We The People: This Day in History, November 3

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - On November 3, 1923, the Waco Cotton Palace set a one-day attendance record, with 117,208 people.

Back then, Waco stylized itself as the cotton capital of the South, celebrating the end of the growing season and cotton’s central role in the state economy with an exhibition and fair at the palace.

The first exposition was in November of 1884, but just a few months later, the palace and grounds would be badly damaged by a fire.

The Cotton Palace would reopen in 1910 and come to an end 21 years later, in 1931, a casualty of the great depression.

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