporation, formed in 1935, took temporary control of the State Fair grounds, and a team of over 100 architects, artists, and craftsmen soon began designing the Exposition complex. Employing thousands of people in the midst of the Great Depression, the project resulted in the creation of impressive structures, works of art, and landscaping. Officially opened by Gov. James Allred on June 6, 1936, activities of the Exposition included a spectacular parade through downtown Dallas, guest speakers, and nationwide news coverage. In his speech to the crowd, U. S. Secretary of Commerce Daniel Roper declared "America, here is Texas!" President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the Exposition on June 12. The Exposition ran for 178 days, entertaining over six million people. It was a turning point in the development of the city of Dallas and left a legacy of art, history, architecture, and culture to generations of Texans. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• African American Museum, Dallas — 0.2 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.
• Fair Park — 0.3 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 1.4 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 2.1 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.

More markers nearby

• State Fair of Texas — steps away
• Texas Women in the Civil War, A Tribute to — 0.3 mi
• Steel Dust — 0.5 mi
• WRR Radio — 0.5 mi