Fairs

Farm Architecture & Saturday’s Preakness Stakes

May 14, 2026 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

As the twentieth century dawned, precepts from the 1800s continued in many schools of thought and application, including the construction of buildings to house livestock. One tenet used was that of a round or multi-sided barn, thought to be more economically constructed than a rectangular structure, with good wind resistance and strength under snow loads.

By the late 19th century many round barns existed across New York State, though they have become a rarity in our time. [Read more…] about Farm Architecture & Saturday’s Preakness Stakes

A History of Agricultural Fairs in New York State

August 2, 2024 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

As New York State prepares to host the oldest state fair in the nation in Syracuse, the latest episode of the A New York Minute in History podcast tells the history of the summertime tradition of agricultural fairs and how they developed from gatherings of learned societies into the popular attractions that we all know today. [Read more…] about A History of Agricultural Fairs in New York State

Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply

November 15, 2023 by Milton Sernett Leave a Comment

A huge cheese is said to have sealed the election of Thomas Jefferson, who occupied the White House on January 1, 1802, after a bitter contest with his rival, the incumbent president and Federalist leader John Adams. It is an oft-told tale.

Upset by Puritan denunciations of Jefferson, Elder John Leland of the Baptist Church of Cheshire, Massachusetts, organized a communal effort to demonstrate support for Jeffersonian Democracy. [Read more…] about Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply

The Redford Picnic: A Continuing Tradition Since 1855

July 3, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

“It was the happiest day of our lives!” Her eyes light up. Her smile is a mile wide. She claps her hands in joy. Lena Collins Facteau (1904-1992) is remembering her childhood days at the 15th of Redford. If you ask anyone in the Redford area, in the town of Saranac, Clinton County, you’ll get the same response.

For one day each year people get to be part of a big family tradition that includes old-fashioned games, pie booths (they empty first), fancy booths, sumptuous meals, music, the ring toss, cotton candy, and a chance to ride on one of the oldest carousels in the country. [Read more…] about The Redford Picnic: A Continuing Tradition Since 1855

New York’s Forgotten Aeronaut & Diver: William Warren Rulison

April 24, 2023 by Dave Waite 2 Comments

When seventy-eight-year-old William Rulison passed away in August of 1931, the only newspaper in Upstate New York that carried the news was Cooperstown’s Otsego Farmer. In this obituary, he was noted only as a “pioneer in balloon flying in this part of the country,” and a man who went by the title of Professor. This report of his passing left much untold, and in the material that follows I hope to give a complete account of his full and varied life. [Read more…] about New York’s Forgotten Aeronaut & Diver: William Warren Rulison

Saratoga County Fair: A Tumultuous Two Years

July 1, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

2020 was an unusual year for the Saratoga County Fair. Due to the corona virus pandemic, the Saratoga County Agricultural Society, operators of the Fair, felt they had to enact changes. When large public facilities began to close and large public events were canceled, the Society’s Board of Directors unanimously voted to cancel the fair. They did however, open the grounds to the public and some food vendors with no entrance fee.

Another important issue that occurred in 2020 was discussions about the fate of the Fair’s historic grandstand, which was in very poor condition. [Read more…] about Saratoga County Fair: A Tumultuous Two Years

‘Cradle of the Breed’: Gerrit Smith Miller & His Kriemhild Holsteins

March 13, 2022 by Milton Sernett 3 Comments

On August 17th, 1929, the German airship Graf Zeppelin was attempting to encircle the world. Baseball fans were still marveling about how Babe Ruth had reached the 500 mark in home runs the previous Sunday at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio. The Great Bull Market of the 1920s was yet to crash.

None of these matters preoccupied Henry A. Strohmeyer, Jr., animal photographer, as he positioned himself and his camera to capture a picture of the man of the hour. Son of a famed expert in stereoscopic photography who made a career in capturing images of the estates of the wealthy, Strohmeyer had built his own reputation largely by taking pictures of cows and bulls. He was about to photograph Gerrit Smith Miller who at eighty-four was the oldest and most respected Holstein cowman in the country. [Read more…] about ‘Cradle of the Breed’: Gerrit Smith Miller & His Kriemhild Holsteins

The Pottersville Fair: Gambling, Races, and Gaslight Village

December 18, 2021 by John Warren 7 Comments

Those traveling on the Adirondack Northway (I-87) between Exits 26 and 27 probably don’t realize they are passing over Pottersville, the northern Warren County hamlet that borders southern Schroon Lake.

For a hundred years, from the 1870s into the early 1960s, the tiny village was home to amusements that drew thousands. The most remarkable of them, the Pottersville Fair, drew 7,000 on a single day in 1913. Later it hosted a large dance hall, roller skating rink, and the Glendale Drive-in, while nearby Under the Maples on Echo Lake was host to circus acts and an amusement park that was a forerunner of the Gaslight Village theme park in nearby Lake George. [Read more…] about The Pottersville Fair: Gambling, Races, and Gaslight Village

Great Pumpkins: A Ton Of Fun

October 8, 2021 by Paul Hetzler Leave a Comment

Precocious, blanket-toting Linus from the Peanuts comic strip awaited the Great Pumpkin each Halloween night from 1950 to 1999. If anyone else had been stood-up that many times, they’d have thrown in the blanket for sure.

Perhaps Linus’ resolute faith that the mythical pumpkin would show up was because every year brings the world a greater pumpkin. [Read more…] about Great Pumpkins: A Ton Of Fun

Adirondack Poultry Yards: King of the Rhode Island Reds

September 2, 2021 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

A century ago, Corinth, in Saratoga County, was home to some of the top Rhode Island Red chickens in the state. Backyard hens have become popular in recent years but poultry breeding was a big business in the earlier 1900s. [Read more…] about Adirondack Poultry Yards: King of the Rhode Island Reds

Advocates Hope To Save Essex County Fairground Building Facing Demolition

May 20, 2021 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Westport’s National Register of Historic Places-listed Cornell Cooperative Extension Building faces an Essex County-led demolition plan.

Together with the newly formed Friends of the Essex Fairgrounds, local friends and preservationists, farmers, and other stakeholders, Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) is vigorously opposing the destruction of this storied piece of Westport’s heritage, calling it one of the more important and defining structures that make up the Essex County Fairgrounds. [Read more…] about Advocates Hope To Save Essex County Fairground Building Facing Demolition

Saratoga County Fair: A Short History

July 18, 2020 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The Saratoga County Agricultural Society and Fair dates back to 1841 when the organization was formed under an act of the State Legislature of that year. However, before the Agricultural Society was founded, earlier fairs were held from 1819 to 1825 at the Courthouse and an adjacent lot in Ballston Spa.

Saratoga County shares the honor of the oldest county fair in New York State with Jefferson County. [Read more…] about Saratoga County Fair: A Short History

Fairs

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