Tar Heei. History
By Billy Ariluir
A Pretty Fair Time
Knhanccd by Raleigh's first centennial celebration, the North
Carolina State Fair of 1892 was a real humdinger.
far cry
1м< к
lo tlu- North Car-
olina State Fair of 1892. which at
that time was described as the
"most successful and most largely
attended."
Then only two exhibit halls, a grand¬
stand and a judges' stand stood on 55
acres of what is now in-town Raleigh, on
the north side of Hillsborough Street
between Horne Street and Brooks
Avenue opposite the North Car¬
olina State University campus.
Today the fair owns more than
34 buildings on better than 340
acres farther out Hillsborough
Street.
Founded for the promotion of
agriculture and industry, lair
week in the old days "was the
social event of the year, antici¬
pated by all elements of six iely."
Melton
Л.
Mclaurin writes in the
Nineteenth Ontur
у
North Carolina
.Stair Fair.
It was a time for "attending
conventions, renewing friend¬
ships. gambling, drinking and
having a good time, in general.
From all walks of life and social
stations, front c ity and farm, the people
of North Carolina converged on Raleigh
during Fair Week.
So theydid in 1892 when the week was
enhanced by the First centennial cele¬
bration of Raleigh's founding. Accord¬
ing to The News and Observer. Fayetteville
Street was "gaily decorated throughout
its length from turret to foundation
stone in red and oriole yellow" for the
parade on the first dav. Octobci 18.
1892.
The article continued: "When the
magnificent corps of marshals, number¬
ing more than 100. adorned with their
regalias, marched down the street in
open columns of lour, the sight was one
of great brilliancy. But the climax was
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11. itr,
reached when each division of marshals,
followed by the floats foi which they
were escorts, marched again in line to
the Capitol and around Capitol Square,
and up Hillsboro Street, the sidewalks
being entirely packed by spectators and
all of the windows and balconies being
enlivened by the ladies in their holiday
attire."
Most of the estimated 30.000 fair-goers
reached Raleigh that year by railroads at
exclusion talcs anil went to the fair¬
ground either afoot, in horse-drawn bug¬
gies or wagons or aboard the North Car¬
olina &• Augusta Air I.ine Railroad (now
Seaboard) on a spur line from Hargett
Sttect downtown. This ye*ai. more than
700.000 arc expected, some coming
aboard the Carolinian, the state's Rocky
Mount-Charlotte train, also at special
tales. Most will arrive l>y motor. In recent
years more than 700 buses have annually
been accommodated on the grounds.
Now the fair lasts 10 days and is open
late into the evenings. Formerly it was
open four days and the gates closed at 4
p.m. But there was plenty to do after¬
ward — performances and theater par-
Thc Stalr/Octobcf
199.»
ties in the opera house. Confederate vet- i
cran reunions, dances in the hotels, the i
Capitol Club. Briggs’ Hall and
Stronach’s warehouse, plus meetings of
the sponsoring North Carolina Agricul¬
tural Society and other groups.
lit the old-time grandstand, there were
offices and dressing rooms on the
ground level and a spectators' area with
high-hack benches on the second floor.
The third was called the Tcic-a-Tctc"
hall, where for an extra 25 cents one
could enjoy a chair and a hit of privacy.
Every year the fair boasts of "some¬
thing new." This fall the North Carolina
Museum of Natural Science will have an
exhibit on dinosaurs. Another innova¬
tion will Ik* free concerts by musicians
othci than country and western per¬
formers. sometimes running simul- i
taneously. Both will differ greatly from
the 1892 music by the fully uniformed
brass hands of Durham, Winston,
Newton, othci towns anil the
Pawnee Bill Wild West Show.
That big-time entertainment of
thrills and chills was one of the
four "firsts" at the fair in 1892.
The otltei ihice were the appear¬
ance of a carnival-like midway,
the advent of the portrait pho¬
tographer and the use of ball¬
bearing wheels and pneumatic
tires on the harness-racing
sulkies.
When the wild west show |
began. The News and Observer i
reported that “all other sights I
were forgotten." The show |
played to as many as 6.000 peo¬
ple at each performance. The
grandstand was crowded and "thousands
lined the fence around the race course
for two hours, standing in the hot sun.
never becoming weary. This pleased
more than anything else on the
grounds." according to the newspaper
account.
Pawnee Bill (Gordon W. Lillie) I
opened with a demonstration ol fancy
shooting with a rifle. Thrills followed in
a "realistic drama of western life." includ¬
ing a reenactment of the robbery of the
Cheyenne and Fort Sill stagecoach by
Indians as "it came thundering over the
ground, drawn by a team of four horses.
The driver did not spare the lash, but
drove to save the lives of his passengers
Irom the Indians. While capture was
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