All Stories: 449
Stories
Monon Park Dancing Pavilion
Monon Park was created in 1897 by the Monon Railroad as a way to encourage passengers to travel on the line. It ran from Chicago through Indianapolis to Louisville. Located on picturesque Cedar Lake, Monon Park was close enough to Chicago that…
Bartlett Real Estate Office
The Bartlett Real Estate Office was constructed in 1927 as the office for a resort development that Frederick Bartlett planned in Beverly Shores, a small community along the southern tip of Lake Michigan amidst the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.…
Carnegie Hall at Moore’s Hill College
Through the efforts of John Collins Moore, a college called the Moores Hill Male and Female Collegiate Institute (later known as Moores Hill College) was founded in Moores Hill, Indiana and opened to students in 1856. John C. Moore was the son of…
Borden Institute
The small town in northwestern Clark County (formally named New Providence) is now named Borden in honor of Professor William Wesley Borden, the leading citizen who donated the Borden Institute. The town of New Providence was originally founded in…
WPA Tunnel
Built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the tunnel provides a way for automobiles to access the infield.
WPA Barns
The State Fair Board has recently restored a number of these wooden buildings. They were all originally built with WPA funds. The WPA was one of several of FDR’s New Deal alphabet soup programs designed to help jobless workers during the Great…
Fairgrounds Track
The Fairgrounds have always had a horse track on this site. Sulky racing has long been part of the Fair tradition, going back well into the 19th century. There was enough room on the present site to build a regulation mile long oval track in 1892,…
Swine Barn
Indiana agriculture was reaching the end of its Golden Age when the Fair Board decided to build a new Hog Palace. This brick, steel, and tile building with concrete floors was extremely grand for its time, and it still serves its purpose well.…
Blue Ribbon Pavilion (Sheep Barn)
Note the sheep’s head medallions! Like those on the Swine Barn, they are made of terra cotta.
Service Building
Designed by Burns and Burns, these architects were first known for their traditional designs, but by the ‘50s, they had switched to Modernism. The lower level functioned as storage space, while the upper floors house administrative offices with…
Southwest Pavilion (Senior Citizen's Building)
This building was originally constructed by the WPA in 1936 as an exhibition hall. From this area behind the Home and Family Arts Building you can see the upper floor living quarters for seasonal fair workers. The adjacent open parking lot used to…
Northwest Pavilion (Poultry Building)
Kopf and Deery were the architects of this building as well, which is similar to the swine and horse barns. The stucco and half timbering (currently covered by metal panels) gives this pavilion an English Tudor look. The rooster medallions also…
Model Farmhouse (Superintendent's House)
The Model Farmhouse was built by the WPA as an example of an ideal modern farmhouse, and it was later used as an officer’s club during WWII. Built out of concrete block, the house includes an attached garage, wiring, plumbing, and other modern…
Grand Hall
Architects Kopf and Deery used brick exteriors in creating this early Art Deco style building. Notice the abstract tapestry patterning to the brickwork as well as some influence from German modernistic architecture.
Fair Midway
The Midway is located where it has always been on the west end of the fairgrounds. Imagine, as you arrived by the Monon Railroad, its lights would have greeted you as soon as you stepped off the train!
Champions Pavilion (Horse Barn)
Merrill Jones was the architect of the 1925 portion of the Horse Barn. In 1975, the building was reworked and rechristened as the East Pavilion and, eventually, the Champions Pavilion.
Home and Family Arts Building
Prizes were awarded to home handiwork since the first State Fair. The importance of the tradition led to an arts and handicraft pavilion, the forerunner of this building. The tall, classical arches of this building recall the classically styled…
4-H Dormitories & Exhibit Hall
Accompanying their animals to the fair was always a problem for young farmers-to-be. These buildings provided dorms for living on site, school rooms so that young exhibitors would not lose valuable school time, and would have exhibit space for arts…
Exposition Hall
Kopf and Deery, architects, seem to have started a long partnership with the Fair Board in 1919 with the design of this building. At the time, many fairgrounds buildings were wooden frame, or at best, brick and wood. Kopf and Deery used steel, brick…
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Building
Designed by Burns and Burns, the DNR Buildings interior features glue-lam beams to hold up the roof, a popular technology in the post war decades because steel prices were very high.
Communications Building
The fairgrounds has several buildings in the modernistic Art Deco style. Art Deco was popular just before and just after WWII--architects were simplifying buildings by “streamlining” their details. Glass block was a new building material and…
Indiana Farmers Coliseum
Architect Merritt Harrison considered this building his finest creation. PWA (Public Works Administration) funds made it possible for the Fair Board to build this structure, which was to be a “Livestock Pavilion.” Harrison used tan brick and Indiana…
West Pavilion (Cattle Barn)
The Cattle Barn was designed to harmonize with the Swine Barn, also by the same architects. The corner towers idea was common on other open air pavilions of the time period, and, in fact, is an architectural feature that was used on many earlier…
Agriculture and Horticulture Building
Prizes for the best examples of farm or garden produce were a long tradition at the Indiana State Fair when the Fair Board decided to replace the old Agriculture Building with this one.
Architects Rubush and Hunter won the contract to design the…
Administration Building
The colonnade across the front of this house-like building spells out its “official administration” function. The style here is Colonial Revival, an adaptation of 17th and 18th century, eastern U.S. homes. This style was popular for residences in…
Strawtown Koteewi Park
Located just north of Indianapolis in Hamilton County, Strawtown Koteewi Park has housed several peoples. As far back as 1000 BC, the Woodland Era Native Americans lived in the area before eventually giving way to Oliver Phase Native Americans. More…
River Road Park
River Road Park has two major archaeology-related attractions. The playground set contains a unique play-place experience with archaeology as it's main inspiration. It is equipped with slides, rock climbing structures, and (most noticeably) a…
Indiana State Museum
The Indiana State Museum (ISM) and its affiliated historic sites work to preserve and protect Indiana historical and archaeological resources. The museum itself contains exhibits examining the state's prehistory, history, and culture. The ISM…
Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology
The Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology is a research center situated at Indiana University in Bloomington. The lab houses several ongoing archaeological research projects (both student and professional) as well as multiple collections. The…
Angel Mounds State Historic Site
Five to seven hundred years ago, the area we now call Angel Mounds State Historic Site was a thriving Mississippian Indian town. Built between A.D. 1100 and 1300, the town was occupied by one thousand to three thousand inhabitants until its…