Fair among Orlando's earliest traditions
Orlando’s first fair took place in 1886 on the shores of Lake Eola, according to the 1975 ‘Centennial History’ of the city by Eve Bacon. The wooden building at the left stands where the Rosalind Club is today, Bacon wrote. This photo of the 1886 fair shows that advertising zeal is nothing new: The large banner for Sparks & Hand on Court Street vows, “We Allow No One to Excell Us in Quality or Prices.” (Orange County Regional History Center / March 6, 2011)Joy Wallace Dickinson,
Florida Flashback From: www.orlandosentinel.com
The Central Florida Fair has returned, wrapping up on March 6. You'd never know it from looking at the bright lights of that modern midway, but the fair is actually one of our area's oldest continuing institutions, tracing its official founding to 1910.
Its roots go back even further. In 1886, Orlando city fathers built an exhibition hall by Lake Eola and put on a show. In those days, Orlando touted itself as "the Phenomenal City," built on the peel of an orange.
Soon, the Great Freeze of 1894-95 threw citrus growers for a loop, but by 1909 area boosters had recovered enough to form the Orange County Fair Association.
A century ago, in February 1911, the Daily Reporter-Star proclaimed that the Orange County Fair had "opened in a blaze of glory."Read more at:http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/os-dickinson-florida-history-03-06-1120110306,0,5385307.column
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