Illinois State Fairgrounds

Illinois State Fairgrounds covers 366 acres on the north edge of Springfield, bounded by Sangamon Avenue, Peoria Road and Fifth Street. Springfield citizens donated the first 156 acres in 1894, and the city added sewers, grading and fencing while the state legislature appropriated money for buildings. The earliest structures, including the 1894 Exposition Building, the Poultry Building and a large dome building brought from the Columbian Exposition, followed a monumental neoclassical approach. Later decades added horse barns, cattle barns, a coliseum, swine and sheep pavilions, and a 1927 grandstand, while the state bought another 210 acres in 1924. The grounds are laid out for pedestrian traffic, with open spaces between buildings for temporary exhibits. Of 165 resources counted, 63 contribute to the district, and the large early buildings dominate the most public areas. Rehabilitation work has kept massing, window patterns and form largely original. The site records the fair's growth from an agricultural exhibition into a broader public event.