Arizona State Fairgrounds

The Arizona State Fairgrounds is a permanent fairgrounds on McDowell Road, Encanto Village, within the city of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is currently used yearly to host the Arizona State Fair and the Maricopa County Fair, as well as for other events.

The Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, an arena at the fairgrounds, hosted the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association from 1968 to 1992. The team moved to the America West Arena in 1992.

The dirt oval track hosted AAA National Championship and USAC National Championship races in 1915 and from 1950 to 1963, and NASCAR Grand National races in 1951, 1955, 1956 and 1960. It was replaced by the Phoenix International Raceway in 1964.

History

The fairgounds was created in 1905, when a volunteer organization, the Arizona Territorial Fair Association, purchased the property and first developed it.^[1] 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 includes the following buildings:^[2]

The Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a 14,870-seat multipurpose indoor arena.
The Home Arts Center, a 13,584 sq ft building.
The Party Gras building, a 4,176 sq. ft. historical building constructed in 1918 to showcase minerals in light of Arizona's extensive mining industry. The building has a vaulted beamed ceiling, giant skylight, and interior walk-around balcony. It was originally called the Gem and Mineral building and is presently the oldest building in existence.
The Agriculture Center, two building totaling 61,000 sq. ft. designed to accommodate large shows and exhibits, including livestock]
Wesley Bolin Building, an almost 20,000 square feet exhibit space
Arizona Plaza, a 17,184 sq. ft. adobe style
Exhibit Building, a 50,000 sq. ft. building used for large shows and commercial exhibits
WPA Administration Building or Civic Building, a 12,200 sq. ft. art deco style building built in 1938 by the WPA and used as the headquarters of the WPA in Arizona during the great depression.^[3]
The Hacienda de Mexico a 12,546 sqft covered mall (located between the Wesley Bolin Building and the Home Arts Center)
Grandstand Arena, a historical outdoor area with 5,000 covered seats. Used for open-air evens such as horse shows, dirt track events, mud bog spectaculars, races, rodeos, tractor pulls, demolition derbies. It was built by the WPA in 1936, replacing an older wooden structure that had burned.

WPA Administration Building

This building had deteriorated and was set for demolition in July 2014 until preservationists sought to stop the demolition and were granted a temporary restraining order by the Maricopa County Superior Court. They were given until April 14, 2016 to raise $120,000 towards preservation of the building. On April 8, 2016 the project was awarded a historic preservation grant of $120,000 by the City of Phoenix City Council and a $80,000 grant by the Phoenix IDA, a provider of private activity bonds for projects that give a public benefit.^[4]