Fairground Park is a municipal park in St. Louis, Missouri, that opened in 1908. It was originally a privately owned facility, first used by the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association for the St. Louis Exposition from 1856 through 1902. However, the Civil War interrupted the annual fair when the Fairgrounds were used as a Union encampment known as Benton Barracks. The annual exposition ceased in 1902 as preparations for the 1904 World's Fair began.HistoryThe Fairgrounds originated in 1856 with the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association. In the early 1880s, the association fell upon hard times and was replaced with the St. Louis Fair and Jockey Club. In 1901, Cap Tilles, Sam W. Adler, and Louis A. Cella, the principal owners of Delmar Racing Track, purchased the St. Louis Fairgrounds. Since 1892, the partnership had been purchasing race tracks across the St. Louis area, with Delmar Track becoming the main competitor to the St. Louis Fair and Jockey Club. By the turn of the century, the competition won out, with Tilles becoming President of the new association.However, the revival of the Fairgrounds suffered another blow with the abolition of gambling on horse racing in Missouri in June 1905. Governor Joseph W. Folk was elected in 1904, running as an anti-gambling, progressive reformer. Folk signed the Anti-Breeders Act, directly leading to the permanent closure of the St. Louis Fairground Track.
