State Fairgrounds
Inscription
(Front) This block was part of the fairgrounds where the S.C. State Fair was held 1856-1861 and 1869-1903. The fair, sponsored by the State Agricultural Society, featured agricultural, mechanical, household, and art exhibits. During the Civil War a Confederate “camp of instruction” and hospital were here 1861-63, then a lab for making medicines and a branch of the Nitre & Mining Bureau, 1863-65.
All the buildings were burned by Federal troops in February 1865. (Reverse) In 1869 the State Fair was revived by the State Agricultural & Mechanical Society, which hoped to “beautify Carolina homes and enliven Carolina hearths.” The new fair added carnival attractions and rides as it grew in size and attendance over the next 34 years.
The 1903 State Fair was the last here, as the site was too small and the buildings too old to accommodate it. The State Fair moved to its present location south of downtown Columbia in 1904. Sponsored by the Elmwood Park Neighborhood Association, 2013, replacing a marker erected in 1938 by the Columbia Sesquicentennial Commission of 1936
Location
Sources
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