Stereoview Souvenirs of the Texas Centennial — 1936
by Paula Bosse
A view of Fair Park not often seen
by Paula Bosse
If you collect stereoview photos and/or Texas Centennial memorabilia, hie yourself over to eBay for some (pricey) goodies (see the link at the bottom of the page). Here are a few stereoview “monoviews.”
Above, part of the Fair Park racetrack, with the reviewing stand for the “Cavalcade of Texas” pageant at the right. If you look closely on the horizon — at the right, above the Cavalcade stands, you’ll see two towers. Are those the two water towers over in Lakewood at Abrams and Goliad (which I wrote about here)?
Here are a few more. The first one with kids and dogs at the Hall of State:
Pegasuses (“pegasi”?) at the Esplanade:
Strolling by the lagoon (and past one of my favorite crazy Centennial design features — those amazing flying-saucer lights!):
I love the camera on the marquee (and those dresses!) at the Hollywood exhibit:
One of my favorite Fair Park artworks — the lady in the niche, at the Administration Building (Women’s Musuem):
I did not know there was an outdoor ice rink at the Centennial — ice skating performances at the “Black Forest” cafe:
Can’t go wrong with another monumental woman in a niche:
A sculpture of a slumbering fairy at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts:
And, jumping ahead a year, a souvenir from the Pan-American Exposition in 1937: the Music Hall dressed up as the “Casino.”
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Sources & Notes
All images are from eBay, and almost all are currently for sale. See these and more here.
There are a bunch of Flashback Dallas posts on the Texas Centennial — they can be found here.
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Copyright © 2022 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Paula, thanks for posting these… as usual, they made my Sunday night, oh it’s actually 12:15 am and you’d never expect such exquisite photographs of the Dallas State Fair. Thank you Paula!
Really enjoyed the tour. I learned some new things
today. Thank you for all the time.and.effort you
put.into this project
Thanks for the ebay link! There are some really cool ones there that you didn’t post here.
— Are those the two water towers over in Lakewood at Abrams and Goliad (which I wrote about here)?
I am pretty sure you are correct. I drew a line from them on a 1952 aerial to the approximate location of the camera and the angle looks correct. See the green line on these two screen shots:
https://i.imgur.com/V3G9njC.png
https://i.imgur.com/Nqkfyuw.png
Also, I looked for what looks like another water tower at the horizon on the right edge of the photo and found one not far from the ones you wrote about a little east of Abrams and just north of La Vista on the Lakewood Country Club grounds:
https://www.historicaerials.com/location/32.813366632653846/-96.74879595637321/1952/19
I am not sure the configuration was the same as it was in 1952 but there was a water tower at that location in 1930 as shown on this 1930 Fairchild aerial:
https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digital/collection/dmp/id/182/rec/1
I really loved the pictures!
I think you are right about the two towers on the horizon. The grandstands were still in that location until at least the early ’50s as I recall seeing Joey Chitwood’s exhibition drivers give some 1950 Fords hard use in one of their performances during the State Fair. I wonder if the long single story building between the stands and the camera isn’t perhaps a WW.I leftover? It has a sort of military surplus look to it. Very interesting photos.
[…] Exposition is so “Little Rascals” it hurts. I love this photo! It’s in the post “Stereoview Souvenirs of the Texas Centennial — 1936” (a post which has tons of great […]
Wonderful photos! Thank you.