Brick Give-a-Way Week 3: Pioneer Hall
June 17, 2010
Congratulations to Lindsey Wanderscheid, winner of the Anne & Bill Riley Stage brick!
With food and entertainment, every Fairgoer walks through the gates ready for a day full of memory-making and fun. As they stroll up the Fairgrounds hill, they find themselves greeted with Pioneer Hall, a reminder of yesterday’s Fair. Pioneer Hall is the only building remaining of the 67 originally constructed for the permanent Fairgrounds. With a beautiful wooden structure complete with high ceilings and its distinctive red cupola, the building debuted at the 1886 Fair where it sits today, atop the hill by the Richard L. Easter Museum Complex.
As an exhibition hall, Pioneer Hall has served a number of purposes in its lifetime. From a poultry building to a storage facility, the building has even operated as an employee dormitory at one point. Today, within the wooden structure, is the Museum of Iowa Agriculture. However, as the Fair approaches, the museum is joined by antiques for display and judged competitions during the Fair.
However, without the help of the Farm Bureau, the Pioneer Hall would have never been reopened in 1996. The Bureau funded extensive renovations to the aging hall. The renovation stabilized this building for the future working on the hall’s foundation and footing.
Throughout the Fair, music fills the air from the fiddlers, potters work with their clay, while blacksmiths and furniture makers diligently create. People visit with friends over lemonade, watch women throw sand-filled rubber chickens and admire the antiques.
What brings you to Pioneer Hall during the Fair?
Add a comment here or on Facebook by 10:00 a.m. June 23 to enter to win a brick at Pioneer Hall.