KinSource - Tale of the Week - Fair Ground Improvement

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, May 28, 1887, p. 2

FAIR GROUND IMPROVEMENT

Supt. Cross Tells What Will Be Done There.

Supt. Cross, of the state fair grounds, was walking up Third street at a rattling pace yesterday afternoon, dressed in a nobby suit of light cloth and a jaunty straw hat.

"Hello!" yelled back the superintendent to a reporter's salutation, as he came to a full stop and leaned up against a tobacco sign to rest himself.

"How are things at the fair grounds?" inquired the reporter.

"Booming," replied Cross, "booming," and then he told of improvements that were about to be made. The directors and officers of the association held a meeting on the fair grounds Thursday when they decided to put up two new buildings. One will be especially for the exhibition of carriages and wagons of every description. It will be an immense structure and will be erected at a cost of several thousand dollars. There will be two floors and an effort will be made to fill them both with exhibits, and the directors have no doubt that they will be successful and give the people of Minnesota a finer exhibition of this kind than they have ever had before.

Besides this exhibition building there will be erected near the railroad a forage building for the storage of all the provision to be used [for] the stock on the grounds during the fair. This structure will cover a wide area and will cost several thousand dollars.

Arrangements are being made to furnish the grounds and all the buildings with water. Heretofore the water has been conducted to the buildings in wooden pipes. These will be taken up and galvanized iron pipes laid in their stead, at a heavy expediture.

There are now 130 head of horses in the stables boarding there regularly and working on the track daily, and more are coming. It is feared that the accommodations for racing stock will have to be enlarged. The track, Superintendent Cross says, is in magnificent shape, and some of the best time ever made in the Northwest may be confidently looked for next fall.

Preparations are being made for four trotting events to come off on the afternoon of some day next week. Admission to the matinee will be free and a big attendance is looked for.