Fort Plain Street Fair

In the fall of 1898, a number of Main Street merchants got up a display of farm fruits and produce on the sidewalks in front of their stores, and this was the nucleus of the Fort Plain Street Fair, famed throughout Central New York. Great crowds come by horse and automobile conveyances and by trains from up and down the valley to this September carnival. As many as 50,000 visitors are estimated to have attended the fair, during the week in which it is held, and 15,000 are said to have been present on a single day. Excellent displays of fruit, farm produce, field crops and poultry were held under canvas covered booths on the brick pavement of Canal and Main streets. Races, free attractions , band concerts, merry-go-rounds, etc. were added. These images from the early 1900s. The fair was abandoned during the war years.