Michigan State Fairgrounds Main Buildings

The Coliseum, Agricultural Building, and Dairy Cattle Building are of historical significance as a result of their key role in activities of the annual State Fair and in encouraging the development of agriculture in Michigan. They are also architecturally significant as fine examples of the classically inspired exhibition architecture popularized by the various world fairs and expositions held in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Nation's oldest State Fair, the Michigan State Fair, was first held in 1849, only eleven years after Michigan attained statehood. The present site of the Fair was dedicated as State Historic Site #172 on August 29, 1958.

The official State marker reads as follows: "America's first State Fair, conducted by the Michigan Agricultural Society with the support of the Legislature and local citizens, was held in Detroit on September 25-27, 1849. About $800 in premiums were awarded for those 'articles, productions and improvements' that were 'best calculated to promote the agricultural and household manufacturing interests of the State.' The Site of this annual fair was often moved until 1905 when it was given a permanent home here." After the half century of nomadic wandering back and forth across the State when it was held at nine different places, the State Fair was established at its present location in 1905. In 1904 Joseph L. Hudson, founder of Detroit's present leading department store, the still extant J.

L. Hudson Company, and three associates determined to give the Fair a permanent home in Detroit. They formed the State Fair Land Company, acquired 135 acres of land, and deeded it to the Michigan Agricultural Society. This Society produced the State Fair from 1905 to 1920 and expanded the land to the present 167 acres.

In 1921 the Society voted to transfer the Fairgrounds to the State of Michigan and the State accepted them. With State ownership came a surge in building in the 1920s when most of the main buildings remaining today were constructed. The Fairgrounds are still owned by the State with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources responsible for its operation. Act 316, Public Acts of 1978, which assigned this responsibility stated that "the Department shall conduct an annual state fair and other exhibits or events for the purpose of promoting all phases of the economy of this state.

This fair and exhibits or events shall encourage and demonstrate agricultural, industrial, commercial, and recreational pursuits." The Coliseum, Agricultural Building, and Dairy Cattle Building are architecturally significant as well preserved examples of the monumental classical fair architecture popularized by the great exhibitions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. All three buildings exhibit the same freely interpreted Roman Classical design motif. The more remarkable of the buildings structurally is the Coliseum, which is one of the largest trussed structures in the Detroit area. Together the Coliseum, Agricultural Building, and the Dairy Cattle Building will form a nucleus of restored historic buildings for the development of the improved facilities outlined in the Master Plan for the Fairgrounds.

The exterior appearance of these three buildings will be unchanged with the brick and stucco construction repaired and restored. These buildings are also of agricultural significance as a result of their role in encouraging the agricultural development of Michigan. The State Fair has provided an annual forum for agricultural interests for most of the state's history. It has been a source of encouragement for farmers to improve their products, a valued recreational experience for rural families, and an inspiration and incentive for young people to continue the farming way of life.

The nominated buildings have been the major focus of State Fair activities since it was established on this site.

The Dairy Cattle Building, the Coliseum, and the Agricultural Building are grouped together in the center of the 167 acre State Fairgrounds, which are located at the northeast corner of Woodward Avenue and State Fair Avenue about five miles from downtown Detroit. The three neighboring buildings, which are the largest and most substantial buildings at the Fairgrounds, appear to be the remnants of a much larger planned Fairgrounds complex that was never completed. Today they face a small wooded park surrounded by smaller animal sheds, concession stands, and new exhibition buildings. The Coliseum, Agricultural Building, and Dairy Cattle Building were constructed at two year intervals between 1922 and 1926.

All were probably designed under the supervision of the same architect, Lynn W. Fry of the State Building Department. The three buildings are unified by their common design motifs and materials. All are Roman Classical inspired, white stuccoed buildings with high red brick foundations.

The Agriculture Building, built in 1926, is a long, end-gable-roofed, one-story building with a tall curved roof concealed behind a stuccoed parapet on the facade. The front and side entrances are sheltered by projecting arcades in antis enriched by a denticulated cornice treatment. The exterior walls are fielded into shallow panels. The Coliseum, constructed in 1922, and its rear extension, the Dairy Cattle Building, built in 1924, are similar in general design to the Agricultural Building and feature the same panelled stucco walls, denticulated cornice treatment and arcaded porticoes.

The Coliseum is the more exceptional of the two structures. It has an unusual steel truss roof structure. The building measures 420 feet by 225 feet and contains a riding arena that measures 264 feet by 124 feet surrounded by fixed seating. The Dairy Cattle Building is a monitor-roofed, basilican-plan building built in 1924 with a modernistic, 1950s brick-and-steel entrance treatment on the west side.

Like the Agricultural Building, the interior consists only of a single large utilitarian space devoid of architectural detail.