This California Mission–styled structure was constructed due to the success of the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, which began along Marine Creek in the stockyards area in 1896 as the National Feeders and Breeders Show. The first indoor rodeo in the world was held here in 1917, and the facility has hosted many diverse performances, including Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe, Enrico Caruso, and Elvis Presley, and rodeos, concerts, and sporting events. The arena has arched apertures at both north and south ends above arcaded entrance loggias and is toplit by a skylight running almost the length of the gabled stucco-on-brick building. Hinged steel trusses provide a column-free space of 14,000-square-feet of dirt-floored arena. In 1944, following flooding and wartime use of the structure, the annual stock show relocated to the Will Rogers Memorial Center (FW30).