Steuben County Fair, which is going on this week, has an anniversary coming up – sort of.

*Although there were occasional fairs going back to the 1790s, an 1819 event was the first true county fair, held with support from the state of New York, which wanted to encourage such events. Besides their economic impact, fairs served as educational centers for farmers. Competitions stimulated improvements in agriculture.

*Fairs continued until 1821 (when state aid ended), then disappeared until a new governing agency revived the fair in 1841 to 1845. In 1853 the new Steuben County Agricultural Society conducted a county fair, and they have done so every year since. In 1854 they moved to the current location (where they’ve been ever since), and in 1862 bought the place.

*In 1863 they started making the fairgrounds their own. As Grant was taking Vicksburg and Lee was fleeing from Gettysburg, the Ag Society created the first permanent structures on the site… the Fair House, and the Gatehouse on East Washington Street. Both of them are still there, and still in use today.

*In 1867 a Floral Hall was erected, and a Driving Park created. I assume that this is the oval track, which appears just as it is today on an 1869 map.

*Besides the track, that map shows buildings on the current footprints of the Gatehouse, the Fair House, and the Judge’s Stand.  It also shows buildings (east and southeast of Fair House) on what appear to be the current footprints of the Grange dining hall and the Grange exhibit building.  The Fair House, Gatehouse, Dining Hall, and Grange Exhibit Hall all show similar structure (as does one building on the north end), lending weight to the supposition that they were built at about the same time. 

*In 1884 the Pioneer Log Cabin was built – also still in use

*In 1920 the Auto Subway was built, and apparently rebuilt in 1935, but it’s no longer in use. The Pedestrian subway, still in use today, came in 1921 – it runs westward out of the infield.

*From 1927-1962 “new” stables were built, and in 1968 our Grandstand replaced one that had burned several years earlier.

*In 1993 the Babcock Hollow one-room school (built in 1849) was moved to site, making it the oldest building on the fairgrounds, but also a fairly recent addition. Along with the Fair Museum and the Log Cabin, the Schoolhouse anchors a historical corner east of the main Fair House. (New this year – non-functioning outhouses, so the kids can get a feel for what the “good old days” were like.)

*Looking back to 1853, when Millard Fillmore and then Franklin Pierce were President… when Queen Victoria, Franz Josef, and Napoleon III were on their thrones… Steuben County Fair has endured without interruption through the Civil War, two great world conflicts, polio outbreaks, the Spanish Influenza, and much, much more.

*Teen-aged Glenn Curtiss used to race bicycles on the track at the Fairgrounds (this was organized competition for cash prizes). Civil War General W. W. Averell was grand marshal of the Fair. Members of Congress attended Steuben County Fair, some of them as kids, then as Members, and finally as retirees. Captains of industry strolled through those gates, and inventors, and pioneer aviators, and renowned performers. And you and me. Maybe we’ll see you there.